Bullying Awareness Day -- October 8

October 8 is Bullying Awareness Day and we are already preparing for it in our community as we talk about bullying in our PeaceBuilder lessons. Bullying is one of those words that is dangerous. We all need to know what it means and we need to be prepared to respond if we witness it or if it is reported.

I define bullying this way: Bullying is when a stronger or more powerful person uses words or actions to hurt another person's body, feelings or belongings. Bullying behavior is done on purpose and happens over and over.

There are some key parts of this definition:

Difference in power -- One key part of the bullying definition is that there is a difference in power between the bully and the victim. Books, movies and TV shows typically depict the bully as being larger than the victim, but this isn't always the case in real life. The difference in power could be a difference in confidence or difference in social ability. There could be a group of bullies who outnumber a victim who has no one to stand up for him or her.

Hurts another person's body, feelings or belongings -- Bullying isn't always physical. Many times it is psychological or emotional abuse. It could be social or relational abuse.

On purpose -- Bullying isn't an accident. The person who acts as a bully is doing hurtful things with the intent to scare, embarrass or hurt another person. A bully is also different from someone with bad manners. Rude behavior is sometimes just rude behavior and there is no intent to harm another person.

Over and over -- Another key part of our bullying definition is that the abuse is repeated. A bully is unlikely to respond positively when asked to stop their behavior. They may enjoy the reaction they get from their victim and will often continue to come back for more.

It is important for parents and teachers to know how to respond. The following link provides a wealth of good information for responding to a report of bullying.

http://www.stopbullying.gov/respond/support-kids-involved/

Book Review: The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes

My students have absolutely loved this book. The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes by Mark Pett and Gary Rubinstein is a delightful read. In the story, Beatrice Bottomwell is a girl who hasn't made any mistakes for as long as anyone can remember. And she's kind of famous for her perfection. When she finally makes a mistake, she handles it with humor.

This is a great story to read aloud. The kids in all my K-4th grade classes loved it and stayed engaged from beginning to end. Plus, Beatrice's foibles are a silly example of mistakes -- and excellent fodder for discussion about how to handle our own mistakes. Some mistakes are silly and we can laugh at ourselves when we make those mistakes. Other mistakes are a little more serious, but we can still learn from them. Mistakes that hurt others require us to right our wrongs by genuinely apologizing and fixing or replacing what we messed up. We don't want others to think we are disrespectful or mean and righting wrongs is a way to show we are friendly and trustworthy.

I would highly recommend this book to any classroom teacher, counselor or parent as a great discussion starter in how to handle life's inevitable mistakes.

End of the Year

Each year I try to end on a good note with the teachers. They are such a huge part of making my program successful and many of them make sacrifices to their own time in order to reinforce my lesson topics beyond my brief sessions with students.

This year, I took my final lesson time to make a class gift for the teacher. The students used their thumbs and an ink pad to add colorful "leaves" to the tree I created ahead of time. The resulting artwork was attractive and many teachers got teary-eyed when I gave them their gift. This was an activity that was definitely worth the time and effort.

Here is the finished product. Full-disclosure, I got the idea from Pinterest (I'm actually incapable of coming up with good ideas on my own now that I have a Pinterest account!) You can find the original idea here.

Anger balloon

One of my favorite lessons was on the topic of anger. I had a red balloon prepared for each class I taught. I had pre-printed some slips of paper with different physical and behavioral effects of anger on our body. The list included things like:

Heart beats faster than normal
Breathing hard
Cheeks get red and hot
Making fists with my hands
Tight muscles
Feel like yelling
Feel like I can't sit still

During the discussion with the class, I had each student tell me one thing that makes them feel angry. Most students gave examples, like a little brother who won't leave them alone. With each example, I added another puff of air to the balloon. By the time every student shared an answer, the balloon was ready to explode!

Then I talked about how when we are full of anger, it is easy to explode over little things. As I talked, I had a push-pin in my hands. I talked about how small the push-pin is and that it seems like a really small thing. However, all it takes is one small thing to make our anger explode! I gave examples of something that could set off anger, like someone borrowing our pencil without asking or someone stepping in front of us in line. I usually ham it up and pretend to be really angry as I give examples and then I tell them that I just can't hold on to my anger any more and....POP! I pop the balloon. As the balloon explodes, it sends little slips of paper across the classroom area.

After doing this lesson a few times, I did learn a lesson or two. First, prep the students ahead of time for how loud the balloon will be and promise to warn them before you pop it. Tell the students they are allowed to cover their ears if loud noises bother them. Second, give very specific instructions about what to do with the slips of paper. I told the students that they could ONLY pick up a slip of paper if it landed close to them or on them. If they were close to two pieces of paper, they should be prepared to give one of the papers to someone else who is sitting nearby. Under no circumstances should anyone jump up or race to grab a slip of paper.

After the balloon pop, I would have students read what their slip of paper said. If it was a class with poor readers, I would have them hold the paper in the air for me to take and read aloud.

Once we were clear on the negative affects of anger, we read the book Soda Pop Head by Julia Cook. In it, the main character learns some cool-down strategies to keep his anger from exploding. We review these cool-down techniques with another balloon. I blew up a blue balloon, reviewing some of the anger triggers the students had discussed earlier. The anger is the same with both balloons. But, with the blue balloon, I release a puff of air for each of our cool down strategies. In the end, all the air is released. I would take the same push-pin and talk about those little frustrations that triggered the explosion before -- but this time, when I touched the pin to the balloon, nothing happened. The flat balloon was unable to explode when the pin touched it.

It was a very engaging lesson and one the students talked about in later lessons as they talked about handling anger appropriately.

Uniquely the Best

I love teaching kids to accept their differences and to respect each others' uniqueness. One great way to teach this important concept is with a couple of awesome books. The first is one I used with Kindergarten through second grades called Not Your Typical Dragon by Dan Bar-el. In this story the main character is a dragon who cannot make flames, much to the chagrin of his father. However, he can produce things that are needed, like Band-aids. His unique gift helps others.

With third through fourth graders I used the book The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi, which is about a girl who eventually embraces her unique name after moving to a new school. Her name was part of what made her special and unique.

To make the lesson more active, I had the kindergarten through second grade students create a drawing to highlight their best quality. After creating The Best Thing About Me, each student was able to share their drawing with the class.

Third and fourth grades didn't complete the worksheet project. Instead, I had them sit in a circle. I started with one student and handed him a Koosh ball. The person holding the Koosh ball had the floor to speak. Each student was instructed to share one of their best qualities -- something that makes them unique and special. When finished sharing, they would then take the Koosh ball and toss it to another student in the circle. Sharing would continue until everyone had a chance to say something that makes them special or unique. I love that this lesson allows kids to share (which they always want to raise their hand and do anyway) and allows them to hear from their peers.

Monday Encouragement to Teachers

Occasionally the year feels like it is being moved along by elderly turtles. On Mondays that are especially tough (like the week of standardized testing), I like to send out Monday Encouragement emails to the teachers at my three schools. This is the one from this week.

Let It Go: Teacher Style 

(to the tune of “Let it Go” from Frozen)

The sun glows bright out the windows today

not a rainstorm to be seen.

My students are barely quiet,

They’ve forgotten I’m the queen.

Energy is raging like a swirling storm inside,

they can’t keep it in, heaven knows I’ve tried.

“Don’t touch that thing!” --  “Just let it be!”

“Be the good girls and boys I know you used to be!”

Conceal, don’t scream, don’t let them know….

Well, now they know…

Six more weeks, six more weeks --

Until the school year is no more.

Six more weeks, six more weeks --

Turn away and drink some more Coke.

I don’t care what they’re going to say

Let the students rage on…

Their energy never bothered me anyway

Bulletin boards

Part of my job is to create bulletin boards at my three schools. These boards are meant to reflect the characteristic of peace or something to do with our lesson themes. Below are three examples. Sorry for the blurry quality -- I took the pictures with my phone.

Kindness: Being a Bucket-Filler

One of my big topics each year is kindness. Treating each other with kindness is a great way to make friends and solve problems before they start. A lesson that was a real winner was a lesson I did about being Bucket-Fillers.

I read a book to each class to start off the lesson:

• Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud (K-1st)
• How Full Is Your Bucket? (For Kids) by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer (2nd-4th)

Then we did a bucket filling game. I did the game Minute-to-Win-It style. I had a bucket (on which I drew a smiley face), a stopwatch, and about 20 wads of paper made out of colorful copy paper or construction paper. The object of the game was to toss as many paper wads into the bucket as possible in the minute. Then, for each paper wad that made it into the bucket, the class had to give an idea of something kind they could do to fill someone's bucket. They could choose an idea for bucket filling at school, home, or in the community. 

This lesson was such a hit that I had students asking to repeat it for later lessons. 

Books I love for different topics

Peace
Priscilla McDoodleNut DoodleMcMae Asks Why? by Janet Mary Sinke
Peace Week in Miss Fox's Class by Eileen Spinelli
The Peace Book by Todd Parr (K-1)
If Kids Ran the World by Leo and Diane Dillon
How Full is Your Bucket for Kids by Tom Rath and Mary Reckmeyer
Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud

Kindness/Helping Others
Ordinary Mary's Extraordinary Deed by Emily Pearson
Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson
Kindness is Cooler, Mrs. Ruler by Margery Cuyler
The Can Man by Laura E. Williams
Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts
Princess Kim and the Too Much Truth by Maryann Cocca-Leffler

Self-Esteem
I'm Special, I'm Me! by Ann Meek
The Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polacco
Crazy Hair Day by Barney Saltzberg
I Like Myself! by Karen Beaumont
The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi
Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun by Maria Dismondy
Not Your Typical Dragon by Dan Bar-el
Spoon by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell
Zilly: A Modern-Day Fable by Kelly Parks Snider
The Hippo-Not-Amus by Tony and Jan Payne
A Bad Case of the Stripes by David Shannon

Personality
Lacey Walker, NonStop Talker by Christianne Jones
The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig
Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley by Aaron Blabey
Chester's Way by Kevin Henkes

Bullying/Mean Behavior
Llama Llama and the Bully Goat by Anna Dwedney
The Band-Aid Chicken by Becky Rangel Henton
The Juice Box Bully by Bob Sornson and Maria Dismondy
Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns about Bullies by Howard Binkow and Susan F. Cornelison
Bullies Never Win by Margery Cuyler
Don't Laugh at Me by Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin
Unlovable by Dan Yaccarino
Marlene, Marlene, Queen of Mean by Jane Lynch, Laura Embry and A.E. Mikesell
The Recess Queen by Alexis O'Neill and Laura Huliska-Beith
Sorry! by Trudy Ludwig
Just Kidding by Trudy Ludwig
Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes

Anger
How do Dinosaurs Say "I'm Mad"? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
Soda Pop Head by Julia Cook
Zach Gets Frustrated by William Mulcahy
Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns It's Okay to Back Away by Howard Binkow
The Grouchies by Debbie Wagenbach

Emotions (other than anger)
My Friend is Sad by Mo Willems
Shy Spaghetti and Excited Eggs by Marc Nemiroff and Jane Annuziata
Today I Feel Silly and Other Moods that Make My Day by Jamie Lee Curtis

Gossip/Rumors
Trouble Talk by Trudy Ludwig
The Secret Olivia Told Me by N. Joy
Mr. Peabody's Apples by Madonna

Manners
Bear Says Thanks by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
Manners Mash-Up by a variety of authors
Do Unto Otters by Laurie Keller
The Way I Act by Steve Metzger
The Berenstain Bears Forget Their Manners by Stan and Jan Berenstain

Self-Control
Personal Space Camp by Julia Cook
What if Everybody Did That? by Ellen Javernick
Mrs. Gorski, I Think I have the Wiggle Fidgets by Barbara Esham
Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
It's Hard to be a Verb! by Julia Cook
The Worst Day of My Life Ever! by Julia Cook

Honesty/Truthfulness
Tell the Truth, B.B. Wolf by Judy Sierra
Princess K.I.M. and the Lie that Grew by Maryann Cocca Leffler
Edward Fudwupper Fibbed Big by Berkeley Breathed

Friendship
The Adventures of Beekle the Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat
You Will Be My Friend by Peter Brown
Have Fun, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell
Huggapotamus by Steve Metzger
The Worst Best Friend by Alexis O'Neill
How to Lose All Your Friends by Nancy Carlson

Righting Wrongs
The Signmaker's Assistant by Tedd Arnold
The Busy Beaver by Nicholas Oldland
Zach Apologizes by William Mulcahy

International Day of Peace -- September 21st

Each year on or around September 21, my school district takes part in the International Day of Peace. Our art teachers create an art piece reflecting peace (this year it was a variety of different styles of peace symbol, past years included a Pinwheels for Peace project). Classroom teachers talk about it during the week leading up to the 21st and I do a lesson focused entirely on this important international date.

This year I used a fantastically clever book called Priscilla McDoodleNut Doodle McMae Asks Why? by Janet Mary Sinke. This story shows to warring kings who are fighting over which color of hair was superior. Priscilla, the heroine of the story, had the courage to ask "why?" and it led to changes in her nation.

I challenge the students each year that they, too, can change the world. The rest of the lesson focuses on the Random Acts of Kindness challenge they will take up as a way to celebrate Peace Week. There are many ideas for this on the web, including the website: https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/

I challenged students to spread kindness as a family activity. Here is the sheet I sent home:

Personality

Personality is one of my favorite things to teach. When I was growing up, I thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't like all the things the popular kids had to do to be popular. I wasn't outgoing and I certainly didn't want to constantly surround myself with people. It wasn't until college that I found out my personality is what drove my behavior all those years before. Instead of being "wrong", I just had a different personality type than those social butterflies at school. Since then, I have been a sort of personality crusader.

I like to do a lesson on personality as part of my self-esteem curriculum. I don't teach this lesson every year, but I like to make sure that I teach it at least once in each student's career.

This year I used three books to teach about personality differences:

• Lacey Walker, Non-Stop Talker by Christianne Jones (Lucy is an EXTROVERT)
• The Invisible Boy by Trudy Ludwig (Brian is an INTROVERT)
• Pearl Barley and Charlie Parsley by Aaron Blabey (Pearl is an EXTROVERT and Charlie is an INTROVERT)

The students were very captivated by these three stories. The illustrations are fantastic in all three books, which helps.

After reading the first two stories, I usually have the students respond with which characters were most similar to themselves. Most classes were split pretty evenly between extroverts and introverts. I spent some time discussing how the two personality types were different. 

Once students have an idea of their own personality, we discussed how both types of people are necessary. I ended the lesson with Blabey's tale to help students see that the two friends each had great things to offer -- that one personality wasn't better or worse than the other...just different.

I finished with a coloring sheet called "My Personality Coloring Sheet". I instructed students to only color those things that were true for them.

Peace-Makers and Peace-Breakers

Lots of my teaching ideas come from Pinterest. This lesson borrowed a lesson I found online and I modified it for my setting.

I started out with chart paper or white board (depending on the classroom) and had the students brainstorm things that would break the peace (name calling, hurting others on purpose, leaving people out, not playing by the rules, cutting in line, not taking turns) and things that would build peace (sharing, kind words, helping others, letting someone else go first, playing fair).

After brainstorming a good list, we talked about how good school feels when everyone feels safe and welcome -- and that to make that happen it takes 100% of the people building peace.

To finish out the lesson I read the book The Brand New Kid by Katie Couric and then we did a coloring sheet about peace.

Cigarettes and e-Cigarettes

This is a lesson that completely enraptured the students. I have never had students so enthralled in a topic before.

Prior to the lesson, I took an empty oatmeal tube and turned it into a cigarette using large sheets of construction paper (thanks to the art department!). I made a label that said "What is Inside of a Cigarette?". I also copied and pasted pictures from Google into a document and then cut out and laminated the pictures. Each picture is something that shares a chemical component with cigarettes. You can access that list here: http://www.lung.org/stop-smoking/about-smoking/facts-figures/whats-in-a-cigarette.html

Among other things, cigarettes contain a ton of harmful chemicals. With each puff, smokers are taking these chemicals into their bodies via their delicate lungs. The list includes:

• Acetone – found in nail polish remover
• Acetic Acid –  an ingredient in hair dye
• Ammonia – a common household cleaner
• Arsenic – used in rat poison
• Benzene – found in rubber cement
• Butane – used in lighter fluid
• Cadmium – active component in battery acid
• Carbon Monoxide – released in car exhaust fumes
• Formaldehyde – embalming fluid
• Hexamine – found in barbecue lighter fluid
• Lead – used in batteries
• Naphthalene – an ingredient in moth balls
• Methanol – a main component in rocket fuel
• Nicotine – used as insecticide
• Tar – material for paving roads
• Toluene - used to manufacture paint

Gross.

AS I taught the lesson, I pulled item after item out of the cigarette. With each new item, students became increasingly grossed out. I heard many comments like "I will NEVER smoke one of those things!" and "Why do they put so many awful things in cigarettes? Shouldn't that be against the law?"

It was a very effective way to teach about the dangers of smoking.

When talking about e-cigarettes, many students thought they were safer than regular cigarettes. But, if you notice from the list, Nicotine is listed as being "used as an insecticide". Since e-cigarettes are used to "smoke" vaporized liquid nicotine, it is clear to see that e-cigarettes are far from safe.

To finish the lesson, I utilized some videos from the Mississippi Youth Tobacco Prevention campaign. The videos go together but are linked in three parts. I actually downloaded the videos and edited them together to make one continuous video.

"One Smokey, Chokey Night" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiZLR5tv2Zo

"Something Roachie Around Here" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ac2vDbT0EQ

"No Thanks, Smoking Stanks" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5US7kr1uV4

About the Author

My name is Tina Miller and am a graduate of the master's program in social work at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MIZ! ZOU!). Most of my career has been spent in a K-12 setting, although I do have five years of experience in higher education.

My current job is part of a grant-funded program where I do prevention education at the K-4th grade level. I teach on a rotation with the school counselors at three different buildings in my school district. The program I teach through is called PeaceBuilders. You can find out more about implementing PeaceBuilders here: www.peacebuilders.com. The focus of PeaceBuilders is primarily on building peace (obviously) through five concepts: Praise people, give up put-downs, seek wise people, notice and speak up about hurts I cause, right wrongs and help others. Within the framework of these topics, I teach the soft skills kids need to make friends, respect themselves and others, manage anger and conflict, respond appropriately to bullying, demonstrate kindness, display honesty, and practice self-control. In addition, we also do prevention lessons related to cigarettes (including e-cigarettes), alcohol, inhalants, and illegal drugs.

Aside from work, I'm also a former foster parent and have two beautiful daughters who came to us through the foster care system. I am passionate about what I do because I have seen first hand the devastating effects of substance abuse and the high cost to society of people who grow up without the skills I teach.

Self-Control

Self-Control -- the ability to control our feelings and behaviors

I introduced the lesson by giving the definition and then showing a Sesame Street parody video titled "Star S'mores" (you can find it on YouTube and it is hilarious). The video features Cookie Monster having to learn self-control as he works alongside "Chewy", who is a Chewbacca knock-off…and also a cookie. As you can imagine, hilarity ensues because of the hero's love of cookies. Throughout the parody, Cookie Monster receives pretty questionable advice from characters like Luke Piewalker, Only One Cannoli, Groda and Darth Baker. I showed this video with K-4th grades and all classes loved it. Self-control on its own is a pretty dry topic, so introducing it with a memorable video helps engage the students to remain focused for the rest of the lesson.

It is important for kids (and adults) to learn what they can and can't control. Things I can control:

• My play
• My words
• My ideas
• My feelings (or how I manage them)
• My effort
• My choices
• My behavior
• My mistakes (or what I do about them)

I can't control any of those things for other people. I can't make others play fair or use kind words or make wise choices, but I can control how I respond if others make poor choices.

I can choose:

• to treat myself and others with respect
• to use kind words and actions
• to be helpful
• to make wise choices
• to be honest when I make a mistake
• to cool down from anger before responding to frustration
• to listen and follow directions
• to stand up for what is right
• to do my best
• to build peace

There are many benefits to self-control:

• We usually do better in school
• We don't get in trouble as often
• Teachers trust us
• We often get chosen for privileges
• Others like to play with us
• People want to be our friend

To illustrate the benefits of self-control, I usually talk about the Stanford University marshmallow experiment from the 1970's. Psychologist Walter Mischel began the experiment on delayed gratification/self-control by placing a child alone in a room with nothing to entertain them. They sat at a table and were given one marshmallow. The children were told that they could eat the marshmallow whenever they liked, but if they waited until the researcher came back into the room, then the child would receive a second marshmallow. Delaying gratification (or displaying self-control) would get them two marshmallows instead of one. The differences between the groups of children who waited and those who didn't became evident over the years of continuing to study them. The kids who waited became adults who made wise choices, didn't get into trouble with the law, didn't become addicted to drugs or alcohol, and had higher rates of college attendance/graduation. Because of their better life choices, these kids tended to have better paying jobs as adults.

I usually give a brief explanation of the marshmallow experiment to my 2nd-4th grade classes and then show a video called "The Very Tempting Marshmallow Test" from YouTube. The link is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3S0xS2hdi4

Another great resource for the topic of self-control is Howard Binkow's animated book Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen found on the website wedolisten.org.

Honesty

With K-1st grade the lesson focused entirely on the difference between pretending and lying. Pretending is fun and playful, like when we pretend to be a superhero or princess. Our goal when we pretend isn't to make anyone believe we are really a superhero or princess, only to play the game along with us. A lie, however, is meant to get out of trouble, get something we want but don't deserve, or to make people believe something that isn't true. When we tell a lie it isn't usually to have fun with others in a playful way and when people find out we have lied they are usually disappointed or angry. Telling a lie usually ends in a hurt relationship or getting into trouble.

To help illustrate the point of the lesson I read two picture books:

• The Adventures of Beekle the Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat
• Tell the Truth, B.B. Wolf by Judy Sierra or Princess K.I.M. and the Lie that Grew by Maryann Cocca Leffler

After reading each book we talked about how the stories were different and how the outcome was different for each character regarding their friendships, trustworthiness, or consequences. The lesson ended with the animated book Howard B. Wigglebottom and the Monkey on His Back by Howard Binkow, which is accessed on the website wedolisten.org. 

Second through fourth graders are more mature, of course, and so was their lesson. For them I created a MadLib-style story about a character who lies several times (see below). To simplify the process of having students select words to fill in the story, I created a PowerPoint where each slide acted as a word bank for each slot in the story. Once completed as a class activity, I read the story to the students. The twist to this story time is that one volunteer helped illustrate the difficulty of keeping up with lies. As the story progressed, I handed a plastic dinosaur (6-12" in size) for the volunteer student to hold on to. The dinosaur represented each lie told by the main character in the story. With several lies throughout the story, this task became increasingly difficult. It is an easy visual for students as they see the volunteer have more and more difficulty holding on to the uncomfortably-pokey dinosaurs -- as is the case with holding on to details of a lie or managing the guilt we feel. 

When the story is finished we processed what happened to the volunteer and then we talked about reasons why people are tempted to lie and what the "cost" is for lying.

Lisa’s Big Day of Lies

Once there was a girl named Lisa. She was (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11) years old. One day during Show-and-Tell at school, Lisa’s classmate showed his (huge, tiny, slimy, smelly) pet. It was a (Purple-Throated, Yellow-Bellied, Blue-gilled, Green-backed) -- (monkey, tarantula, snake, bird). It was so cool! Lisa really wanted to touch it to see if it felt (smooth, soft, scratchy, fluffy, prickly) or (smooth, soft, scratchy, fluffy, prickly), but the teacher said that it was absolutely off-limits.

While the class was at recess, Lisa sneaked inside. She knew it was against the rules to go inside without permission from a teacher. Lisa really wanted to take a closer look at her classmate’s animal. When she touched the animal, she was surprised that it was so (tiny, angry, cuddly, puffy). She put the animal back inside the cage and went back to recess.

The teacher saw her walk out the door and asked Lisa where she had been. Lisa answered “I had an upset (stomach, foot, head, elbow, knee) and thought that going to the bathroom would help. It was an emergency.”

The teacher replied “Okay, but next time you really need to get permission before you go inside.”

Her teacher believed the lie! Lisa couldn’t believe how easy it was to get out of trouble!

When the class came back inside after recess, the animal cage was empty! It was easy to see the lid was partly open. The teacher (laughed, screamed, shrieked, howled, sang) and  (jumped, ran, danced, cartwheeled, flew) “How did this happen? This is terrible! We need to call the (police, fire department, principal, school nurse, Army)!”

Soon, the children started (screaming, laughing, pointing, burping). “Mrs. Miller! The animal is on your (Smart Board, hair, shoulder, desk, glasses)!”

Mrs. Miller (fainted, squealed, laughed, jumped) and eventually put the animal back in its cage.

After the class was settled down, Mrs. Miller asked Lisa what she knew about the animal escaping. Lisa thought a while and answered “I saw someone come through the classroom window. I think it was a/an (alien, ninja, robber, pizza delivery man). He told me not to tell or he would (tickle, steal, chase, squeeze) me!”

Mrs. Miller got a (funny, confused, angry, sad) look on her face and went back to teaching the class about (presidents, chimpanzees, long-division, cheeses of the world).

When Lisa got home from school, her mom asked about her day. She was feeling guilty about her day, so Lisa decided to tell another lie to keep her mom from asking any questions. She said “Oh, my day was (okay, fantastic, funny, awesome)! My teacher let us have extra recess and I got to play (soccer, princess, tag, kickball, gymnastics). It was fun!”

After finishing her homework, Lisa was supposed to go clean her room. She didn’t want to. Instead, she decided to play with her (Barbies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, American Girl Doll, Legos). When her mom called her in for dinner, she asked Lisa “Did you get your room clean?”

Lisa answered “Of course I did! My room looks (spotless, perfect, awesome, unbelievable)!”

While Lisa’s mom was doing the dishes, Lisa decided to watch TV. She was only supposed to watch shows her mom had approved. While Lisa was going through the channels, though, she found a show about (pirates, beauty queens, ninjas, dinosaurs, weddings) that looked really exciting. When her mom came in the room and saw what was on TV, she was (sad, mad, furious, disappointed, confused). “Lisa, I have told you before that you aren’t allowed to watch TV shows like that! What were you thinking?”

Lisa had to think quickly “Um.....I was actually watching a cartoon about (bunnies, puppies, kitties, princesses, superheroes). But, right before you walked in here, I (sneezed, tripped, fell asleep) and dropped the remote. When the remote hit the floor, it switched to this show. That’s what happened! Honest!”

Lisa’s mom believed her, but made sure the TV was on a cartoon before she left the room.

Soon the phone rang. It was Lisa’s teacher. As her mom talked, Lisa tried to listen in. It was clear that Mrs. Miller was telling Lisa’s mom all about what really happened at school. After she finished talking with Mrs. Miller, Lisa’s mom began asking for the truth.

“Mom, I really did have an upset (stomach, foot, head, elbow, knee) and went inside. I really did see a (alien, ninja, robber, pizza delivery man) coming through the window and he really did threaten to ­­­­­­­­­­(tickle, steal, chase, squeeze) me if I told anyone what happened. Honest!”

It was too late and Mom was too smart for Lisa…she knew Lisa had lied about everything. Mom took Lisa to her room for a long time-out and that’s where she discovered that Lisa had lied about cleaning her room, too. “Lisa,” said Mom, “it sounds like you have had a day full of lies. Did it feel good to lie?”

Lisa shook her head no and started to cry.

“It is time for the day of lies to be over. You’re going to go to bed now and when you wake up you’re going to go back to being honest. I want to be able to trust you and so do your teacher and all of your friends. Can you do that?”

Lisa nodded and Mom gave her a big hug. Lisa was relieved to be finished with all the lies. It was hard to keep up with all the stories she had made up. 

Welcome to the Peace Teacher blog

My students usually call me "The Peace Lady" and I guess that's as good a description as any. I work in a grant-funded program called "PeaceBuilders" where I teach kids the soft social skills they need to make wise choices. The aim of my program is to reduce violence and drug abuse in my community. We do that by emphasizing the language of peace, respect, safety and wise choices throughout our district.

My specific position involves teaching 25-minute lessons every other week on a teaching rotation with the school counselor. Topics include:

• Making friends
• Self-esteem
• Kind words and actions
• Helping others
• Understanding emotions
• Managing anger
• Resolving conflict peacefully
• Honesty
• Manners
• Self-Control
• Peer Pressure
• Cigarettes, alcohol, inhalants, illegal drugs

Whether you are a classroom teacher, school counselor, school social worker or administrator, I hope you'll find a useful classroom lesson idea on this blog. Because peace is free, so are my lessons.