Awareness+Backpack

Awareness Backpack Lesson: Our Burden Created by: Mr. Hageter

Goals: Students will be more aware of the issues and struggles facing their classmates. Students will demonstrate acts of kindness to their classmates.

Standards Addressed: - 3A Student demonstrates awareness of other people’s emotions and perspectives. - 3B Student demonstrates consideration for others and a desire to positively contribute to their community.

Materials / Tools / Resources: - This lesson is an extension of Connected and Respected Grade 3 lesson2 - Back pack - Books, markers, etc. to add to pack

Instructional Sequence:

Background – I recently taught a lesson as an extension to the put-up/put-down lesson in Connected and Respected. In that lesson the teacher tears a piece of Maria’s heart for each put-down she experiences throughout the day. I felt my students needed another visual with examples of their own burdens.

First we discussed what a burden is, and that we all come to school with a burden. I then called on a volunteer to bear our burdens. As students told me of the things that burden them, I loaded up the backpack. I loaded the backpack with heavier items for the heavier burdens such as death in the family, divorce, etc. I then asked the student with the pack to go to his seat and prepare for math. He started to his seat and I asked what he was thinking of, and he said the weight of the pack. I asked my students how they could help him. Initially the students said they could “solve his problems”, but I pointed out that we couldn’t solve a problem such as a friend or parent dying. Students eventually said they could encourage the student, help him with his work, be a friend, etc. As they came up with ways to help, we lightened the load by having each student with an idea or act of kindness help bear the load. We didn’t remove the weight, because the burden was still there.

After the demonstration, we discussed how are words and interactions with one another can affect our burdens. Kind words lighten the load, while unkind words and actions add to the burden. Eventually our unkind actions and words can be too much to handle and we can break- displayed as a shutting down, crying, or fighting.

The next day, as part of our family meeting, we named something in our backpack that day.(Suggested by Ann Bryson) The kids really opened up and showed empathy for their classmates.

To further increase acts of kindness, each student will take turns carrying the pack for a day. As acts of kindness are noticed, the pack will be lightened. My hope is that my class will start looking past their own burden and see that of those around them.