First Grade - Mr. Peabody's Apples: A Lesson about Gossip

By Anonymous
First Grade Social Justice - Mr. Peabody's Apples: 
A Story about Gossip and the Power of our Words

by Stephanie Rotsky




Leading up to Yom Kippur, the first graders heard the story Mr. Peabody's Apples. Before reading the book, we looked at a timeline of ten days that stretches between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur - sometimes referred to as the Days of Awe - and we talked about how we have an opportunity during these days to make a plan to be our best selves for the coming year. Mr. Peabody's Apples was introduced as a story where one child's words about another person caused great harm to that person. We introduced the concept of gossip and how our words have great power to make someone happy or hurt them.




The story of Mr. Peabody's Apples focuses on a boy, Tommy Tittlebottom, who regular sees Mr. Peabody, teacher and little league coach, go into a fruit market on Saturdays after each game and take an apple and THINKS he never pays for it. This "observation" leads Tommy to tell the story to his friends. As we read the story,  the first graders and I "tracked" the "domino effect" of how Tommy's initial words end up being passed on from one person and one group of people to another until - the students concluded - you wouldn't even be able to know who has been told the story and how many people have heard it!

ASK YOUR CHILD how Mr. Peabody teaches an important lesson to Tommy about the power of our words...



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