Teachers Guide - Operation Respect

Plan Caring Acts (15 minutes)
• Explain the next assignment: For the next period of time (give deadline), students will be
like roving reporters, “catching” incidences of kindness, cooperation, and caring that
happen at school or documenting actions of caring they themselves perform. All children
should write about the act of caring they performed or witnessed. They can also illustrate
the examples with artwork they create, or though photos or video if you can give students
access to a few cameras or a video camera.
Note: The Children’s Conscious Acts of Caring projects are due the day you’ve scheduled
for the last activity of this project, “You Are Powerful, We Are More Powerful” (page 81).
• Play secret pals: Put the name of each child in your classroom in a hat and have children
anonymously pick the name of a child from the hat. They need to do something kind for
this child before the end of that day—without anyone finding out who did it. The next
morning children can share the act of caring they received and try to guess who their secret
pal is.
Close Together (5 minutes)
• (Optional) Sing “If I Had a Hammer” and “Light One Candle” with the song CD.
• Close the session by having all the students stand in a circle holding hands. Start the
“electricity” by squeezing the hand of the person on your right. That person passes it on by
squeezing the hand on her right. After the pulse has gone through the circle, go around a
second time with a more difficult pattern (for example, do two short squeezes, or a long
one followed by a short one). Kindness—like the “electricity” in this activity—is infectious.
So pass it on!
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS (OPTIONAL)
Language Arts. Swimmy by Leo Lionni (Knopf Children’s Paperback, 1996) provides a great
launching point for discussion about teamwork and cooperation vs. competition. Or build
students’ vocabulary by creating a glossary with definitions for new words such as caring,
compassion, kindness, etc., as they come up in the program. For an example of such a glossary
contact CharacterPlus at 800-478-5684 or find it online at info.csd.org/staffdev/chared/Process/
examples/words.html
Media Literacy. What do superheroes teach us about cooperation vs. competition? What
messages do they send about using force rather than peaceful cooperation to get what we need?
Challenge students to create a superhero who draws power from his ability to cooperate so
well!
Art. Break students into groups of four to do cooperative art activities. Each group will create
one piece of art that addresses one of the following questions (they can choose): If kindness
were an animal, what animal would it be (make one up)? If kindness were a superhero, what
superhero would she be (make one up)? What does kindness look like?
Music. If you have percussion instruments available, have students pick an instrument and,
while you play a song on the CD, join in one instrument at a time (whenever they feel ready to
join the group). Give everyone a few minutes to become acquainted with their percussion
instruments before beginning.
Children’s Conscious Acts of Caring
Atlantis Elementary School in Cocoa, Florida, has a yearly tradition of “Random Acts of Kindness
Week.” One year they made a chain during this week, with each link representing a child’s act
of kindness. Another year they collected toiletries for the 900 foster children in the community.
Caring, Compassion, and Cooperation © 2000 Operation Respect, Inc. and Educators for Social Responsibility 39