First Grade Social Justice Learning
Week of September 25, 2017
A. Spotlight on First Social Justice Book of the Year:
Teshuvah and The Power of Our Words
Focus: Mr. Peabody's Apples
Last week we read our first social justice book of the year - Mr. Peabody's Apples! There are few stories like this for children that bring home the serious message that our words have a lot of POWER that can be positive or negative!
Before reading the book, we looked at the 10 day timeline between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur when each of us has the opportunity to make a serious plan to return (teshuvah) to our best selves.
In reading Mr. Peabody's Apples, first graders saw the dangerous effects that can happen when one person THINKS he/she saw something to be true and then passes on that "rumor" to another which has the potential to then be passed to many different groups of people over time which can lead to harming someone's life! Check out our diagram above that traces the chain and impact of the rumor that was spread in this story by a young boy about a teacher/ baseball coach.
ASK YOUR CHILD to share with you what rumor was spread by the young boy and how Mr. Peabody tried to teach him that his words had so much power.
We concluded our lesson by playing a game of TELEPHONE. It wasn't so easy as many students discovered right away. We saw how a message that was whispered to one person can totally change as one person hears it (or thinks he/she hears it correctly) and then passes it on to another person. We played two rounds of TELEPHONE and worked hard to listen carefully before we passed on what we heard to the next person in the circle.
B. How Do We Show Kindness to Others
and See the HUMANity in One Another?
Two weeks ago, first graders were introduced to two essential questions that we will explore throughout the year: How and why do we show kindness and compassion to others? How do we see the HUMANity in each other?
Every week during tefila, we will share a photo that reflects different images of people showing that they see the humanity in one another: This photo was taken at the end of the summer for Cradles to Crayons' annual Backpack Project in the City of Boston. Here a young child is invited to select a backpack filled with school supplies for the start of the year.
This photo was shared today in tefila. It shows volunteers (who didn't even know these people) rescuing children and grown-ups and bringing them to safety following Hurricane Harvey in Houston.
Stay tuned for our photo spotlight each week!
Peace!
Stephanie
