Laura Candler put together a wonderful blog link up focusing all on Julia Cook’s books. If you haven’t ready any of Julia Cook’s books you need to stop.right.now. Her books are FABULOUS for teaching life skills and how to be a problem solver.
One of the big differences I noticed moving from second to third grade is teasing verses bullying. In second grade, my students thought any kinds of teasing, any kind of hurt feelings, was bullying -on purpose and mean. In third grade, I found when any kind of issue was reported by students it usually truly WAS bullying! It seems like around age 8 or so my kids started to understand the difference. But that didn’t help me at all when I taught second grade!
Enter this book…
The book The Tease Monster is a wonderful story teaching children to identify the difference between teasing and bullying. This is such a difficult topic since it is such a fine line. In the story the character (the number 1 named “One of Kind!!”), runs into several problems at school. He comes home to talk to his mother how he feels and she helps explain the difference between a “nice tease” and a “mean tease.” I love that the book helps students identify the difference. However, I think my most favorite part is that the mother gives advice on how to handle bullying and teasing. This is so helpful for kids to really see examples of how to handle real-life examples of bullying and teasing.
If this is an issue in your classroom, this book would be perfect for a class meeting. To follow up the reading of the book, I created a freebie to match the book! The freebie includes several examples of situations your students might find themselves in. The situations are then sorted into two categories: “nice tease” and “mean tease.” Large situation cards are available for whole group sorting and a matching student’s sheet for students to cut, sort and glue down the situations is also included.
Julia cook has TONS of books that are perfect for solving problems during class meeting. The books are available on her website. Want to find more abut her books and some ideas? Check these blogs out!
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Mandy Gregory is a 2007 and 2012 Teacher of the Year. She has taught Kindergarten- 4th grades in both the general education and inclusion settings. She is currently a 1st grade Special Education teacher. She is the owner and creator of Mandy’s Tips for Teachers website (www.mandystipsforteachers.com) and has over 13 years of teaching experience. She is married with two beautiful children.
