Ways to Be Helpful Board
(the Power of Unity & Skill of Encouragement)
Creating a book or posting a Ways to Be Helpful Board helps children understand the difference between hurtful and helpful behavior. All behavior comes back to the basics of helpful or hurtful. This reinforces the concept of "What you focus on, you get more of." We need to focus on what we want the children to do rather than focusing on negative behaviors. Hurtful behaviors should be seen as a call for help or a call for love. Helpful behaviors are a display of love.
The Ways to Be Helpful Board is a visual reminder for students, showing them what helpful looks like, sounds like, and feels like - that is what it's like to be safe, kind and conscientious. Photos in a book for younger students is a great way to reinforce this. You can ask a student if it's helpful to be nice and of course they will say yes, but the truth is, many of them aren't sure what nice looks like, sounds like, feels like. This board or book is also a reinforcement of the visual rules. For younger classrooms, the Ways to Be Helpful board must have pictures of some kind, and for all ages, a conversation about these things is necessary. You can't simply post it and leave it. This board is an active part of your classroom family.
The Ways to Be Helpful Board is a visual reminder for students, showing them what helpful looks like, sounds like, and feels like - that is what it's like to be safe, kind and conscientious. Photos in a book for younger students is a great way to reinforce this. You can ask a student if it's helpful to be nice and of course they will say yes, but the truth is, many of them aren't sure what nice looks like, sounds like, feels like. This board or book is also a reinforcement of the visual rules. For younger classrooms, the Ways to Be Helpful board must have pictures of some kind, and for all ages, a conversation about these things is necessary. You can't simply post it and leave it. This board is an active part of your classroom family.