Unit Questions

1. Are we different or the same?

CASEL Standards (CASEL.org)

Social Awareness: The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures, to understand social and ethical norms for behavior, and to recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.

Books

It’s Okay to Be Different by Todd Parr

Cupcake by Charise Harper

I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont

Families, Families, Families by Suzanne Lang

Stella Brings the Family by Miriam B. Schiffer

Unit Vocabulary

Unique - being special or the only one

Similarities - a quality that makes one thing or person like another

Differences - a quality that makes one thing or person unlike another

Julie Martin

School Counselor

Fisher School

508-660-7234 x5515

Twitter - @WalpoleESC

Lesson 1 - The kindergarten students will begin to explore what makes us all unique through activities and class discussions. The students will read It’s Okay to Be Different and talk about some of the ways we are different. At the end the students will do a question asking activity to determine what is the same about a peer and what is different.

Lesson 2 -  Continuing our discussion on what makes us different and the same, we will read the book I like Myself.   The students will draw a picture of themselves that they will eventually share with the class to compare traits they have in common with peers and those that are different.

Lesson 3 - In the story of Cupcake, the character tries to be someone she isn’t throughout the story.  At the end, Cupcake begins to celebrate being unique and special.  After reading the story, students will identify qualities that make them special and unique and add those to their self portraits and share with the class.

Lesson 4 - During this lesson we will start to focus on families.  All families can look different!  We will read the book Families, Families, Families and students will draw a picture of their family.

Lesson 5 - We will wrap up our lessons on how families are alike and different by reading Stella Brings the Family.  This will be followed by a discussion of the different families in the book and the students will share about their own families.