Little & Big Bee 9/23 - 11/11

We've concentrated on two major themes over the past 10 weeks, self discovery and friendship.  As you may have heard, the adapted song "The Good Ship Lollipop," was a means to go on a "journey" to discover and find the treasures we call virtues.  Each week I've picked a piece of literature to start our journey of discovery and we have a follow up activity to re-inforce what we've learned.  This activity is used to try and have them apply the specific aspect of the virtue of friendship into their lives.  We've read Puff the Magic Dragon, Imogene, The Bluebird and the Robot, The Velveteen Rabbit and Argus.   I've kept their follow up activity in their Character Education binders which I keep in the classroom.  All of our follow up activities have given the students the opportunity to apply what they learned in the literature to "their lives."  Each of the stories discusses different aspects of friendship and self acceptance.  For example, in The Bluebird and the Robot, we discussed how one person can sacrifice for the benefit of another.   In Argus, we learned to accept people for who they are, not by their appearance.  Imogene, decided that she was happy that she had differences that distinguished her from other people - like growing antlers.  Its vital that the students  begin their own journey of self awareness and acceptance.  What makes them special, what do they love about themselves, why are they valuable and when they understand that, then they'll naturally make positive choices in relationships and behavior toward others.