Advocates for Youth
How Well Do I Communicate with Others?
So many of life's problems could be resolved with proper communication. Teenagers work on replacing negative messages with positive messages, active listening techniques, and communicating assertively in a series of classroom activities.
Thoughtful Learning
Doing Random Acts of Kindness
Encourage scholars to perform random acts of kindness. A lesson challenges participants to choose a peer they wish to be kind to without them knowing. Learners list five good deeds and choose one to fulfill. Pupils reflect on the process...
Montclair Art Museum
Eric Carle: Animals and Friends
Celebrate Eric Carle’s beloved children’s books, especially those about animals. Teachers and readers alike engage in Carle’s books as they explore the art and color in each of his stories, and how these elements support comprehension.
Committee for Children
Create a Positive Classroom Climate and Help Stop Bullying
Encourage kindness and respect with an activity that challenges scholars to create a poster that details three ways to exhibit the desired character traits.
Reed Novel Studies
The Homework Machine: Novel Study
Do opposites really attract? The D Squad in The Homework Machine includes of a quad of opposites. The group, made up of a teacher's pet, a geek, a class clown, and a slacker, make use of a machine to do their homework. In response...
Reed Novel Studies
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher: Novel Study
Don't count your eggs before they hatch—unless they are dragon eggs. Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher follows the main character as he finds himself hatching dragon eggs. Scholars work through the resource and read how Jeremy tries to...
Reed Novel Studies
One Crazy Summer: Novel Study
Rita Williams-Garcia's One Crazy Summer describes three girls who go looking for their mother who ran out on them. Scholars complete a novel study guide with vocabulary exercises, character descriptions, and comprehension poems.
Reed Novel Studies
James and the Giant Peach: Novel Study
Everyone wants to feel like they belong. James, in James and the Giant Peach, finds a feeling of belonging in a very odd place—inside a peach! Scholars read the story of James and the Peach and work through vocabulary, language, and...
Nemours KidsHealth
Getting Along: Grades 3-5
Two lessons boost social awareness and spread gratitude. In the first lesson, scholars write a newspaper article that describes a conflict and ways to solve it. In the second lesson, pupils offer kindness coupons to family and friends to...
Nemours KidsHealth
Getting Along: Grades K-2
Boost social awareness with two activities focusing on getting along. In the first activity, scholars brainstorm ways to get along with their classmates and create four rules for the classroom. The second activity asks pupils to track...
Do2Learn
Relationship Target
A graphic organizer focuses on relationship dynamics. Users fill in the various rings that indicate how close their relationships are.
Read Works
Cool to Be Kind
Make a connection between empathy and bullying with a reading passage that has readers thinking about other people's feelings. After reading, learners respond to ten reading comprehension questions involving short answer and multiple...
Nemours KidsHealth
Empathy: Grades 9-12
Empathy can be the glue that holds a society together. Learning how to see and appreciate a situation from another's point is key to developing empathy toward others. The two activities in this resource are designed to help teens...
Fox Valley Unitarian Universalist Congregation
Conflict Resolution
Many teenagers struggle with resolving conflicts with peers, friends, or family members. Here's a form that can guide them through the steps they need to take to identify the problem, their contribution to the problem, and their...
US Institute of Peace
What Does Conflict Mean?
Is conflict always bad? Learners begin a unit on conflict resolution with an exercise that defines conflict, reviews common words associated with conflict, and encourages partners to brainstorm conflicts that may have positive results.
Curated OER
Rules
Students read about an autistic boy and learn about how he communicates. In this picture book summary instructional activity, students draw illustrations of events in the story that convey the theme.
Curated OER
The Chocolate War
Students scrutinize the story, "The chocolate War" by Robert Cormier for examples of nonconformity in the face of power. The nature of the relationship between students in the story is compared to the associations of the reader.
Curated OER
ABC Bookmaking Builds Vocabulary In the Content Areas
Students create an ABC book using vocabulary words from content areas. They use each word in context and create an illustration for each word to further demonstrate their knowledge of its meaning.
Curated OER
The Star Fisher
What a terrific way to discuss racism in the 1920's. Learners read a story called The Star Fisher by Laurence Yep. It is about a Chinese American girl who experiences racism and prejudice after moving from Ohio to West Virginia....
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Relationships and Sexuality
Developing close personal and romantic relationships requires its own set of skills. This session focuses on helping teens develop behaviors and strategies for dealing with romantic relationships, rather than on sharing personal...
Curated OER
This Spring Turn Over a New Leaf
Spring is the time to focus on social skills and stress management.
Curated OER
Freak the MIghty: Anticipation Guide
Friendship, family, and violence are the subjects of an anticipation guide designed to accompany Rodman Philbrick's young adult novel, Freak the Mighty. Individuals complete the included guide, discuss their responses in groups, and then...
Curated OER
Puberty/Adolescence, Day 3: "Am I Normal?"
"Am I normal?" Bring this topical discussion to your health or teen issues class, who might be struggling with their developing identities. Learners discuss relationships, including acquaintences, friendships, girlfriends, boyfriends,...
Curated OER
A Cow's Life
Moo! An engaging two-part worksheet focuses on the role of cows in our agriculture system. The second part of the worksheet has ten discussion questions, which should lead to some interesting points about cows. Young farmers can learn...