This American site is appropriate for students at the elementary level. Through colourful fruit and vegetable characters, it stresses the importance of eating at least five fruits and vegetables a day.

This is the address of the Media Awareness Network, an excellent Canadian site which offers practical support for media education in the home, school and community. It contains a wealth of information and activities, and includes a section related to advertising and nutrition.

Canada’s Food Guide for Healthy Eating is used as a reference and as a resource at all grade levels. Contact the nutritionist at your Local Health District for copies of the Food Guide. Ask if the adapted version featuring foods favored by young children is available.

The Health Canada web site provides information on the Food Guide, as well as health promotion information on various topics such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, First Nations, safety. The URL for the Health Canada web site is

Health Canada also offers a free electronic news service.

Grade One

Young children need to eat in small quantities, but often. While the connection between healthy eating and overall well-being should be made, activities related to nutrition at the grade one level will focus mainly on choosing healthy snacks. This is also a good context for discussing dental health.

• After a snack and discussion of the students’ favorite snack foods, have students categorize food models or pictures according to various self-selected or teacher-selected criteria (colour, size, texture, etc).
• Display the rainbow from Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating and build on earlier discussions during the categorizing activities in order to introduce the four food groups and the "other foods". Be sure to point out that there is no such thing as good foods and bad foods, but that balance and variety are the key to good nutrition.
• Plan various activities where students will practise categorizing food models or pictures into the food groups.
• During one week, have students use personal charts to keep track of the foods they eat for their snacks. Have them categorize these foods into the four food groups.
• Draw the outline of a rainbow on a bulletin board. Keep a supply of yellow, green, blue and red stickers (the colours of the four food groups on the food guide). After snack time, have students choose a sticker for each of the food groups represented in their snacks and place their stickers on the rainbow. Challenge students to "colour" all four bands of the rainbow within a given period of time (e.g, a week).
• Have students plan a series of mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks for a week, following the food guide.
• Challenge students to try foods they have never tried. A "food of the day" might be featured, in order to encourage students to try foods. Ask students to discuss their experiences: why did they never try this food before? Was it difficult to try the new food? Did they do anything to make it easier to try this food? Were they surprised by the taste? Would they try it again?
• Have students draw healthy snacks on small brown paper bags (or paste cut out pictures of foods onto paper bags). Display these "healthy snack bags" on the bulletin board.
• Display a variety of snack foods such as a candy bar, a chocolate coated cookie, an apple, a few grapes, some carrot sticks, a yogurt, some crackers, a container with dry cereal and a slice of cheese. Ask students to identify the food groups to which these foods belong. Discuss the "Other foods" category. Remind students that these foods can be part of our diet, as long as we eat them in moderation and do not eat them instead of foods from the four food groups.
• Conduct the following experiment to illustrate how acid (formed when bacteria feed on sugars) damage teeth and can cause cavities: ask if some students could bring a baby tooth, or get a tooth from your dentist. Immerse the tooth in soda pop. Ask if a student would like to draw the tooth on chart paper. Have students predict what might happen to the tooth. Record their predictions and the date. Have students observe and describe the changes each day. Every day, one student might illustrate the changes on the chart paper, and record the date beside the illustration. Discuss what happened to the tooth and explain that this is how cavities form (but remind students that the process is much slower).

  Note: Use rubber gloves to handle teeth and discuss with students how this helps prevent the transmission of germs and diseases.

• Ask students how they can protect their teeth and avoid cavities (brushing teeth, flossing, eating nutritious snacks, eating sweets in moderation, visiting the dentist regularly, etc).
• Relate the topic of nutrition to growth and development. Explain that the foods we eat help us grow, and that is one reason why we should eat a variety of foods. But point out that even if we all ate exactly the same foods in the same amounts, we would not all grow at the same rate. Various activities from Unit 1, Module 1 in the Social Studies Activity Guide might be used here, as they relate to respect for individual rates of growth and development.

Grade Three

At the grade three level, activities will focus on developing critical thinking skills when making food choices. As they start learning to read food labels for basic information, students should also begin to think critically about how marketing techniques - on packages as well as in the media - try to influence our food choices.

Note: knowledge of all nutrients and their functions should not be an expectation at this level.

• Review the concept of portion, and the number of servings that the Food Guide suggests young children should eat per day from each food group (for more information, refer to the grade two sample unit entitled "Food for Thought").
• Prepare an overhead transparency of a "Nutrition Information" label from a box of cereal (enlarge if necessary so that the print is easier to read). Discuss the function of this label and the meaning of the phrase "nutrition information". Highlight the main items featured on the label: size of a serving (refer to the servings suggested in Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating), energy provided by one serving (expressed in calories), and nutrients.
• Have students rank various brands of similar products according to their content in specific nutrients (e.g., rank cereal in order of sugar or fiber content, potato chips in order of salt or fat content, processed fruit snacks in order of sugar content, cookies in order of sugar, fat or fiber content, lunch meats in order of fat content). Students might construct graphs to illustrate ranking order.
• Ask students to watch television for one hour on a Saturday morning, and to categorize the products advertised in the commercial breaks (cereal, candy bars, toys, etc.) Have them construct graphs to illustrate their findings. Discuss the findings: were there many commercials for laundry detergent, coffee, computers? Use this discussion to develop students’ awareness of how commercials are targeted toward a specific audience.
• Ask students to watch food or drink commercials on television or to cut out advertisements for foods or drinks in magazines. Discuss the messages conveyed by the various commercials:
  • How do they try to influence us? Can students identify the advertising strategies used? (Refer to the Grades 4 and 5 model unit on self-esteem, entitled "The Me I Want to Be", for a sample lesson on identifying and resisting the pressure of advertising; adapt as necessary to fit this context).
  • What are the students’ favorite food or drink commercials? Why do they like these commercials?
  • Do these commercials focus on the nutritional value of the foods they advertise? What words do they use to make you think that the products are nutritious? (Do the commercials use expressions such as "part of a complete breakfast", "with real fruit"?)
  • Plan activities where students read the labels of these products and compare their actual nutritional value to what the commercials had led them to believe (to what food group do these foods belong? What is their sugar content? How much "real fruit" do they actually contain?)
  • Various activities relating to media literacy and nutrition can be found on the Media Awareness Network Internet site. Activities from this site that are designed for students at the elementary level are at the following address:
  • http://www.media-awareness.ca/eng/med/class/teamedia/tupe.htm
• Have students list the first five ingredients on various labels. Explain that ingredients are listed in decreasing order of quantity (the first ingredient listed is the highest quantity). Have students identify the relative quantities of specific ingredients on various labels (e.g., does this product contain more sugar than salt?)
• Have students observe the packaging or commercials for various processed fruit snacks. Discuss students’ expectations based on their observations. Then have them read the lists of ingredients on the product labels to compare the snacks for their content in "real fruit". Are the students surprised by their findings? Why or why not?
• Have students sort various brands of cold cereal according to the amount of sugar they contain. Then have them sort the same brands according to the amount of fat, then fiber. Explain that sugar and fat are both necessary for a healthy diet, but in low quantity. Fiber helps us digest food. Ask students to rate the brands of cereal: which one would they choose if they wanted a cereal low in fat and sugar, and high in fiber content?
• Take students out for a walk. Back in the classroom, have them listen to relaxing music and do an activity which encourages relaxation, such as:
  • Lie down on a mat and close your eyes. Take deep breaths and exhale slowly, counting back from twenty to one. Notice how you feel increasingly relaxed as you count.
  • Lie down on a mat and close your eyes. Relax every part of your body, one at a time: relax your feet, your legs, your stomach, your shoulders, your arms, your fingers, your neck, your head. Stay there and enjoy this feeling. Take a deep breath. Exhale slowly.

  Encourage students to comment on this experience and explain that such activities help reduce stress. Ask students what else they do when they feel tense or stressed. Encourage them to do some of the relaxation activities modeled in class on a regular basis. (For further information on relaxation, refer to Appendix A in F.Y.I For Your Imagination: Focused Imaging, Instructional Strategies Series, No. 12)

• A group action plan might be designed to help the class take a daily relaxation break.

Grade Four

• Introduce the concept of nutrients: a concept attainment lesson might be used to elicit students’ prior knowledge of the categorization criteria for the groups in the food guide (Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating categorizes foods according to the key nutrients they provide). Explain that nutrients in foods help our bodies grow, be healthy and have energy.
• On the rainbow from Canada’s Food Guide to Healthy Eating, have students draw or label the body parts which benefit from the nutrients provided by each food group (i.e. Fruit and Vegetables: hair, skin; Milk products: teeth, bones; Meat and Alternatives: muscles).
• Using illustrations, diagrams or models, introduce the digestive system and discuss the digestive process.
• Discuss the importance of water and fiber in the digestive process.
• After a strenuous physical activity, discuss how our body loses water through perspiration. Discuss the importance of having frequent water breaks (small quantities at a time) during moderate to strenuous physical activities. Have students compare the health benefits of water to the benefits provided by various other drinks, including drinks that are advertised as "sports drinks".
• Explain that our bodies can survive without food for longer than it can survive without water. Water helps regulate body temperature.
• Have students keep track of the amount of water they drink each day. They might create a bar graph to illustrate their data. Encourage them to increase their daily water intake if the amount they drink is insufficient (we need to drink 2 L or the equivalent of 8 glasses of water per day). Graphing their daily intake and working towards a "target graph" might be part of an action plan.
• Discuss the effects of water pollution on our health.
• Explain that we need to take good care of our digestive system. Review the various parts of the digestive system and have students research how to take good care of specific parts of the digestive system:
  • our teeth (e.g., proper brushing and flossing, eating sweets in moderation, consulting the dentist regularly);
  • our stomach (e.g., proper diet, proper preparation of foods, taking time to chew, etc.);
  • the intestines (e.g., adequate amounts of water and fiber, adequate amount of physical activity);
  • the urinary system (drinking adequate amounts of water, including water from fruit and vegetables).
• Plan activities to have students reflect on how well they take care of their digestive system. Guide the design and implementation of action plans accordingly.

Grade Five

• Review the concept of nutrients. Build on students’ prior knowledge of food labels (see grade three activities).
• Explain that fat is an essential nutrient. This means that our bodies do need fat: for instance, fat provides energy, acts as insulation, and plays a role in the formation of hormones. Fat is an important nutrient in pre-adolescence, but students should know that some fats are healthier than others and that a reasonable amount of fat should be part of our daily diet.
• Remind students that fat is a source of energy, but just like cars spend the energy provided by gas, our bodies need to spend the energy provided by food. Explain the concept of metabolism and discuss the importance of daily physical activity. Have students keep track of the number of minutes they spend each day in moderate to vigorous physical activity. (This might be a good time to discuss action plans that might have been designed at a previous grade level). Encourage students who are physically active for less than one hour a day to increase their level of activity. Discuss a wide range of activities and point to the fact that students should choose activities that they enjoy doing. Relate this topic to the grade five optional science unit on Human Circulation and Breathing.
• Invite a guest speaker to discuss the benefits of physical activity (this might be an athlete, or someone who specializes in sports medicine, but it might also be, for example, a senior citizen who exercises regularly).
• Have students try to break cooked chicken bones (the use of rubber gloves is recommended). Ask them to record their observations. Soak some of the chicken bones in vinegar for a week. Ask students to predict what will happen and to record their predictions. After a week, ask students to try and break the bones. Have them compare the results of this experiment to their predictions. Explain that the vinegar took the calcium out of the bones. Discuss the importance of calcium for bone growth and strength.
• Ask students to read the labels on various foods to identify calcium content.
• Explain that exercise is also very important for bone growth.
• Have students list their ten favourite foods and research the amount of fat they contain.
• Brainstorm foods that are sources of fat, then have students categorize those foods.
• Discuss the difference between saturated and unsaturated fats. Explain that saturated fats (found in most animal products, such as meats, dairy products and eggs) contribute to the clogging of arteries - over a long period of time - and are linked to heart disease. Have students rank items such as margarine, various vegetable oils, shortening, butter, for their content in saturated fats. Discuss implications for healthy eating. Be sure to point out that saturated fats can still be part of a healthy diet, as long as they are consumed in small quantities, and only occasionally.
• Illustrate how fat contributes to the clogging of arteries with the following experiment: have students observe and comment on the flow of water tinted with red food coloring through a clean plastic tube, compared to the flow of the same liquid in a tube that has been partially obstructed with vegetable shortening.
• Provide the students with the following materials: measuring instruments, granulated sugar, vegetable shortening and labels for various food products. Invite them to read the labels and weigh the amount of fat and sugar in the products. This activity can be done in work stations or activity centres and students might record their observations on an activity sheet.
• Have students work in small groups to research the main nutrients from each food group: in what ways do they contribute to our health?
• At the grades 4 or 5 levels, students might explore the issue of world hunger and distribution of resources. Group action plans to help people who suffer from hunger in our own communities might be designed and carried out.

Safety

Grade Two

• Take the students to the playground. Ask them about their favourite activities when they are on the playground. With what equipment do they like to play? With whom do they play? Do some situations or the use of some of the equipment scare them? Discuss how to make playground activities safer for everyone: staying away from moving swings or other pieces of equipment while waiting for one’s turn, waiting until the swing stops before getting off, always using the ladder to climb up on a slide, waiting until the slide is clear and the person before you has moved out of the way before going down, going down feet first, etc.
• Using scenarios where conflict situations arise while using the playground equipment, have students role play various ways of handling the situation (see examples of scenarios on the next page). Ask them to look at consequences on the safety of the children involved. Have students decide which alternatives are safe and which are not safe. Discuss how playing fair and resolving conflict situations peacefully impacts on safety.
• While stressing the importance of observing safety measures in order to prevent injuries, ask students if they know what they should do when an injury does occur:
  • Do not move someone who is hurt.
  • Call for an adult or send someone to get help.
  • If the injured person is bleeding, use his or her own hand to press on the wound until someone comes for help.
  • ...
• Discuss how active play impacts on our health in various ways: playing is relaxing and helps relieve stress, active play helps us use the energy provided by the food we eat, etc.

Examples of Case Studies on Playground Safety

Kendra never plays on the monkey bars because she is afraid that she will fall and hurt herself. One day at recess, her friend Carry tries to convince her to play on the monkey bars. Carry just loves to climb all the way up and look down on the ground below her. Kendra refuses to join her though and some of the children in the group make fun of her. "Scardy cat! Kendra is a scardy cat!" they say. At first, Kendra thinks she will just ignore them and walk away. But then she hesitates. If I do walk away, they will really know I am scared...

What might happen next?

Roberto wants to play on a swing, but all the swings are being used by other children. He asks when he could get his turn. But nobody wants to share. Some of the children just do not answer. Jason says: "Well it’s first come, first served! Next time, just show up here before we do!"

What might happen next?

Charla was having so much fun playing on the swings. She was going quite high. Camilla did not see that she was getting so close to the swings because she and Justin were talking and were looking in the other direction. Then it happened! Charla bumped into Camilla, at full speed. Camilla fell to the ground and scraped her elbow. It was bleeding and it hurt a lot. Camilla thought it might even be broken.

What might happen next?

Use this space to record scenes that you have witnessed and that might be used as case studies:

Grade Four

• Brainstorm sports activities in which children might participate (responses might include rollerblading - or in-line skating - ice skating, skateboarding, swimming, cycling, playing soccer). Explain that such activities are fun and healthy. Point out that it is important, however, to protect oneself and to know safety rules when participating in such activities in order to avoid injuries. Have students choose one sports activity and research safety rules to observe when participating in that activity. The whole class might discuss categories of safety tips to include in the research, such as:
  • proper equipment;
  • how clothing or footwear should fit;
  • protective gear;
  • taking lessons or advice from professionals;
  • warm-up period;
  • safe and unsafe places to participate in the activity...
• Use a case study, a video scenario or a story as the basis for response to a situation where a child (or a group of children) is pressured by others not to observe safety rules or safety measures. Have students role play various options for the person(s) being pressured and discuss the consequences of each. Students might reflect on similar situations they have personally experienced and on how they reacted. Have them practise refusal skills to resist this type of negative pressure.

  Example of a scenario:

  Kyra usually rides her bicycle home. Today, as she is getting ready, Tamara says to her: "Come on Kyra, hurry up! It always takes you so long to get ready. We told the others that we would meet them at the ice cream parlor. It’s only three blocks away. You don’t need to wear your helmet!"

• Ask students to reflect on their own behaviours when they participate in sports activities (when they ride their bicycles, go to the beach, go boating with friends or family, go rollerblading, etc.):
  • Do the students always follow safety guidelines or safety rules when they participate in sports activities? (Initially, you might need to remind them of one or two specific situations that you witnessed and ask students if this has ever happened to them).
  • Can the students think of reasons why people do not follow safety guidelines and safety rules, even if they know them? Record their responses to develop a list of the factors which influence our actions in such situations.
  • Based on the list they generated, have students role play some situations where people do not follow safety rules or guidelines. Ask them to illustrate through their role playing the reasons why the person(s) did not follow safety rules, and the consequences of their actions.
• Invite students to do a "safety check" by keeping track of their own behaviours for a certain period of time.

Self-esteem

Note

Activities designed to foster self-esteem should help students develop a strong sense of who they are and help them acknowledge both their strengths and their weaknesses. It is important for students to understand that we have no control over certain things about ourselves. Then we should learn to accept ourselves the way we are and be proud of who we are. On the other hand, activities to foster self-esteem should also assist students in monitoring their own growth by setting realistic personal goals to change things over which they do have some control.

Grade Three

• Use a method such as concept attainment to help students define the meaning of the expression Being responsible: Describe various actions or behaviours (or use pictures) and for each of them, ask students if the people involved are being responsible or not responsible.
• Have students brainstorm a list of the responsibilities members of a family usually have. (Various stories provide a good starting point for discussing the topic of responsibilities in the family and could be used to introduce this brainstorming activity. Refer to English Language Arts: A bibliography for the Elementary Level for suggestions).
• Ask students who have older or younger siblings if all the children in their family have the same responsibilities. Do the students think that it is fair for children of different ages to have different responsibilities? Are there privileges that also come with age? Is it fair for children of different ages to have different privileges? Why or why not?
• Ask students to reflect on their own responsibilities at home. What are their responsibilities? Are they the same as the responsibilities they had when they were in Kindergarten? How do they feel about the changes in responsibilities? (Encourage students to reflect on both positive and less positive feelings).
• Have students respond to a case study such as the following:

  It is Saturday morning and Chandra is watching television. Her mother calls her: "Chandra! Did you do your chores this morning? It does not look like the plants have been watered yet... And the kitchen needs to be..." Chandra interrupts her mother and says that her friend Brittany gets an allowance for doing chores.

  Do the students think that it is fair for Chandra to ask for an allowance to do her chores? Why or why not? Discuss what would happen if all members of a family refused to do their part if they were not given an allowance.

• Have students identify the responsibilities of various members of a family in a story they read or in their favourite television show. Then have them compare these responsibilities with the responsibilities in their own families.
• Through examples in children’s literature, on television programs or in cartoons, discuss gender equity in responsibilities at home.
• Commercials often try to make us believe that by using certain products, our lives will be much simpler and we will be much happier. They offer quick and easy solutions. Have students analyze advertisements for products such as laundry detergents, cleaning products or food products. Students might compare themselves to the children represented in the commercials (children in commercials are often carefree, they come into the house holding skateboards dripping with mud, wearing extremely muddy footwear or wearing clothes with multiple and multicolored stains, they are famished and need to be fed right away, etc). Then students might compare the adults in the commercials to those in their families (on the commercials they watched and at home, who is expected to clean up when there is a big mess or who will have meals ready instantly when everyone is famished? Are those types of tasks performed instantly? How do the people who perform those tasks feel?) Finally, have students compare the effectiveness of the products featured in the commercials to their actual performance in "real life" (in reality, do you just toss a badly stained shirt into the washer, add the advertised detergent and get a shirt that looks as good as new within seconds? How long and how much work does it take to remove the stains from a stained carpet or a muddy kitchen floor?) Discuss how commercials tend to distort reality and how they influence our behaviours. You might also discuss how commercials tend to stereotype children and parents.
• Draw two columns on the chalkboard or on chart paper. Entitle them Teacher’s responsibilities and Students’ responsibilities. Ask students to list what they think would go under each title. Guide discussions and help students clarify their thoughts as needed. You might want to ask them questions such as "whose responsibility is it to make sure that we are safe in the classroom?" or "whose responsibility is it to make sure that students learn?"
• Use portfolios to help students identify their strengths and the accomplishments of which they are proud. Help students set goals for one area in which they would like to improve and design contracts or action plans for achieving their goals.

Social Relationships

Grade One

• Have students look at pictures of people and sort them according to how they think the people feel (the emotions they show through their facial expressions, their posture and gestures). Students might start by categorizing "good" (or positive) feelings and "bad" (or negative) feelings. Through discussion, help students identify more precisely the feelings portrayed in the pictures: joy, anger, sadness, jealousy, fear, frustration. Elicit comments and responses to this activity (how could students tell the feelings of the people on the pictures? Do they remember experiencing such feelings? In what circumstances?) Pictures might feature children in a variety of contexts, and interacting with a variety of people: with a parent on the first day of school, with a friend at the park, with a doctor or a nurse at the hospital, with siblings at home, with peers on the playground.
• Discuss how our emotions are often conveyed through other means than words.
• Have students dictate captions for some of the pictures they categorized, or imagine and dictate or write a short story based on a picture.
• Have students mime or do a tableau (refer to the drama strand of the Arts Education curriculum guide for more information on this technique) to represent the emotions people feel in various situations. Different students will probably portray different emotions for the same situation. This is an opportunity to discuss how people do not all react the same way to the same situation. Following are a few scenarios that might be used for this activity:
  • Your aunt Maggie just arrived and gives you a big hug.
  • You want to use the computer but Taï does not want to let you.
  • A dog is following you on the way to school.
  • Your grandpa tells you that you have grown so much since last summer.
  • Someone is calling you names.
  • Your best friend invites someone else for a sleepover and not you.
• Ask students to respond to a story by representing the feelings of some of the characters through mime or through a tableau.
• Ask students to say the same sentence in various ways, to convey various feelings. Discuss how we use intonation to let people know how we feel.
• Have students respond to text and illustrations in children’s literature, with questions such as:
  • How does the character feel?
  • What could he/she do?
  • What could he/she say?
  • Have you ever felt this way?
  • What do you do when you feel this way?
• Through stories, examples of real life situations, or case studies, discuss situations where students might have negative feelings in the classroom (e.g., a student is confused about the instructions given by the teacher; two students want the same book, crayon or toy; a student is shy when being asked to speak to the class). Ask the students to mime or role play different ways these situations could be handled, and discuss how the way the situation is handled impacts on students’ learning. Explain that you would like the classroom to be a good place for the students to learn. Ask if they can identify good ways to handle the situations discussed and have them practise these through role play, so that when similar situations actually occur, the students will feel good about being in this particular classroom.
• Use cooperative learning activities to teach listening skills and have students practise those skills: ask how you can tell that someone is listening. Record responses (e.g., a person who is listening might look at the person who speaks, might smile or nod, might avoid interrupting, might ask questions for clarification...)

Grade Two

• Have students read stories or watch videos featuring situations where a character’s words and actions have an impact on another character’s feelings (e.g., a grand parent comforts a child who had a disagreement with a friend; a child offers support to her best friend whose puppy is lost; a child bullies another; a child puts down a younger sibling). Invite students’ responses to the stories, then ask them to identify the words and actions that impacted on feelings, and to sort those according to two categories: "words and actions which hurt" and "words and actions which help". Discuss how the words we use can be powerful (they have consequences). In their journals, have students reflect on situations when they have been helped or hurt by someone’s words or actions. Ask students to brainstorm words and actions to add to the two categories. Students might also reflect on whether they themselves, use words which hurt or words which help.
• Set up a bulletin board highlighting situations when students were helped by others. Prepare forms (shaped like hearts for example) which students might complete by explaining who helped them, in what situation, and by using what words or doing what actions.
• Have students role play situations where they intervene to offer support to someone (e.g., a child is new to the school and is alone at recess).
• Students might go to a sports event and record words used by the spectators. These again might be recorded in two columns: "words which help" and "words which hurt". Discuss the short-term and long-term consequences of such words on the participants in the sports: how do they feel when they hear those words and how might they act as a result? Do the students think that these words might affect the immediate performance of the players? Could they affect their confidence in future games? Could they affect their confidence in other activities? If the comments were directed at individual team members, could they affect the relationships of the player with the other team members?
• Show illustrations or read stories in which characters have an experience that makes them feel sad, angry, jealous, hurt, etc. Have students respond to these by telling how they would help the characters if they were their friend.
• Have students respond to a case study where a child is being teased, bullied, or is a victim of prejudice. Ask students how they think the child feels. Ask them if they can think of ways someone could be a good friend and help that child (the "Think-Pair-Share" method might be used to help students generate answers). Then have students work in small groups to role play scenes featuring the victim, the perpetrators and a friend of the victim. Each small group might then complete a storyboard to depict visually how the situation started and was eventually resolved (pictures may be accompanied by titles or captions).

Grade Four

• Tell students that you would like them to think about the following question: "Has anyone done something friendly to you today or in the last few days?" Leave enough time for reflection, then ask students who answered yes to this question if they would like to tell the rest of the class about their "friendly deed" and how it made them feel. (A story about a friendly gesture might be read prior to this activity. Elicit responses with questions such as: which character from this story would you like to have as a friend? Why? What did that character say or do that makes you think he or she would be a good friend? Has anyone ever said or done to you something similar to what this character said or did?)
• Explain that words can be like presents and tell students that as a class, you are going to build a collection of words to use as presents that one can give to a friend. Start the collection by asking the students to brainstorm words or phrases they can recall. Record their responses. Then have them do a treasure hunt: ask them to record the words and phrases they see in the books they read, or hear on the television shows they watch or simply around them at school or at home. Encourage students to refer to this collection of words and phrases as they try to become better friends.
• Develop scenarios based on situations such as the ones below and ask students to think of ways a friend might help in these situations. Use the "Think-Pair-Share" method for this activity: first, have students write down their own list of ideas; then, ask them to share with a partner and combine their lists; finally, have each pair work with another to form groups of four and design posters with their top six solutions. Display the posters and discuss the various options suggested. (Take this opportunity to discuss the process used for generating a list of options and choosing the best ones: was it helpful to work with others and put individual ideas together?) Sample situations for this activity:
  • A child overhears a group of students pressuring one of his or her peers to try cheating on a test (or to try smoking a cigarette or drinking alcohol).
  • At the end of a relay race, a student is being put down by two members of the team who say he or she made the team lose the race.
  • A student has difficulty handling the stress of an upcoming test (or sports competition).
  • ...
• Discuss how negative peer pressure can be a source of stress and how friends can be helpful in such situations. Ask students what situations can be sources of stress for them and record their responses. Ask in what ways they think friendship can help reduce stress.
• Ask students to list the characteristics of a friend (what makes a person a good friend?) For this first step, ask them to work individually and to write down their list on a sheet of paper. Then ask students to share and combine their lists with a partner. Finally, have each pair join another to form groups of four and design a checklist featuring the top ten characteristics of a good friend (make sure that groups of four are heterogeneous, especially in terms of gender). Individually, have students reflect on themselves as a friend (they might start by rating themselves using the checklist that they helped design and record their thoughts in their journals). After this activity, discuss whether gender makes a difference in the characteristics of a friend: do boys who are good friends have different characteristics than girls who are good friends? When students joined partners to form pairs, and then groups, did they find that the lists of characteristics suggested by boys tended to be different from those generated by girls? If students observed a difference or just say they believe that there is a difference, challenge them to define the difference and discuss how this perception might be influenced by stereotypes.
• Have students practise being good friends by playing "Secret Pals" for a day: write the names of the students on strips of papers and have students draw the name of their "Secret Pals" from a hat. Students should say friendly words or do friendly deeds to their pals three times during that day. At the end of the day, have students identify their secret pals and share with the rest of the class only one of the friendly deeds (or words), choosing the one that they appreciated the most or found particularly significant.
• Have students identify one characteristic they would like to develop in order to become a better friend and design a plan to implement their decision.