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Citizenship Project: Buddy Bench

Grade Kindergarten

Lesson date November 4th-5th

Lesson time 1 hour/day

Objective(s) Students will participate in whole group discussions and activities

Students will be able to recall events from the story and describe
how the actions related to kindness/empathy

Students will learn about the importance of standing up for others

who are not being treated fairly, or with kindness

Students will actively participate in academic language building

using GLAD strategies → guided instruction, scouts, inquiry
charts, (vocabulary of the day: kindness, empathy)

Standard(s) Common Core Standards:

- We can actively participate in group and independent
instruction with purpose and understanding

RL.K.7​ With prompting and support, describe the relationship

between illustrations and the story in which they appear (e.g., what
moment in a story an illustration depicts).

AC.K-2.16​ Students will express empathy when people are

excluded or mistreated because of their identities and concern
when they themselves experience bias.

California Standards for the Teaching Profession (CSTP):

Standard 1.4​ → Using a variety of instructional strategies,
resources, and technologies to meet students’ diverse learning
needs
Standard 2.6​ → Employing classroom routines, procedures, norms,
and supports for positive behavior to ensure a climate in which all
students can learn

Accomodations Visuals with written words, guided practice (SMART board),

repetition, variety of learning modalities (kinesthetic, auditory, and
visual)

Materials - Read aloud book: ​Have You Filled a Bucket Today?

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- Kimochi (Cloudy)
- Kimochi feelings
- Kimochi feelings worksheet to color
- Scissors
- Glue
- Paint (for teacher use)
- “Let’s Find Out” reading: ​Can I play?
- Crayons
- Bench to put poster on outside

Procedure (Steps) DAY 1:

1. Students will be seated on the carpet with “Big eyes, big
direct instruction, guided ears, brain turned on, and mouth closed” (we say this
instruction, and together as a class using hand motions as well- there is also
independent practice a visual up on the board with pictures to match the words)
2. Read aloud - ​Have You Filled a Bucket Today? ​Throughout
story ask comprehension questions. At the end of the story
students recall events from the story and ways we can be
kind to others
3. Teacher introduces the idea of a “Buddy Bench” and asks
the students how we can use our new buddy bench at recess
to spread kindness and empathy to others
4. Students will share ideas and teacher will write ideas on
chart titled “Ways WE can spread kindness to others”
5. Students will go to desks and one person from each table
will get the Kimochi worksheet from the teacher and pass it
out to their table
6. As a whole class, go through each image on the page and
ask students what they think the feelings are by looking at
the facial expression.
7. Guided color - teacher and students are having a discussion
about the feelings as they are coloring and teacher is posing
questions: “If someone is feeling upset, how could you
cheer them up?”
8. Teacher will ask, “How do you feel when someone asks
you to play?” - Students will cut out the feeling that they
are going to choose and hold it up.
9. Students will then take this feeling to the back table and
have a turn throughout the day to glue their feeling on the
buddy bench poster/add their handprint
DAY 2:
1. Students will watch a video that is related to the following
activity (​Let’s FInd Out ​reading)
2. Students will look through the reading and “butter up” their
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sight words
3. Guided Instruction: teacher will read aloud with class/will
point to each word while reading
4. Independent Practice: students read independently at their
own pace while pointing to the words as they read
5. BUDDY BENCH IMPLEMENTATION! Students had the
chance to go outside and practice using the buddy bench.
They were working on asking others to play, checking on
someone when they were feeling upset, and showing
kindness to those students who are feeling excluded

Closure Students listened to a read aloud about working together and

communication: ​When Pencil Met Eraser ​written by ​Karen
Kilpatrick and Luis O. Ramos, Jr.

Assessment Formative:
- comprehension questions during read alouds
- anecdotal notes during independent practice
- observation during recess

Rubric ✓1 Standard not met

✓2 approaching standard
★3 Met standard
★4 Exceeded standard → extended their learning (students who
finish early can add sight word sentences on the back of their
book. example: “I can be kind by…”)

Next Steps Continue to use Buddy Bench throughout the weeks

Follow up with students and see how they have been using the
bench and how it has been making them feel

Reflection of Lesson

Positives

What I will change for

next time
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Anecdotal Record Sheet

Citizenship Project: Buddy Bench

Name Oral Participation Understanding key Independent

(during whole class concepts/applying Practice: reading &
instruction on knowledge from touching words (+),
carpet/outside) activities using picture cues to
figure out words (/),
not reading (X)

Diya

Julian

Noah

Parissa

Lucas

Medha

Nachiketa

SriVeda

Zackery

Riaan

Adam

Oliva

AnnaBelle

Isiah

Caleb

Audrey

Pratheek

Arjun

Kayla
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Vivaan

Kritika

Stephen

Arya

Arman