Lesson on Bullying

Today, I did a lesson on the power of hurtful words and bullying. I started the lesson with the “crumple heart” activity. For this hook to the lesson, I distributed every student with a cut-out heart. As I said hurtful words, we crumpled our hearts and then we reversed the process and together we thought of nice comments as we smoothed out our hearts with every uplifting, positive comment that was said. It was a great, interactive start to the lesson as the students got to visualize how hurtful words hurt the heart. Even after we said nice words, the scars from the hurtful words still remained. After this activity we read a book on bullying. The book was called “One” and was a great way for the students to learn about the effect of hurtful words. The bully in the book, Red, made the other colors feel very small especially when he said mean words to them. This was an awesome book that engaged student learning and helped the students see how it’s important to stand up and say “No!” to bullies and how everybody counts. The colors grew into numbers representing how they too matter and have value. The last page of the book ended with “sometimes it only takes one” representing how it only takes one person to stand up and have a voice against bullies. We then did an activity where the students had to think of one person who has made a difference in their life and some ways how they can make a difference in someone else’s life. They went back to their desks to finish this writing piece and that’s how the lesson ended. It was a fun, interactive lesson. I received really good feedback from the lesson and some things to be aware of. I love feedback that helps me grow as an educator. More great lessons to follow!