In ACES this year, the junior kindergarten will be doing activities from the Sanford Harmony Curriculum.

The first unit is Diversity and Inclusion: In this unit we will meet “Z” an alien who has landed on Earth and doesn’t know much about kids on here.  Throughout the curriculum, the students will listen to stories and do activities that promote getting along and being a good friend with the premise of teaching these concepts to “Z.”

Unit one includes:

• Getting to know one another

  • Students will be able to share information about themselves to the class and recall information they learned about peers.

  • They know that friends are important and getting to know one another helps up understand one another and get along.

• Discovering commonalities

  • Students will be able to identity things they have in common with peers

  • They know that having things in common means there are things the same about us and that getting to know one another helps us discover things we have in common

• Learning from Diversity

  • Students will be able to name reasons why diversity is beneficial

  • They know that diversity means everyone is a little bit different, and no one is exactly the same.

  • Diversity makes everyone unique and interesting

  • They know that we can learn new things from one another and that having respect for someone means we think good things about them and treat them kindly.

• Building Community

  • Students will be able to reflect on what it means to be a community and identify their classroom as a community

  • They will know that community is a group of people who have something in common or do things with one another

  • When you belong to a community we are part of a group and that everyone in the class belongs to the classroom community

Unit two: Empathy and Critical Thinking

• Recognizing Feelings
  

  • Learners learn to identify and demonstrate the physical signs of different emotions.

  • Learners discuss how various emotions look, sound, and feel, and then practice demonstrating different emotions in a game.

• Predicting Feelings

  • Learners discuss how to think ahead and predict emotions that might result from a given situation, and then practice predicting how they might feel in different situations.

• Explaining Feelings

  • Learners discuss how you can think back to what happened first or looking for situational cues in order to understand reasons for someone's feelings, and brainstorm reasons that people can have different feelings.

• Having Empathy

  • Learners discuss what it means to have empathy for someone, and sing about ways to show empathy and caring to someone in different situations.

• Understanding Stereotypes about People

  • Learners discuss how not everyone in a group is just the same, and practice a way to respond to stereotypes, emphasizing that "some do, some don't".

• Understanding Stereotypes about Objects, Activities, and Roles

  • Learners discuss how everyone can make choices and that toys, activities, and roles can be for everyone, and practice a way to respond to stereotypes.

• Understanding that People can Change

  • Children discuss the potential for growth, learning, and change in themselves and others and identify how they have changed.

Unit three: Communication

• Listening to others

  • Promote attentive listening skills

  • Foster self-regulation

• Talking Together

  • Promote reciprocal communication skills

  • Foster self-regulation

• Being Assertive

  • Foster self-confidence in communicating needs, desires and ideas

  • Promote assertiveness skills

Unit four: Problem Solving

• Identifying Problems

  • Promote skills in recognizing and identifying interpersonal problems

  • Encourage self-confidence in sharing feelings and ideas

  • Foster awareness and acceptance of different feelings and perspectives

• Solving Problems

  • Promote skills in generating solutions to interpersonal problems

  • Foster awareness that people can have different ideas for solving a problem

  • Emphasize fairness in problem-solving and decision-making

• Cooperating

  • Foster collaborative teamwork skills

  • Promote fairness in playing and working together

• Being Considerate

  • Promote awareness that everyone has different preferences and behavioral styles

  • Promote consideration of the impact one's behavior has on others

  • Foster self-regulation

Unit five: Peer Relationships

• Caring for Others

  • Promote a caring, prosocial orientation toward others

  • Foster gratitude for others' kindness

• Being Inclusive

  • Promote inclusive attitudes and behaviors

  • Foster empathy and kindness

• Making Amends and Forgiving

  • Promote awareness to take responsibility for one's actions

  • Foster motivation and skills for making sincere and reparative amends

  • Promote a forgiving attitude towards others