A few days ago I had the great fortune of being Mr. Bear during a Class Meeting with Ms. Erika.  Mr. Bear is not just a hand puppet, he is a critical member of the 1st grade community.  His job is to join in during Class Meetings to talk about the challenges he is facing and the conflicts that he has to deal with each day.  Then, along with the help of the class, Mr. Bear is able to learn new strategies for independently resolving challenging situations.  Therefore, when asked if I would be willing to play the part of Mr. Bear for a Class meeting, I was more than delighted to take hold of this opportunity.

The challenge faced by Mr. Bear on this day was the fact that one of his classmates, Ms. Bunny (another puppet, orchestrated by Ms. Delgado on this day), made fun of the fact that his zipper was down.  When all of the other animals started laughing, Mr. Bear became really sad and had to find a way to share his feelings with Ms. Bunny and resolve the situation.  Thankfully, Mr. Lion (played by Ms. Erika) was able to help Mr. Bear navigate this conflict by expressing his feelings directly and respectfully and encouraging Ms. Bunny to empathetically listen to those concerns.

The objective of this role play activity was for the children to internalize a process to help them resolve conflicts.  The process being explicity taught was quite simple in the sense that it requires the first person to say how they feel and why.  The role of the other party is to listen actively, not interrupt and take responsibility for his/her actions before starting to present different justifcations.

As part of the learning that takes place each day, we place a high level of emphasis on the importance of social and emotional growth.  We encourage children to find peaceful and proactive ways to address problems with an increasing level of independence and understanding as time goes on.  In many ways, these types of lessons are the most important ones of the school year because they are aimed at building the social skills necessary to build successful relationships throughout life.