Make a Rainbow Bulletin Board

Procedures

1. Ask students to think of three helpful things they have done recently in the classroom. Help students by giving them examples, such as:
   • "I don't hit people."
   • "I help people who need help."
   • "I put the puppets away."
2. Give each child three different colored strips of paper.
3. Help students to write their three helpful behaviors on the strips of paper, putting one sentence on each strip.
4. Arrange the strips like a rainbow and mount them on a bulletin board.
5. Once the bulletin board is up, point out that there are many talents in the room and many ways people contribute to the classroom community. Add that everyone has something to share with the class and when all of those different things are put together the classroom is like a rainbow.
6. Conduct a class discussion using the following questions:
   • When you look at the rainbow, do you get any new ideas about positive ways to behave?
   • Why is it helpful when everybody tries to make the classroom a place of peace?
   • Even though we have many people trying their best to be helpful, we still have problems we need to solve. What are some of those problems?
   • How could we solve them?
7. Older students can set "caring goals". For each caring activity they write on a strip of paper, they can also write a caring goal. For example "I don't call people names" might be followed by "I will try to argue less during games." Encourage goals that are specific and measurable.