On Tuesday, November 11th, we held a Third Grade Parent Night.  The discussion for the evening centered around guiding children through the developmental stages of social skills. Presentations included what we do in the Lower School to enhance these skills and what Michael Thompson has to say in his book Best Friends, Worst Enemies about the topic.  An extremely valuable part of the evening came from the small group discussions that the parents had after reading the chapter entitled, "What Parents Can Do."

One of the best points that evolved was the difference between popularity and friendship. Popularity is determined by others' judgement of you.  It is not something parents can guarantee for a child.  It also comes and goes as the children who are popular one month may not be during another month.  Popularity does not necessarily make you a kind or empathetic person and it often has the opposite affect on a child.

Being a good friend is a whole different story.  Every child can devop the skills to be a good friend.  They can learn how to be assertive but empathetic.  They can learn to look out for others who are being left out.  These are the skills we are trying to teach in our Lower School.  We spend a great deal of time incorporating these skills into our lessons and literature.

Presently, outside the 2nd grade rooms are some marvelous projects that illustrate how we incorporate friendship into our curriculum.  These projects were the culmination of the 2nd grade unit on Friendship.  Each child had to read two books at home during their leisure reading time.  Both books were chosen from a list compiled by Nancy Lage, the librarian, and the 2nd grade homeroom teachers, Melanie Baier and Anne Scalia.  From all of the characters they met during their reading, they had to choose the one they would best like to have as a friend and write why they felt that way about the character.  Then they wrote a creative piece about an imaginary day with this character.

Finally, they were able to come up with an art project that represented their character.  There was a wonderful variety of modes the children used to represent this character.  They displayed their art project while they read their story to the class and then the projects were placed in the hall for all of us to share.

We have talked a lot over the years about how children learn, the different modalities each child prefers, and how to differentiate our curriculum.  I think this assignment epitomizes how we differentiate and integrate our curriculum.  Children read books at all levels, though all were centered around friendship.  They used both their higher level critical thinking and analytical skills when they had to defend the character they chose, and then their creativity was tapped as they imagined the day they would spend with the character.  By letting each child choose how they would like to depict their character, each student was able to work with their own strengths as they created the image of a character from their book.

Finally, for those who like to present in front of a class, as well as for those who need the practice, each child was expected to read their story to their classmates.  All of this curriculum related to developing the skills needed to be a good friend.  What a wonderful experience for each of them!