Unkind words leave "Wrinkles"

Are you shocked? I was MIA for about two weeks and then I post two posts in two days! Go me! I've decided that I would like for my first grade friends to pick a lesson or activity each week for me to blog about. I told them that it can be anything they choose- one they liked or even one they weren't that fond of.... I can take creative criticism from a firstie, right? (maybe.... :)  )  This week they picked TWO! (Who am I to make them choose only one?!) These kids know the way to my heart....they enjoy all the little craft ideas just as much as I do! YAY  :::insert Dr. Jean's Round of Applause here::: So, it was no surprise they enjoyed our "Unkind Words Leave "Wrinkles"  " lesson. We started out with the tried and true story Chrysanthemum  by Keven Henkes.

We talked about the characters (of course), how the illustrations depict the moods of Chrysanthemum, and the ugly actions of the "mean  girls". My firsties told me how they feel when people say mean things to them (and everyone had a story to tell here...but that is a good thing...self to text connection, right?) Then, the fun began. I introduced our "Green Friend" to the class.  (butcher paper outline of my personal child lol)

Next. each friend was told that they would whisper a "bucket dipper", "unkind word" to our Green Friend. While they were whispering to our "friend", they tore a piece of the person and balled it up. Each child whispered, tore, and balled up a piece of our friend. It was very interesting to hear what they "whispered" and what they believe to be "unkind" words.

Next, I told them that we had to apologize to our 'pieces' for all of the unkind things we said AND they had to get the wrinkles out when they apologized because we had to put our "friend" back together. UH OH!! You should have seen the look on their faces! They worked SO hard to get the wrinkles out and put the person back together.

the girls were BEGGING the wrinkles to "go away"

trying to piece our "friend" back together

 To make a long (yet truly engaging) lesson short...the moral of the activity is this... An unkind word to our heart is like crumbling the paper and putting tons of wrinkles in it. We can apologize (which we ALWAYS make them do), but the wrinkles in our heart never really go away. Things will never be JUST the way they were before... Remember friends, words CAN and DO hurt... Teach your little ones to use kind words AND we should practice what we teach :)  Enjoy the Journey!