The other night my daughter and I were watching the slopestyle snowboarding event at the Olympics. All of a sudden she looked at me and asked, "Mommy, why aren't you in the Olympics?" After laughing out loud and explaining to her that I didn't know how to snowboard, she boldly proclaimed, "I am going to be in the Olympics." It quickly brought me back to the now famous story of the Seahawk's quarterback Russell Wilson whose father used to say, "Why not you, Russell?" I get chill bumps every time I hear that story and think about the goals that could be reached if every child had parents who saw limitless possibilities for their child and urged them to dream big.
I grew up excitedly watching the winter and summer Olympics and even had the privilege of going to the 1998 Olympics in Atlanta where the indelible image of Michael Johnson's gold track shoes on the Jumbotron will forever be etched in my memory. I LOVE everything the Olympics stand for ---hard work, self-discipline, goal setting, perseverance; the list goes on and on. So, it was only fitting that I created a lesson incorporating the Olympics to go along with the character trait of FAIRNESS for my first graders this month.
I started out with my multiple choice pre-survey to find out how many students already knew the definition of fairness.
HINT: C is the correct answer!!! My big emphasis for this lesson is for kids to realize that FAIR DOES NOT ALWAYS MEAN EQUAL.
After the pre-survey, I made a big deal of showing a bag of M&Ms I brought and telling the class I was only going to give one to students wearing red (or yellow or just girls...whatever your whim). You can imagine how quickly students started exclaiming that "it wasn't fair" that some kids got M&Ms and others didn't. We then had a discussion about how no one had earned the M&Ms and how you didn't really NEED M&Ms to live so I was simply favoring some kids over others, which made the have-nots feel bad. Then, I pulled out some Band-aids and asked if anyone needed a Band-Aid. If you have ever been in a first grade class, you know there is ALWAYS someone who needs a Band-Aid. After giving my "injured" child a Band-Aid, I started passing them out to every student and innocently asked, "Don't I need to give everyone a Band-aid just like the M&Ms?" Of course, the students said no because they didn't need them, and I re-emphasized that everyone doesn't always need the same thing.
We then applied these discussions to FAIRNESS at school, at home, at recess, and on the playing field and brainstormed specific strategies students could use to show FAIRNESS in these locations. Every class had their own ideas but sharing, taking turns, including everyone, doing your job, helping out, and good sportsmanship were all recurring ideas among my first graders.
Next, we really focused on FAIRNESS in teamwork and I incorporated my Olympic theme. I had made a paper torch as a prop and embedded Bugler's Dream into my Smartboard slide (play it and you'll recognize it!).
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Then, we watched and discussed two video clips showing different sides of FAIRNESS and TEAMWORK. I took them old school on the second one! Unfortunately, I can't embed the actual Mighty Ducks clip I used because it was a DVD. It was the part of Mighty Ducks where Coach Bombay tries to get Charlie to cheat, and he says he won't.
Finally, I gave the kids a written sheet I created for a work product. In teams, they colored in the Olympic rings and added hair and facial features to make it look like a person. Then, they added the FAIRNESS strategies they had brainstormed earlier for recess, home, school, and sports teams inside the rings. Each team completed one paper and used teamwork strategies while working together. Once I'm done presenting the lesson to all my first grade classes I am going to make a bulletin board to share it with others. Visit my Life on the Fly Store to get a copy of the PDF sheet emailed for free. Enjoy and Happy Counseling! ~ Angela
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