Teaching Guide:
Bullying & Teasing
for grades K-5
This page is from the teaching guide for the video "Groark Learns about Bullying" in the video series Getting Along with Groark featuring the Popcorn Park Puppets™. Even if you aren't showing this video there is a lot of useful material here you can use to create a lesson. Feel free to modify it to suit your needs.
HOW NOT TO BE
A BULLY
Sometimes it is difficult to know what is or is not bullying. Often, actions start out just being fun, but may at some point actually turn into bullying. If you are not sure whether something has become bullying, stop and think and ask yourself these questions:
Are my actions or words hurting someone else's feelings?
Are my actions or words hurting someone else physically or making that person feel afraid?
Would I want someone else to do this to me?
Am I unfairly taking my anger out on someone?
Am I trying to control someone against his or her will?
EDUCATIONAL
GOALS
CHILDREN LEARN:
• To recognize different forms of bullying behavior—in themselves as well as in others.
• What's wrong with being a bully.
• Why they should never participate in bullying situations.
Nubbs calls Groark a bully.
Groark is playing with his friends when two of them start teasing and picking on a third one (Nubbs). As the situation escalates Groark gets drawn in, and, before he realizes it, Groark is picking on his best friend. When Nubbs goes off crying, Groark doesn't understand what happened until he learns from a group of real children how he and the others were being bullies, and how hurtful that was to the victim. Groark returns to the playground, convinces the other kids that they have been cruel and unfair, and together they make peace with Nubbs.
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Color these characters!
Click on the Popcorn Park Puppets below to get blackline masters you can print out for your children to color.
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
If you are using the video, ask the first two questions before viewing.
1. What is a bully?
2. Can someone be a bully without meaning to be?
3. The kids in the discussion part of the video said Groark was being a bully. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
4. What's the difference between bullying and just fooling around?
5. Which of these is bullying (and why)?
• Making fun of somebody's looks.
• Chasing away younger kids when they want to play on the swings.
• Accidentally bumping into someone in the hall.
• Calling people names because of the color of their skin.
• Making the other kids play the game your way.
• Teasing someone about the clothes he/she wears.
• Telling someone that the hat he's wearing doesn't look good on him.
• A group of kids won't let you sit with them at lunch even though there's room.
• Telling someone that he or she is not being nice.
• Joking with people by "putting them down".
6. When does something become bullying?
7. What can be done to stop bullying at school?
8. What did you learn from this video?
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STUDENT ACTIVITIES
1. Using some of the bullying situations listed in the discussion section (above), have the kids role play or use puppets to act out effective ways to handle those situations.
2. Have each child write down a bullying situation on a piece of paper. For younger children, list different situations on the board. Discuss ways to handle the situations without fighting. Have the kids role play or use puppets to act out these situations.
3. Have the children create a mural showing various situations at school where bullying takes place. Have them draw cartoon word balloons or thought balloons showing what the characters would be saying or thinking if they were handling those situations effectively.
4. Read aloud stories where bullying behavior is demonstrated and discuss how the characters handle the situation. Decide how the story would be changed if the situation were handled differently.
5. Select some students to act as "roving reporters". During recess, lunch or another selected period of time, have them observe, record, and tabulate how many different situations, dialogues, or actions demonstrated bullying behaviors. Have them report to the class and then discuss the results.
6. Have a brainstorming session to come up with ideas for how to prevent bullying behavior at your school. Put these ideas into a booklet and pass it out to the other students.
WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
1. For younger children, following recess or lunchtime, have students
identify, without using names, situations they observed where bullying
behavior occurred. List these situations on a chart with the date. Discuss
how the situations could be handled better. Continue this each day for
a week and have children observe if there are any changes in the number
of bullying situations or how they are handled.
For older students, have each student keep a journal to record bullying situations he or she observes each day. These can be discussed as a group on a daily or weekly basis. For the class, a chart can also be kept tabulating the number of incidences observed over a period of time to see if there are any changes.
2. Have students create pictures showing how to handle different bullying situations. These pictures can then be compiled into a book with titles for each page or section. Older children can create their own cartoon books individually or in groups.
3. Have students write letters to Groark giving him suggestions on how to handle other bullying situations he might encounter. For younger children this can be done as a group with the teacher writing down the ideas given by the students and having the children draw pictures to accompany the letter.
4. Write a letter to an imaginary bully, telling this person what he or she is doing that you don't like, why you don't like it, and how you want this person to behave instead.
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HOME ASSIGNMENTS
To enlist the involvement of parents, make copies of the "For Parents" block (see below) and send them home with the children. Tell the children to discuss the video with their parents, and to perform the following activities.
1. Take home Groark's How Not to be a Bully checklist (from the top of this column) and post it in a place where your family can see it. Discuss it with your parents or other adult family members.
2. Ask family members to share with you bullying situations they may have experienced when they were your age. Discuss how those situations were handled and what happened because of them. How did they feel about them?
3. Illustrate through a poem, story or picture the feelings of the "bully" and the feelings of the "victim" in a bullying situation.
4. Pick one television program and watch it with your family. Afterward, have a family discussion about things people did in the program that were examples of bullying behavior. Make a list of these examples.
(Copy this block and send it home to the parents.)
FOR PARENTS
Dear Parent,
Your child is learning some valuable skills which will help him or her get along well with others, solve conflicts peacefully, and avoid violent situations.
The current lesson is about bullying. We have shown your child a video entitled "Groark Learns about Bullying", which presents a puppet show and discussion about what bullying is and how to be sure we don't ever bully others.
Here are some things you can do to help your child become more aware
of bullying behaviors:• Ask your child to tell you about the video program and what he or she learned from it.
• Discuss with your child what bullying is and what kinds of behaviors demonstrate bullying.
• As you watch television with your child, help him or her identify language, dialogue, or actions that demonstrate bullying behavior, such as "put downs" in comedy shows.
• As your child deals with bullying situations at home or school, be open to discussing ways in which he or she can safely handle those situations. Discuss how to avoid bullying situations.
• Help your child become sensitive to his or her own behaviors or language that may be of a bullying nature as he or she deals with siblings or friends.
