Bennington Public Schools

This unit will be taught in the first quarter. This unit is made up of 4 lessons. 

Click here to download a PDF of an overview of this unit. This handout includes what your child is learning and ways you can practice at home.

Lesson: The Balanced Brain

In this lesson, students will learn that our brain works best when the logic and emotion centers are balanced and working together.

You Can Try This at Home

Tell your child about a time when a strong emotion made it hard for you to learn something new or caused you to say or do something that hurt someone’s feelings. Discuss why it’s important to learn to manage strong emotions.

Lesson: What Is Rethinking?

In this lesson, students will learn what it means to rethink a situation and how it can help them calm strong emotions.

You Can Try This at Home

Tell your child about a time when rethinking a situation, or thinking about it in a different way, helped you feel better. Encourage your child to talk about times in their lives when rethinking could have helped them.

Lesson: How to Rethink

In this lesson, students will learn about questions they can ask to rethink situations and they’ll practice asking these questions using made-up stories.

You Can Try This at Home

Ask your child, “What questions could you ask yourself to rethink a situation?” (Questions might include, “What happened?” “Has this ever happened to anyone else?” and “What’s something good that happened?”) Talk about how those questions can help them think differently about a situation.

Lesson: Take Another Look

In this lesson, students will practice rethinking a situation they’ve personally experienced.

You Can Try This at Home

Ask your child, "How could rethinking help you the next time you’re in a situation where you feel a strong emotion?" It’s important to note that rethinking is not a good strategy to use when someone is hurt or in danger

This unit will be taught in the second quarter. This unit is made up of 2 lessons. 

Lesson 1: Ways to Stay Safe

Your child is learning to:

• Apply the Ways to Stay Safe in response to scenarios

Lesson 2: The Always Ask First Rule

Your child is learning to:

• Identify how to apply the Always Ask First Rule in response to scenarios
• Identify Ways to Stay Safe in response to scenarios

Lesson 3: Safe and Unsafe Touches

Your child is learning about the importance of respecting others' personal space. Some examples to be discussed at home include not hitting, kicking, pushing, etc.

This unit will be taught in the second quarter. This unit is made up of 4 lessons. 

Click here to download a PDF of an overview of this unit. This handout includes what your child is learning and ways you can practice at home.

Lesson: The Same, But Different

In this lesson, students will learn that people can have different points of view about the same thing.

You Can Try This at Home

With your child, discuss a time when you had a different point of view than someone else about the same thing. Describe how your experiences—what you’ve seen, heard, or done in your life—affect your point of view.

Lesson: Ask, Listen, Learn

In this lesson, students will learn that asking questions, listening, and observing can help you learn more about someone’s point of view when you don’t understand it.

You Can Try This at Home

Tell your child about a time when learning more about a different point of view helped you have empathy. Encourage your child to think of future situations where it might be helpful to learn more about a different point of view in order to get along and show they care.

Lesson: Seeing It Differently

In this lesson, students will practice listening, asking questions, and observing to learn more about another person’s point of view.

You Can Try This at Home

Discuss with your child how learning more about someone’s point of view can help you have empathy for them. Encourage your child to think of a time when they had empathy for someone or someone had empathy for them.

Lesson: Changing Your Mind

In this lesson, students will learn that better understanding someone’s point of view can change your own point of view and how you act.

You Can Try This at Home

Ask your child to describe a time when learning more about a different point of view changed their own thoughts or actions. Tell your child about a time when this happened to you

This unit will be taught in the third quarter. This unit is made up of 4 lessons. 

Click here to download a PDF of an overview of this unit. This handout includes what your child is learning and ways you can practice at home.

Lesson: Setting a Good Goal

In this lesson, students will work together to set a 2-week goal that’s specific, challenging, and doable.

You Can Try This at Home

Ask your child to describe their class goal and explain what makes it challenging and doable for their class. Tell your child about a goal you recently set and what makes it challenging and doable for you.

Lesson: Making a Plan

In this lesson, students will work together to make a good plan to reach their 2-week goal.

You Can Try This at Home

Ask your child to describe their plan to reach their class goal. What will they do? What will they need? Who can support them? Tell your child about a time when you made a plan to reach a goal.

Lesson: Checking Our Progress

In this lesson, students will work together to identify roadblocks that might be getting in the way as they work toward their 2-week goal. Then they’ll decide what they can change to remove or get around their roadblocks.

You Can Try This at Home

Ask your child if they’ve run into any roadblocks while working toward their class goal. If so, how will they work around them? Tell your child about a time you ran into a roadblock and what you did to overcome it.

Lesson: Reflecting On Our Journey

In this lesson, students will reflect on their journey of working toward their 2-week goal.

You Can Try This at Home

Ask your child about their experience with setting a class goal and working toward it. What worked? What didn’t work? What could they do next time? Reflect on a goal you’ve worked toward and what you learned

This unit will be taught in the third quarter. This unit is made up of 5 lessons. 

Click here to download a PDF of an overview of this unit. This handout includes what your child is learning and ways you can practice at home.
 

Lesson: A Good Problem-Solver

In this lesson, students will learn two ways to become a better problem-solver: speaking up for what they need and feeling calm before trying to solve the problem.

You Can Try This at Home

Talk with your child about times when they might have an interpersonal problem (a disagreement between two or more people) with a friend. Encourage them to use these moments as opportunities to practice feeling calm and speaking up for what they want or need.

Lesson: Saying it Respectfully

In this lesson, students will begin to learn a process for solving interpersonal problems. They’ll learn how to say the problem respectfully and without blame.

You Can Try This at Home

Talk with your child about an interpersonal problem they’ve had at home. Help your child think about each person’s point of view, and then work together to say the problem respectfully.

Lesson: Exploring Outcomes

In this lesson, students will learn how to weigh the pros and cons of possible solutions to an interpersonal problem by thinking about the points of view of everyone involved.

You Can Try This at Home

Talk with your child about a time when they successfully solved an interpersonal problem. What solutions did they consider, and what were the pros and cons of each solution? Describe a time when you found it helpful to think of each person’s point of view when predicting whether a solution to an interpersonal problem might work.

Lesson: A Good Solution

In this lesson, students will learn how to successfully solve an interpersonal problem by picking a solution that’s safe, respectful, and can work for everyone involved.

You Can Try This at Home

Talk with your child about a time when they were able to solve a problem with a safe and respectful solution that worked for everyone involved. Describe a time when you did the same. Point out that solving problems may not always be easy, but it’s worth the effort.

Lesson: STEP into Problem-Solving

In this lesson, students will practice the STEP process they learned in this unit to solve problems. STEP stands for S: Say the problem, T: Think of solutions, E: Explore the outcomes, and P: Pick a solution.

You Can Try This at Home

Talk with your child about a time when they experienced interpersonal problems. Ask how they will use the STEP process to try solving these problems

This unit will be taught in the first and fourth quarter. This unit is made up of 4 lessons. 

Lesson: Recognizing Bullying

Your child is learning to:

• Understand that bullying is different from conflict
• Recognize and identify different types of bullying behaviors
• Understand you can refuse bullying in different ways
• Demonstrate assertively reporting and refusing bullying

Lesson: Reporting Bullying

Your child is learning to:

• Define "bystander"
• Identify ways bystanders can help stop bullying
• Identify different ways bystanders can support someone being bullied

Lesson: Refusing Bullying

Your child is learning to:

• Understand how bystanders can be part of the bullying problem
• Understand that helping stop bullying is the right thing to do
• Decide on and practice positive bystander responses to bullying

Lesson: Bystander Power

Your child is learning to:

• Recognize and identify different ways of cyber bullying
• Understand that cyber bullying can be even more harmful than other types of bullying
• Demonstrate ways to support and/or stand up for a person being cyber bullied