Children and adults alike struggle with the challenge of using their social filter. Though we try to teach our children about this from a young age, it’s confusing for children to understand why we tell them to be honest or to speak up in one setting, then tell them to keep their thoughts to themselves in another. These children need to learn skills of "How to Analyze Social Situations" and "How to Choose Appropriate Words to Say."
More and more, educators are being asked to help teach and reinforce these social skills in their work with students. And that’s where this book comes into play. Author Julia Cook worked with expert Jill Kuzma to identify unique ways for students to learn and practice these difficult skills. More than 20 activities designed to help students visualize what a social filter is, and then practice using their social filters in a safe setting are provided. These activities help accompany the storybook I Can’t Believe You SAID That! from the BEST ME I Can Be! series.
Some of the activities include A Time to Vent, which helps students determine when and with whom they should say what's on their mind; Brewing up the Right Words, which uses the visual example of turning on a coffee maker and brewing of a pot of coffee to explain turning on one's social filter and filtering out words that are okay to say in most social situations; and the 3-D Social Filter Model activity, where students get to build a model of how their social filter works using two balloons, a straw and some construction paper. The air from one balloon marked "Thinking Bubble" passes through your "social filter" (the construction paper), through the straw and into a balloon marked "talking bubble".
Each activity provides a list of materials and teacher instructions. The activity guide also includes a digital content link for access to reproducible handouts, worksheets, posters, answer keys and reward coupons. Elementary educators will enjoy being able to pick up this book and quickly use the activities with their K through 6 students. These skills are promoted in Well-Managed Schools as part of the Boys Town Education Model®. 32 pgs.
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Published by Boys Town Press
ISBN: 978-1-934490-69-3
