First Grade Guidance

First Grade Guidance

The Crayon Box That Talked

Because I loved the crayon activity with the kindergarten, I wanted to find a way to make it age appropriate for first grade as well. I love the message students get from reading "The Crayon Box That Talked" mainly because there are several different messages kids can get it out of it. Whether it is kindness, tolerance, or finding beauty in being unique, I love the different messages that can be told from reading "The Crayon Box That Talked". 

With first grade, I used the book to teach tolerance and appreciating our own and others' uniqueness. 

I started the lesson by reading "Crayon Box That Talked"

As we read the book, I asked questions along the way. Questions including:

• Does it sound like our crayons are getting along?
• Why might they not be getting along?
• Did they begin to work together?
• What happened when they crayons worked together?

After the story, we continued to discuss questions like:

• Are we like the crayons in the story?
• What happens when we don't get along like the crayons?
• Is it okay to be different like the crayons?
• What would it be like if we could only use 1 color from our crayon box?
• What happens when we get along even though we are different? 

I must say, I was REALLY impressed by the first graders with this lesson. They did a fabulous job of telling me how it's okay to be unique and different and how working together makes things "way more fun". 

I then gave the students a writing and drawing activity sheet. I found a great set of writing activities from TPT at The Bubbly Blonde Store. 

Link to store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Bubbly-Blonde

The activity sheet has a place for them to draw a picture of themselves with a writing prompt "I am SPECIAL..."

Again, the first graders did an excellent job with this activity! They wrote great examples of what makes them unique and special just like the crayons from the story.