4/15/2018 Stand Up to Bullying | Scholastic

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Lindsey Petlak
GRADES

3–5
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Face-to-face, cyberspace, and everywhere in

between, bullying is a real issue in todayâs
youth culture. October is Bullying Prevention
Awareness Month
(http://www.stopbullying.gov/), and we need
to bring that awareness into our classrooms
so that our students are UPstanders and not
BYstanders, bullies, or targets. My school has
participated in and provided some awesome
activities and resources for bullying
awareness, and Iâve combed through tons of
online resources to try and curate a
collection of tools for you to use in your
classroom for Bully Prevention Awareness.
 

 
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4/15/2018 Stand Up to Bullying | Scholastic

Our School Efforts

(http://www.scholastic.com/home/)

Itâs great to see our school taking such a

proactive stand on bullying prevention and
awareness. We have banded together with
our other district schools and the
community as a whole to create
opportunities for bullying awareness beyond
just the month of October. Below are a few
of our most successful efforts thus far
(teacher-tested, kid-approved).

School-wide Stickers: For the month of

October, our school provided stickers
for all students to wear to show their
support for and remind students to be
aware of and prevent bullying.

Wear Blue: To kick off our month of

awareness, everyone wore blue to
support bullying awareness and
prevention (including staff). It makes
quite an impact when everyone is
banding together in an effort like this,
even though wearing the same color
and/or stickers are very simple gestures.

Student Pledge: Throughout our school,

the anti-bullying pledge is displayed on
poster-sized signs, in both English and
Spanish. Different grade level students
(grades 3-5) take turns leading the
school in the bullying awareness pledge
daily during announcements. The rest of
the students say the pledge from their
classes along with the announcers.
Again, this shows a unified front towards
this effort.

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Meaningful Musical:  Our Golden Apple

award-winning 
(https://twitter.com/CPelleLucci)music
teacher
(https://twitter.com/CPelleLucci) is
amazing, and she makes her musical
performances meaningful and relevant
beyond just the tunes kids are singing
and dance moves being performed. One
year, the entire fourth grade worked
hard to learn, practice, and perform a
musical centering on the topic of
rumors, focusing on how rumors start,
spread, and HURT. Students were
reminded to T.H.I.N.K. before saying
things to/about others.

(http://www.pinterest.com/pin/67342956903491253/)

See the
poster to
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/lindsey-petlak/stand-bullying/ 3/24
4/15/2018 Stand Up to Bullying | Scholastic

the left to
(http://www.scholastic.com/home/)
discover
what
T.H.I.N.K.
stands for
and to
access a
FREE
printable
(http://www.pinterest.com/pin/6
(courtesy of
Pinterest). 
The
performance
was
amazing,
and we still
reference
the
messages
taken from
the musical
today when
we speak of
these
topics.

Metaphors
were used
to
symbolically
illustrate
the effects
of rumors.
Feathers
represented
how rumors

spread
quickly and
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4/15/2018 Stand Up to Bullying | Scholastic

can never
(http://www.scholastic.com/home/)
be fully
taken back.
Fire and
swords
represented
how words
can hurt
and cut
others.
Using visual
TEACHERS symbols for
the
discussions
about
actions and
feelings
really
helped the
students
relate to the
concepts.

See another GREAT musical message about

bullying prevention from young artist, Mike
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/lindsey-petlak/stand-bullying/ 5/24
4/15/2018 Stand Up to Bullying | Scholastic

Tompkins. CLICK HERE

(http://www.scholastic.com/home/)
(http://youtu.be/begg0NKhiK8) to see the
video and sing along. Your kids will LOVE it!
Stand Up to Bullying Assembly: We had
a great anti-bullying assembly
(http://www.mobileedproductions.com/stronger-
than-a-bully/) for our entire school.
While you may not have the opportunity
for an assembly on this topic at your
school, I wanted to share two acronyms
used in the assembly that help students
remember important info about
bullying.
If YOU are being bullied, remember
to S.M.I.L.E: Stay cool, Make eye
contact (take a positive posture),
Identify the attack (verbal, physical,
extorting, cyber, etc), Lead positive
conversation, Erase the attack.

If you WITNESS bullying, you can

be a H.E.R.O: Help out (get
involved), Empathize (identify with
the victim), Respond with proper
action and report the incident.
Open communication (talk about it
with the victim).

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4/15/2018 Stand Up to Bullying | Scholastic

(http://www.scholastic.com/home/)

(http://www.mobileedproductions.com/stronger-
than-a-bully/)
 

Words HURT Activity:

We have a Structured Teaching Education
Program (STEP) at our school. These
amazing teachers do great awareness
presentations in our classrooms to support
inclusion of students from the STEP program
within the general education setting. As part
of this and other activities led by our
awesome STEP teachers, they have students
participate in an amazing activity that I
wanted to share so that you could recreate it
with your own students. You only need a few
items, and itâs super simpleâ¦.but even more
impactful.

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Materials:
Body outline document. CLICK HERE
(https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-
3t5OPYfKIRZ2VzWnI0QThsT2c/view?
usp=sharing) to download or have your
students lie down on butcher paper and
trace their own bodies

Pencil, pen, marker, crayons, or other

writing tools (your choice!)

Assorted bandaids

Directions:  There are many different ways to

complete this activity. The instructions
below are basic, so feel free to modify and
enhance as you wish!
1)   Copy enough of the body papers for
each student to have one.

2)   As a class, you can brainstorm

hurtful words/phrases people use and
write them on the board (or not,
optional).

3)   Students write the hurtful

words/phrases all over the blank body
of their activity page.
4)   Cut out the body.

5)   Once the body is evenly filled with

hurtful words and cut out, instruct
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4/15/2018 Stand Up to Bullying | Scholastic

students that they are to TEAR the paper

body in each(http://www.scholastic.com/home/)
place where a hurtful
word/phrase is written (only one tear
per phrase, donât tear every single word
in a phrase).

6)   Once students are finished, they will

have a body that is ripped in several
places.
7)   Pass out Band-aids to students or
tables of students.
8)   Tell them to piece their paper body
back together, attaching the ripped
parts with Band-aids. You can have
them say things like âIâm sorry,â or âI
wonât do it again,â as they repair the
paper body.
9)   In the end the body will end up
whole againâ¦but never the same. The
message is that the âwoundsâ and
âscarsâ left behind by the cutting,
ripping words cannot ever truly be taken
back and can leave long-lasting
effectsâ¦even if the person who has said
them apologizes.

Use Literature to
Connect:

Especially in elementary grades, connecting

emotional issues and social situations like
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/lindsey-petlak/stand-bullying/ 9/24
4/15/2018 Stand Up to Bullying | Scholastic

bullying to picture books is a powerful tool.

(http://www.scholastic.com/home/)
This takes an abstract, sensitive, and often
confusing topic, and makes it tangible and
relatable. Below are some books that I have
found to be fabulous for teaching the
social/emotional topics of self-identity,
confidence, acceptance, and bullying. For
even MORE books, check out my Pinterest
board, "Stand Up to Bullying."
(http://www.pinterest.com/lpetlak/stand-up-
to-bullying/)

(http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/top-
teaching/2013/09/me-myself-and-i-
identity-themed-common-core-ela-
unit)For more academic extensions on
the topic of identity, self-confidence,
and diversity, check out my past post
(https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-
posts/lindsey-petlak/me-myself-and-i-
identity-themed-common-core-ela-
unit/) featuring a unit from our
classroom!

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/lindsey-petlak/stand-bullying/ 10/24
4/15/2018 Stand Up to Bullying | Scholastic

(http://www.scholastic.com/home/)

(https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-
posts/lindsey-petlak/me-myself-and-i-
identity-themed-common-core-ela-unit/)
 

âPINâ it to Bullying:
In case youâre new to my blogâ¦.I L-O-V-E
Pinterest and collect so many teaching ideas
on that social media outlet. When searching
for ways to spruce up my bully
awareness/prevention lessons, I naturally hit
up Pinterest for inspiring ideas. Iâve created
a âStand Up to Bullyingâ board
(http://www.pinterest.com/lpetlak/stand-up-
to-bullying/) with a plethora of ideas and
resources pinned therein. If youâd like to

add pins to this board, please do! Just leave

a comment with your Pinterest handle or
https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/blog-posts/lindsey-petlak/stand-bullying/ 11/24
4/15/2018 Stand Up to Bullying | Scholastic

email address and Iâll add you to the board.

We can collaborate(http://www.scholastic.com/home/)
on bully prevention and
awareness togetherâ¦and thatâs powerful.
Check out the board
(http://www.pinterest.com/lpetlak/stand-up-
to-bullying/) for my pins thus far. 

(http://www.pinterest.com/lpetlak/stand-up-
to-bullying/)

What bullying prevention/awareness

activities do you and your school
implement? I'd love for you to share!
Contact me to contribute to the bullying
Pinterest board, or share your ideas in
the comments below!

Thanks for reading and see you next

week!

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4/15/2018 Stand Up to Bullying | Scholastic

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Watch an exclusive video

with Taylor Swift

(http://www.scholastic.com/taylorswift/)about
books and how reading and writing have
influenced her.

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