I recently read a new book to my garderie class that I had never seen before. It was titled “Odd Velvet” by Mary E. Whitcomb. Based off the title I quickly assumed it was about a quirky girl and her little adventures. Not quite! I was pleasantly surprised to see it was about acceptance and not being a bully.
Velvet is new to town and has different hobbies and habits than the other students. They don’t welcome her into the group and don’t play with her in school. They aren’t mean to her, but they also don’t reach out.
Until the class art competition. She draws the most beautiful apple the class had ever seen. And moving forward they learn that her uniqueness is a gift and she is a loving caring person.
I read this out loud to my Kindergarten garderie and engaged them in during reading discussions. I’d prompt them with, why won’t they play with her? Would you play with her? Are they being nice? Is it kind to call someone odd?
This of course lead to so many anecdotal stories I had to redirect back to the story. However, following the story, many of the students brought up how well their classmates were doing helping, drawing, and cleaning.
My awesome coworker has started a clip chart. They all start in the middle which says they’re ready to learn. They can clip up or down depending on their actions and helpfulness. If they reach the top they are Superstar Students and receive a gem on their clip. After 5 gems they get a little prize. Now I’m not one for rewards based incentives, but this day warmed my heart. We had students saying extremely kind things about their friends, even some students they wouldn’t normally comment on. “So-and-so was really helpful during clean up” “So-and-so walked the entire time in the hallway” “So-and-so helped me clean up the blocks and they didn’t even play with them.”
Velvet in the story was always kind and wanted to share her talents and help with her classmates.
By the end of the year her classmates could see that those things they thought were odd were actually special and made the whole class better. (Talk about Neo-Confucianism!)
This wasn’t a planned lesson, but that’s the beauty of teaching. There are always teachable moments.
Maybe at first glance something is odd, but it takes a stronger mind to be open to that oddness being beautiful.
Finding the North Star 
Beautiful. Thank you.
Sent from my iPad
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I actually don’t have a problem with PBIS or rewarding positive behavior . I find it a much better alternative to only paying attention to poor behavior 🙂
Oh definitely! I just wish the students had more incentive to do things without a prize at the end! Sometimes I wonder where our sense of community has gone. I praise positive behaviour and helpfulness, but getting some sort of treat out of it makes me wonder how genuine those actions are.