On Friday was the final Child Protection lesson.

In this session, Ms Jill revisited the Body Safety Rules:

-Your body is your own and you choose who can touch you and when they may touch you – hugs, kisses, shaking hands etc

– You should have a Safety Network – 5 adults in your life who you can trust and you can tell anything to.

– You should recognise early warning signs – feeling sick, heart beating fast, breathing too fast – that are signals that things are not right. Trust your instincts.

– You should never keep secrets that make you feel bad or uncomfortable. Tell a trusted adult, though it can be a very difficult thing to do.

– Private parts are private. You should call them by the correct scientific names. You must tell a trusted adult if anyone asks you to touch their private parts or asks to see yours.

We read the book ‘Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept”

We talked about what the word ‘abuse’ means – trying to hurt someone over a period of time and not respecting boundaries.

Physical abuse – hitting, kicking, biting

Sexual abuse – involves private parts (the parts usually covered by swim suits).

This session concludes this series of lessons.

In today’s session we discussed boundaries. What does the word mean?

With personal space it is the invisible line or limit beyond which, if people cross the line, you feel uncomfortable. It is different for different people, for different relationships and depending on your mood. Boundaries can be the boarders between countries. A boundary can be the door to your home. We discussed doors. Which doors in school do you feel ok going through? Which do you never go through? Which doors do you need to knock at and which can you go straight through? Which doors at home do you need to knock at? When do you need to be invited in? We talked about boundaries for behaviour and showing respect for boundaries set by other people. We discussed the boundaries set for children by their parents and how it feels when different parents set different boundaries. We talked about how it feels if someone else crosses a boundary set by you.

Today we had our first Child Protection lesson with Ms. Jill.  The topic of today’s lesson was communication. The students discussed three types of communication:  aggressive, passive, and assertive.

These are notes the students made with Ms. Jill:

• Aggressive Communication:
  • Threatening
  • Disrespectful (words, tone)
  • Rude (words, tone)
  • Ignoring
  • Physical (punching, hitting, kicking, shoving, choking)
  • Takes care of ME (not taking care of other people)

• Passive Communication:
  • Avoid communicating
  • Ignoring (so that you don’t have to deal with something)
  • Letting people get their way
  • Takes care of OTHERS

• Assertive Communication:
  • Involves both what you say AND how you say it.  Tone of voice matters. Body language matters.
  • Uses “I” messages in order to communicate what you feel, think or need.  Ex: “I feel sad when I hear rude words because they hurt my feelings. I like playing with people who use nice words”, or, “I feel upset when you do not take care of my things because I then need to replace them. I need you to take care of my things like I do if you are going to borrow them.”
  • Includes active listening (listening with your whole self).  This means using good eye contact (not staring or glaring), speaking in a calm, even tone of voice, paraphrasing what you heard the other person say, clarifying anything that is not clear, and asking non-judgmental questions.
  • Can communicate a firm message in a way that gets the point across but helps everyone feel respected.
  • Takes care of EVERYONE

At the end of the lesson, we discussed ideas such as these:

• In these discussions, everyone has the right to say “no”.
• “I” messages work best when you’ve had a chance to calm down, rather than in an angry moment.  The breathing technique we learned at the beginning of the session is one way students can help themselves calm down to a level where they can use “I” messages effectively.
• When working to solve a conflict, don’t say “always” or “never” , i.e. “You ALWAYS say you’re going to give me a turn and then you NEVER do!”

Our next session with Ms. Jill will be Thursday.  I will blog again then so that parents stay informed of what we discussed in class.

Next week, G5 students will be participating in a number of lessons concerning Child Protection. Over the course of 3 lessons, the following topics will be discussed:

• Assertive Communication

• The Touching Rule – No one should touch your private parts except to keep you clean and healthy

• Safety Steps:

  • Say words that mean No

  • Get away

  • Tell an adult

• Using Assertiveness Skills in Unsafe Situations

• When and Whom to Tell

We will also review what we have already learned about online safety and discuss this from a child protection perspective.

Further blog posts will be made on the day of each lesson with more specific details as to what was covered in the lesson so that you can have conversations at home with your children.  We appreciate you speaking further with your children about this topic. It is important that we partner in teaching these important lessons to the children.

If you have further questions, please contact Jill Wagner, our counselor, at jwagner@zis.ch, as she will be leading most of these lessons.

Dear Parents,

We are really looking forward to our exhibition evening tomorrow.  As you know the topic for exhibition this year is innovation, and the concept of empathy was one of our points of emphasis. With that in mind, the high school Nepal Club has asked if we could help them collect children’s clothes for their upcoming service trip to Nepal.  Over twenty students will be traveling to Nepal in the first week of June. While there they will work with a school for street children in Kathmandu. This school was started by a former ZIS alumni.

The Nepal Club is asking for gently worn clothes, shoes, and flip flops. The students they work with are from the ages of 3-11. We will be promoting this throughout the elementary school, but we thought we would kick it off this clothing drive with our exhibition evening.  If you have any gently worn clothes, shoes, or flip flops your children no longer wear there will be donation boxes at the school entrance at tomorrow nights exhibition.  Thank you for your help in this endeavor.

Warm Regards,

Grade 5 Team

Dear 5R Community,

This Thursday we’ll be celebrating our inquiry into Literary Essays and we’d love you to join us.

Starting at 2:30 5R students will be sharing the opening paragraphs of their essays, followed by an opportunity to read and comment on your child’s entire essay, as well as those of other students. Finally, you’ll have a chance to visit other fifth grade classes, to read and give feedback to other essayists. We will finish by 3:20, in time for a quick wrap-up and dismissal.

We hope you can join us!

You will likely have read the post below on the Grade Five newsfeed last week. On Tuesday, Mrs Maley, our G5 Librarian, came into 5R to introduce the project to our class. While we’ve tried for years to address digital citizenship in school, we recognize that the same problems keep coming up. This is why we’d like to take a community approach, and ask families to participate alongside students. We’re all facing versions of these dilemmas together! The following are the details of the project/assignment, as posted to the G5 Newsfeed:

——————-

While the digital world is a wonderful source of information, navigating the social and emotional implications of this online world can be challenging. We believe the best way to address the questions and concerns we all have about the digital world is by working together.

So, we are launching a new initiative with our Grade 5 students and their families. This initiative will involve conversations about the digital world in classrooms, in the library, and most importantly, at home.

Here’s how it works:

• We’ve developed a website to guide these important conversations. This website is the hub of this initiative (click here to access) and presents a number of “Digital Dilemmas” which many of us have faced.
• Beginning next week, we are asking each family to “work through” three dilemmas found on the website.
• All families will look at the section titled “Rethink” which is an innovative way to help address online bullying.
• Next, explore two other sections of your choice.
• After each section you’ve explored, there are a few questions for you to answer.

Our goal is to open this discussion, generate ideas, and share strategies. Your input will enable us to do this. Please plan to complete the work by April 8.

Together, as a community, we can find ways to successfully manage our online world.

Let us know if you have any questions,

The Grade 5 team, Will Kirkwood wkirkwood@zis.ch, Jill Wagner jwagner@zis.chand Linda Maley lmaley@zis.ch