Day 85 - January Social Skills Lesson - Teaching Tolerance - Memorial School Guidance Counselors

This post first appeared on the Memorial School Guidance Blog

Teaching Tolerance

It is OK to be different

We will be having discussions with each classroom about differences, diversity and what a community is. Students will learn how a diverse community makes our classroom stronger.  

Grades K-2:

We will be teaching about diversity. In each classroom, we will have a discussion about what it means to be different. We will also talk about communities and which communities we belong to. Students will learn that it is okay to be different because diversity can make our community stronger as we all come from different backgrounds. 

We will be reading the story "It's Okay to Be Different"

After the read aloud, students will participate in a movement activity called "The Warm Wind Blows". We will not only be learning about the differences that we can see with our eyes but we will also be focusing on differences we can't see. Students will learn how we can celebrate these differences in the classroom and at school. 

Some examples:

"The warm wind blows if you you have traveled to another country"

"The warm wind blows if you have a brother or a sister"

"The warm wind blows if you were born outside of Massachusetts"

Grades 3-5:

Students will learn about the terms diversity and community. We will discuss how diversity is important in a community. Students will share ways they are different from one another and how we can celebrate these differences in our school and classroom communities.  As a class, we will talk about how being a diverse community can make our classroom stronger.

Students will participate in a human scavenger hunt to learn more about their classmates and the diversity of their classroom community. The activity is called, "Find Someone Who...". Students will need to find someone in the room who applies to the question being asked. 

Some examples are:
Find someone who speaks more than one language.
Find someone who has a weekend tradition.
Find someone who has traveled to another country. 

Students will then share and discuss something they have learned about a classmate. We will end the lesson with a few final thoughts about how being different is okay and we will encourage students to celebrate the things that make them who they are!