Amanda Jensen

October 6, 1997

T350

Grade level: 2

^nd

– 3

^rd

grade

Length: 30-40 minutes

*to be done at the beginning of the school year

Performance Expectations:

*The student will be able to act out a helpful behavior.

Resources: Pictures of helpful situations (person helping others

to pick up toys; some one showing a new student around the school,

etc.), job chart of some sort (can be made out of material, or

it can be on laminated paper) and the poem

A New Friend

by Marjorie Allen Anderson.

Procedures

*Introduction: Read the poem

A New Friend

by Majorie

Allen Anderson. Ask the students what the neighborhood children

could have done to help this boy feel more welcomed in their neighborhood.

Tell them that we are going to make our classroom as friendly

as we want the neighborhood.

*Development: Show pictures to the students that show peers being

friendly and helpful. Ask the students to tell how the various

people are being helpful or showing their friendship. List some

of these qualities on the board. Go over the list with the children

after you are finished looking at the pictures. Using the list

that the students just made, ask the students to list ways that

they can help in the classroom. Why are the things they list

helpful? What would happen if the things listed weren’t done?

Each student should be able to tell why the task is helpful to

the classroom (whatever they suggest). Make up a list of jobs

that the students need to fulfill in order to make sure that the

classroom is taken care of well. Have a job chart ready to put

the newly-created jobs on.

Have the students act out situations in the classroom in which

people show they are friends (emphasizing the chart the children

have made of "helpful" qualities). For example: A

person is hurting on the playground. Have the students come up

with their own ways of solving the situation.

*Closure: Ask the students why it is good to be helpful in the

classroom. Recap the qualities listed on the board. Ask the

students to become aware of peers who perform the helpful qualities.

Have a form in the classroom to be used by the students. Whenever

they see a person being helpful in the room (outside of his/her

job responsibilities), a student can fill out the form and hang

it somewhere in the classroom (on a door, or a bulletin specifically

designed for this activity).

Assessment:

*The teacher will take anecdotal notes while the students are

performing their skits.

*The students will evaluate the skits. For each role play, each

student will write down the good qualities about the skit, what

can be improved on, and what the skit’s helpful behavior quality

was.

Adaptation/Consideration: If the students are not able to come

up with a list of helpful actions from the pictures, then the

teacher can help the students by acting out part of situation

so that the children can understand the meaning behind the pictures.

If there is a physically disabled person in the room, be sure

to included him/her in the discussion. Ask him/her what kind

of help he/she might want in the classroom.

Reference:

Anderson, M. A. (1991)

A new friend

. Boston, MA:

Houghton Mifflin Social

Studies.

Armento, B. J., Nash, G. B., Salter, C. L., & Wixson,

K. K. (1991)

From sea to

shining sea

. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Social Studies.

A. Jensen. Personal communication, October 5, 1997.