Kindergarten Social Justice: What Does It Mean to Be BIG? By Stephanie Rotsky

What Does It Mean to Be BIG? How do I know when I am BIG?

It has always been a belief at the Rashi School that children should never have to wait until they are "older" to see themselves as having power to do "tikkun olam" -  repair the broken parts of our world.

So what does it mean to be BIG?

I asked kindergarten students that question a few weeks ago and what they initially answered included: when I am a year older and it's my birthday, when I am taller, when I weigh more, when I am in a new grade...

And as we continued the conversation and I encouraged students to think of additional examples that did not include their size or their age, they shared ideas like - when I can do something that I couldn't do before, when I feel proud of something I do, when I help someone...

So then we expanded on the idea of what it means to be big to include not only physical size and age but also things we do for ourselves and others.


Then we continued with a photo activity that helped students think about the idea of BIG in new ways:


There is BIG and then there is BIG...

Students were presented with a set of photos and told that each represented something BIG.  Why is each photo below an example of BIG?

And there is BIG and there is BIG...

Next students were given small white boards and asked to create different kinds of drawings based on the concept of BIG...draw a big heart with smaller hearts inside of it...draw a big pattern....draw a big face with a smile, draw a seed growing into a flower, draw a big peace sign...

Finally students worked in small groups at activity stations developed around the concept of BIG:

put together a BIG puzzle...

construct a BIG school made of blocks, 

stack a BIG pile of books 

create a BIG pattern block design

and write your name really BIG to cover the paper...

The final BIG activity was to create individual videos of each child sharing a time recently when they did something BIG! (I am hoping to work out how I can send you your child's video and for you to view the entire K's videos.)

At the start of the year we read the book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud. The idea is that each of us carries within us an invisible bucket every day of our lives and we have the opportunity to fill up or dip into each other's buckets daily. Since November I start most social justice lessons with a little musical piece that asks the kindergarten students: Whose bucket did you fill this week? Whose bucket did you fill? Each week students are encouraged to share examples of their bucket filling - whether they are the bucket fillers or having their buckets filled up. In doing so - every student is exposed to the breadth and depth of what bucket filling can be, its impact on another person, and our responsibility to be mindful of doing it daily!