S is for Sharing

At my school part of our behavior plan is using the Stop and Think method and Skill Streaming. The idea is that if all teachers use the same positive behavior method, students understand and anticipate the same expectations and consequences throughout the campus resulting in less behavior issues. I like it because it actually teaches prosocial skills and doesn't assume that "Tommy" knows HOW to listen, ask for help, share.. I use Skill Streaming in Early Childhood to teach prosocial behavior in kindergarten. It is a great guide that breaks down each important skill into steps.

Our Student Support Specialist is AWESOME and made me this Toolbox to help with prosocial skills. I grab it whenever I have a spare minute to review skills and the students are welcome to use it during center time. They LOVE to be the teacher! Inside the Toolbox are all of the skills broken down without the "how to teach" information. I like to pair the skill with a book. Children can relate to a character learning about making good choices. It is a good way to show the "non-example". We model the steps to the skill and then we practice. It is amazing how quickly the students can remember and recite the steps even weeks after we have learned a particular skill.

This week we talked about sharing. It's a big issue in kindergarten! We talked about how hard it can be to share and how to share with a good attitude. These are the steps to sharing:

1. Make a sharing plan

2. Ask

3. Do it

We read about Little Critter and how difficult it was for him to share. We discussed how if he had made a sharing plan he would have felt better and it would have been much easier to share with his sister. I shared that even I have problems sharing the computer with Mr. Lewis sometimes and they told me to make a sharing plan. Later in the day I was happy to see and hear students making a sharing plan together. I hope that life is always this easy for my little sprouts.

“What’s done to children, they will do to society.” – Karl Menninger