Today the girls earned their orange petals. The orange petal encourages us to keep our word and be reliable for the things that we say we will do.
We read: I walk with Vanessa, by Kerascoet. This simple yet powerful wordless picture book tells the story of one girl who inspires a community to stand up to bullying. The book explores the feelings of helplessness and anger that arise in the wake of seeing a classmate treated badly and shows how a single act of kindness can lead to an entire community joining in to help.
I started by explaining that this is a wordless story, so the girls will need to look closely at the illustrations and think about what is happening.
I asked the following questions as we read the story:
How is Vanessa feeling about being in a new class? How do you know? (pages 1-2)
What is the girl saying to her friends? How do the friends feel about it? (pages 11-12)
What do you suppose the girl is thinking about? (pages 13-18).
What do you think the girl is saying to Vanessa? (pages 19-20)
How does Vanessa feel now? How do you know? (pages 23-28)
When we were done we tried to imagine we were in the pages of the book, watching the boy yell at Vanessa. I asked: What would they do in the story? What would they do in real life if they saw someone hurting another person with words or actions? We summed it up by saying your actions have meaning and what you say has meaning as well.
We spent some time making beautiful friendship bracelets- this is a reminder of being a good friend and responsible for what they say and do as a Daisy and as a girl in the world.
We did a movement activity called Word Power. I started by asking the girls to stand up or jump if the word or phrase I said was helpful and makes them feel good and to sit or crouch down if the words are hurtful and make them feel bad. I said: • You’re my friend • I don’t like you • Please • Thank you • Get away • I’m sorry • You’re not my friend
I then asked the girls how it felt to hear the helpful words and how it felt to hear the hurtful words. We were able to talk about how words can be powerful and why it is important to pay attention to what you say and how you say it.
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