Toothpaste Squirt Lesson {Teaching Kindess}

I felt terrible for a sweet student of mine the other day. She was partnered up with another student during a reading small group activity. The boy blurted out, "I don't want to be with her! She's annoying!" My heart just dropped for her! I looked at her and said "Honey you are not annoying" and proceeded to correct the other student.

Granted, this girl does have some social issues. We are working on it and trying to build her confidence and help her interact better with her peers. But there is just no excuse for rudeness in my classroom. I found a cute activity on Pinterest that requires minimal resources and time. It's a quick 5 minute lesson I am going to do with my friends tomorrow to encourage them to

1. Think before they speak and
2. Try to build someone up who has been put down

A link to the lesson can be found here.

I bought a cheap tube of toothpaste on my grocery shopping trip today. I will have on student squirt all the toothpaste out onto a plate. Then we will discuss how we can't put the toothpaste back in the tube, just like we can't take back negative comments.

The lesson I linked to goes into more detail about what to say to the students. I am hoping to encourage a classroom community of encouragement, as well as give students a visual reminder of the power of words. 

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