Social Awareness and Responsibility

Context

Students have frequent opportunities for self-directed play in this class where they can choose from a variety of materials and centres. They have learned strategies for working together and solving problems and practice them frequently. The teacher provides support as needed but encourages them to solve problems independently.

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Learning Story

 “A” and “B” began playing together at blocks during Centres. They both initially agreed on the purpose/intention of their play – they planned to build a puppy police station. After 5-7 minutes, their play ideas diverged – “A” wanted to build a puppy castle, but the other child wanted to finish the puppy police station.

“B” became frustrated and did not want to move on to building another structure until they felt the puppy police station was finished. So, “B” left the blocks.

“A” immediately asked “B” to return to the blocks and suggested that they could “compromise” in how they were building their blocks:

Maybe, we can make the puppy castle to be beside the police station! Then the puppies can go back and forth, like from home and work!”

“B” returned to the blocks centre and they worked together on their new intention.

 

Context

The Teacher’s Voice

Our class read the story What Matters by Alison Hughes and Holly Hatam. The story starts with a boy doing a small act (picking up a can and throwing it into the garbage). He does not know it, but his tiny act has big consequences. The story traces the ripple effects of how the small act makes a difference and results in layers of impact. 

After reading the book, we reflected on our daily lives and brainstormed small acts that we could do. We also identified possible ripple effects for each small act. Students then selected one act that they could do (i.e. pick up pencils that had fallen on the ground) and wrote a story about their selected small act in a style like the one used in What Matters.

• What Matters Assignment (PDF)

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Student Work Video

This student chose to use iMovie to tell her story about a girl who picked up a pencil.

Context

A Teacher’s Voice

R entered kindergarten in September nervously, crying and holding her mom’s hand.  She was terrified to try new things and didn’t know anyone as they had just moved into the community. She cried every morning at drop off and cried every time she had to enter a new space (e.g. library, gym, music room). She was particularly scared of the playground.

When the class went outside, R would stand next to the teacher for the entire recess time. Friends would ask her to come play, but she politely said “no” to every request.  If the teacher moved around the playground, R would follow. After several months, R started moving slowly away from the teacher. She would place one foot on the woodchips and then take a few steps until eventually she walked all the way across the playground.

In November, the teacher was no longer outside with the class at recess and R was beginning to make some meaningful friendships with her classmates.  In class, they were talking about being brave and trying new things. They were also discussing supporting each other when things are hard or when someone needs help, or a hand, or just a friend to be with them. R was lucky enough to have made a lovely friendship with E who took these lessons to heart.

E continued to support R and build her confidence by repeating, “You can do this. I will help you. I will play with you and walk with you on the playground.” E never gave up on R.

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Teacher Reflection

Today, R runs on the playground every day and isn’t afraid to try new things because she knows it will be okay. Her friends will help her, support her, and be there for her. She is now confident and brave enough to support others and often offers to help her classmates when they need a brave friend.

R is very reflective and has grown to be very self-aware. She demonstrates pride and a growing sense of self-confidence that she didn’t have at the beginning of the year.  She has made one very meaningful friendship and, while she used to struggle when that one friend would play with others, she is now learning that it is okay for her friend to play with others. She is also okay playing with others or even on her own.  Yesterday she said to me, “C asked if he could play with me and I said that I want to play on my own right now, but can we play later?” Her face beamed when she told me this and her voice indicated that she was feeling proud and confident.

Student Interview with R

Tell me about the playground when you started kindergarten?

R: I felt nervous because there were a bunch of different kids that I didn’t know.  That made me nervous because I had no friends.  I had no friends because I didn’t know anybody.  I just moved here.

Why were you nervous to go on the playground?

R: I was too scared to climb things.  In the beginning of kindergarten, I felt like I could go on it but I was too scared to. I felt like I should play on the playground but I couldn’t.

How do you feel about the playground now?

R: Now I don’t feel nervous anymore because I play on it every day.

What made you go on the playground?

R: When I growed up I went on the playground.  I persevered like a salmon and then I felt proud of myself.  When I went home I told mommy and daddy that I went on the playground and they said, “I am proud of you.”

How do you feel about yourself?

R: I feel good about myself and I feel brave.  Now that I am brave I tried to go to the gravel field with E.  I felt proud.  It was not scary.  E supported me because she holded my hand and she helped me go down the stairs to the gravel field.  Then we started playing tag together.  Now I have lots of friends.

How did you make friends?

R: I talked to people.  When I talked to people for the first time I felt really nervous but now I feel excited to talk to people because now I have a lot of friends and I can talk to other people. 

 

Student Interview with E

Tell me about your friendship with R

E: We met when I was doing stuff that was funny, she asked me, “Can I be your friend?” and I said, “Yes”. The next day after that happened, we ate lunch together and then we had a playdate and then we had another playdate and then it keeped on going along and now we are friends.

What makes your friendship special and meaningful?

E: What makes it special is, like, we are together and if I am scared, R will help me and she is scared then I will help her.  Just like on Piggie and Elephant when Elephant is too scared to do things so Piggie helps him.  Like when we did our Piggie and Elephant play and R was too scared to talk so I decided we could call the play, “Elephant Lost his Voice” so R didn’t have to talk.

How does your friendship make you feel?

E: It makes me feel good and happy because I also thought on the first day of school that I wouldn’t have a friend but then I met somebody super good for me because it was a good fit because she really loved me and I felt that I didn’t have a friend but then I met her and she was the nicest girl.

How does your friendship make you a better person?

E: Well, I don’t exactly know that one but I will tell you what I do know.  Our friendship makes me a better person because we always play together and if we weren’t friends that I wouldn’t play with anybody.

How does your friendship make R a better person?

E: Because she is super emotional when she doesn’t have a friend by her side and if she didn’t have anybody then she would just be kinda sad but she has me so she is happy.

Tell me how you supported R on the playground this year.

E: Um, on the up top playground she was super scared so she only wanted to go to the down playground so we just walked down there together.  I went on the playground first and then I just said, “R, why don’t you come play with me here?” and she did.

 

Student Work Sample

Context

A student spends his free time cleaning up the leaves in the line up area in front of the classroom.

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Teacher Reflection

The line up area in front of our class is covered and adjacent to school landscaping and many large trees. Leaves pile up in one of the sheltered corners, along with cobwebs and dust. While walking outside with a SEA on a cool-down break after a violent episode, R decided he would clean up the leaves. I saw him using his hands to pick up the leaves through the window.

I have dustpans and brooms in the classroom and offered a set to R so he could clean up, along with a bin for the leaves. I watched him from inside the classroom as he worked very hard and methodically to clean up the area. It was a large amount of leaves. He seemed the most relaxed and happy that I had seen him all day. I kept the door to the classroom open and kept a close eye on him.

I suggested that he use the broom to sweep up the cobwebs as well. He cleaned up the area beautifully. It took around 20 minutes, and he finished just in time to get ready for pick up. I joined him before the parents arrived to admire his work and talk to him about the wonderful job he did. I could see the sense of pride on his face. He said: “Now this area can be nice for the other kids and there is now room in the line in case we get someone new in our class.”

I was so impressed with his thoughtfulness and told him so. We also shared the beautiful work that he did with his classmates, the administrator and his mother. It was lovely to see R relaxed and calm while he did this beautification work. It was also lovely to share with his mom and the wider school community a positive thing that he had done!

Family Member Reflection

He gets very excited to pick up his sister from his old daycare, all the kids give him big hugs and when he sees his sister he prepares for her hug by putting out his arms and saying "who missed their big brother"

He is very proud of himself when he handles his own responsibilities without being asked, such as getting ready in the morning, and when he figures out a new way of building something with Legos. He also feels very proud of himself when others show him that they are proud of him. He loves to feel like he’s doing what people would expect of him.

R helps at home by keeping our kitty calm when we give her insulin. He feeds her and brushes her. He helps his sister clean her room, he helps with dishes and never forgets to put his away. He offers to make me toast in the morning when I’m in a rush. He really notices that I try to keep things clean around the house and he tries his best to be sure he does his part.

Context

A Teacher’s Voice

Our class has been learning about ourselves, our families, and our community. We have started to think about the roles we play within those relationships and the rights and responsibilities we have to ourselves and to each other.

This is a very big concept for our young learners, but we found some books to help clarify our thinking. We started with the book, “With a Friend by Your Side”.  This beautiful book talks about the importance of friendship and places value on different types of friendships (ex. silly friends, happy friends, supportive friends).  This led to a lovely conversation about, “What type of friend are you?”  The students were asked to think about who they are in a friendship and place value on the role they play to their friends.  They were each asked to complete the sentence, “My role is to be a _______ friend because ________.”  As always, all the students had some amazing connections and thoughtful answers.

• My role is to be a kind friend because I can support my friend and that makes me happy.
• My role is to be a community friend because we all help each other.
• My role is to be a smart friend because if somebody doesn’t know what to do then I will help them.
• My role is to be a playful friend because I am silly.

Hmmm…I wonder…Do we always play the same role in our friendships or do our roles change sometimes?

 Next, we read a book called, “Thank You Earth”.  This beautiful book is filled with photographs of nature from around the world. The book is a thank you letter to the earth for giving us such a beautiful planet filled with colourful sunsets, peaceful forests, lively creatures and remarkable deserts.  Through our family inquiry, we learned about many different types of families and this book sparked our thinking about being a part of an earth family. The students reflected and said,

• I am responsible for taking care of creatures in our earth family.
• I am responsible for planting seeds in our earth family.
• I am responsible for keeping my brother safe in our earth family.
• I am responsible for watching nature in our earth family.
• I am responsible for keeping the earth clean and recycling in our earth family.

Our final book was, “I Have the Right to Be a Child”.  Immediately, a student asked the question, “What are rights?”.  Before we began reading the book, we decided that “rights” are the things that we all deserve, need, should have and are fair for everyone to expect.  The book explains some of these ideas in kid friendly language, such as, “I have the right to be cared for using the best treatments available to humans” and “I have the right to breathe clean air that’s as pure as the blue sky.”  After each page, we decided that every child should have these things but not every child gets these things depending on where they live in the world.  We are all a part of a global family and we decided that we should all be very grateful and appreciative of having the right to be a child and play and be safe and loved. The students reflected and said,

• I have the right to have clothes.
• I have the right to love my dad and mom.
• I have the right to breathe clean air.
• I have the right to friendship.
• I have the right to play with supporting friends.
• I have the right to have a name. 

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Student Work Samples