Do Unto Otters

Nope! That's not a typo! As I mentioned in an earlier post, our school is working hard to become recognized a school of character. A few weeks ago we had some teachers from the Kirkwood School District come to observe the great things that we are putting into place here at Plattin! Quite an honor! I decided to use the book, Do Unto Otters, to teach my lesson.  Do Unto Otters is about  Mr. Rabbit who learns he is about to have new neighbors: OTTERS!  He is very concerned if they will get along and he doesn't know just what to do.  Mr. Owl comes along and shares some wise advice with him, telling him to treat otters the way you want to be treated!  Mr. Rabbit shares all of the ways he would like to be treated. The kids loved the book with all of the cute pictures and jokes throughout!

To get the students predicting what they think the book would be about and grab their attention, I showed the trailer from You Tube.  Find it here. After reading the book, we created a T-chart labeled, "I wanted others to..." and "So I will..."  The students easlily could come up with ways they wanted to be treated.  On a second day to review the concept, I showed another video from You Tube.  It shows an animated part from the book.  Check it out here.  Students also drew pictures to show how they wanted to be treated and how they planned to treat others.  Since it's at the beginning of the year, I wrote for the students. 

"The Blue Jay Way" is our overarching term we use for our expectations in various parts of the school such as hallway behavior, classroom behavior, etc. 
To get these activities and the sign I used to hang with our display in the hall, click on the image below.