Have you ever been teased at school or picked on by a bully? It’s NOT a good feeling. Help end mean behaviors by starting a campaign to erase meanness.

• 1.

  Bullies are usually mean because teasing and namecalling (or worse) makes them feel more important. Students form cliques so they have a place to fit in at school. Many children are picked on or feel left out every day. What rules does your school have about how students and staff are expected to treat each other?

• 2.

  You can do something more to stop the meanness! First, you can set a good example of how to treat others. You can also start a campaign to identify how to be kind to others and the best ways to react to bullies. Here’s one action you can take to help erase meanness. You and your classmates can generate many great ideas!

• 3.

  Choose a positive behavior, such as how to be a good friend, to illustrate on a poster. Use Crayola® Erasable Colored Pencils on white paper to highlight your message. It is easy to erase color to create details and special effects, either with white space or by filling in with another color.

• 4.

  Make a border with vivid colors and erase out a design. Add a message to your poster using active, positive words that encourage kindness. Use your poster to start discussions with classmates on creating a friendlier atmosphere within your school.

Standards

• LA: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
• LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• LA: Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of aspects of a topic.
• LA: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
• LA: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.
• SS: Explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways groups, societies, and cultures address similar human needs and concerns.
• SS: Identify and describe ways family, groups, and community influence the individual's daily life and personal choices.
• SS: Analyze a particular event to identify reasons individuals might respond to it in different ways.
• VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.
• VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

Adaptations

• Invite the school counselor or school nurse to speak with the class about character education. Prior to the visit, students compose questions for the guest. After the visit, students post learning to a class blog.
• To accompany their original "Erase Meanness in School" posters, students compose 1-2 sentences to clarify the meaning of their poster.
• In small groups, students write situations that could elicit various reactions from students and/or adults. Write final drafts of these situations 3" x 5" note cards. Combine these with note cards from other groups in the class. Shuffle the deck. Select one situation at a time and brainstorm various responses to each situation. Which are acceptable? Which are not? How can classmates coach the unacceptable responses to be kinder?