Partners in School

1. Some of the most important skills acquired in the school setting are ones that help everyone get along. They help make the classroom a great place for learning. Gather students in a central area of the classroom such as the reading rug. Ask them to think of things that successful students do. Make a list of appropriate responses on a class white board using Crayola Dry-Erase Markers.
2. Each week, ask students to select one of the ideas on their list to concentrate on. Determine three steps to take to succeed at this skill. For example, good listening might include 1) look at the person who is talking; 2) be quiet; and 3) think about what the person is saying. Discuss why each step is important for being a good listener.
3. Ask students to create a book to record ideas for working together. Here’s a new way to make a book. Fold a large rectangular paper in half so the long sides meet. Open the fold. Fold the paper in half again, this time bringing short sides together. Open the fold. Fold the short sides of the paper in to the center. Open the folds. Your paper has fold lines separating 8 rectangular areas (two rows of four rectangles).
4. Use Crayola® Scissors to cut along the long, center fold line (between the 2 rows of rectangles). Cut from one short side toward the other. STOP at the third short fold line so the last 2 rectangles remain connected. Bring the connected rectangles together. Then fold the remaining rectangles in and out to form an accordion book.
5. Hold the pages together. Cut small triangles from each side to form a person (like making a chain of paper dolls). Do not completely cut away any of the four sides of the book so the pages remain connected. Cut around the head, too. Open the book - there should be 10 partner pages, plus the front and back covers.
6. Have students use Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils to design the front partner page with a title and their names. Use one page in the book for each skill the class listed. Write the name of the skill and the steps for success with that skill. Encourage students to add personal, colorful designs around words.
7. Display books as reminders of the skills that will help with succeed in school!

LA: Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.

LA: Ask and answer questions in order to seek help, get information, or clarify something that is not understood.

LA: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

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: Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details, speaking 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 roles as learned behavior patterns in groups situations such as student, family member, peer play group member, or club member.

SS: Analyze a particular event to identify reasons individuals might respond to it in different ways.

SS: Work independently and cooperatively to accomplish goals.

VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.

VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

Invite the school's guidance counselor to speak with the class about being successful in school as well as in life. Prior to the visit, students compose questions for they wish to ask the counselor. After the meeting, students post learning to a class blog.

Encourage students to start a peer leadership program. As part of the program, older students mentor younger students with organization, homework, reading, etc. Work with teachers of younger grades to match up older students with similar personalities in younger students.

Working in small groups, students create original school posters boasting the positive effect of keeping organized with school work. Post these posters in public places of your school.