Bullying is often a very popular topic, especially among elementary school students. It is most likely a popular topic because many students experience bullying themselves. Books and activities can help teachers explain complex and sensitive topics to students without pointing anyone out or making anyone feel embarrassed. Check out our list of 25 activities on bullying for elementary students to get some ideas about how to talk to your class about bullying.
1. Dragon and the Bully
Introducing animals to the topic of bullying can alleviate students' concerns and feel a sense of relief that they are not being put in the spotlight. You can use this book as a read-aloud and then have the students brainstorm how to help the dragon.
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2. Can a Unicorn Help Me Deal With Bullying?
Teaching students to deal with physical bullying and emotional bullying can be tricky and hard to work through. Adding a story like this one to your lesson plan might make students buy in and give them an entry point if they also like unicorns.
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3. Weird!
Dealing with and managing social situations can be impossible when you are in a situation where bullying is happening. This book looks at name-calling and your students can discuss ways for this main character to solve her problem in a productive way.
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4. Kindness Makes Me Stronger
You can flip this discussion by talking about kindness instead. Your students can draw pictures of different acts they can do to show kindness to the people in their lives or draw a picture of someone being kind to them. They can also write sentences.
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5. I Choose to Speak Up
In terms of anti-bullying activities, this book is an excellent one to bring in the concept of bystanders to the students and why it is important to advocate for yourself by speaking up. You can write on easel chart paper different ways to speak up for a friend.
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6. Stand Up to Bullying
Being able to identify and recognize bullying behaviors is half the battle sometimes for students who are being bullied. Giving the students a clear definition of bullying and talking about the effects of bullying are excellent places to start.
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7. I Am Stronger Than Anger
An additional perspective to look at is giving students strategies for dealing with their anger without bullying others. Defining different types of bullying can help with this as well. They can create a poster about the various ways they deal with their anger.
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8. The Juice Box Bully
It is paramount that your classroom is a safe environment and a safe space for students. You can have your students co-create a class promise or class contract with you that includes agreeing to refrain from bullying situations. Talking to kids about bullying can help prevent it.
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9. Speak Up, Wonder Pup!
Social bullying can be a hard one to identify, especially if students are being bullied by other kids they believe are their friends. After a discussion about bullying as a class, talk about who you can go to if you want to speak up for yourself or someone else.
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10. Have You Filled a Bucket Today?
Creating a space where students are bucket-fillers will help protect them against an abusive environment. Acts of kindness fill the bucket of others. You can create a bulletin board as a class and include different examples of how to be a bucket filler.
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11. Kindness is my Superpower
You could also take a more positive spin on this topic by focusing on the good things students can do. Drawing awareness of bullying can be helpful but focusing on kind acts can be successful too. They can create a superhero craft.
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12. It's OK to be Different
Explaining to students how uniqueness can be a great thing might help the bullying at school. Books about bullying can be educational but books about uniqueness are wonderful too. You can have students write a journal entry about how they are different!
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13. Social Skills Activities for Kids
Sometimes getting to the bottom of bullying and drawing awareness about bullying is all about developing students' social skills. There are a lot of social skills games you can play with your students to practice and strengthen these skills.
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14. Stand Up for Yourself and Your Friends
Bullying reporting can be daunting. The last thing the teacher wants to do makes the bullying worse for certain students. Have your students work in pairs to think about how they can stand up for their friends in a way that is safe for everyone.
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15. In My Heart
A beautiful craft or flipbook can be created after you read this book to your students. Teaching them about the emotions bullying victims experience is important. Having an open dialogue on bullying can teach them a lot.
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16. I Can Do Hard Things
Add this book to your repertoire of anti-bullying efforts. Anti-bullying books look directly at the problem and books like this one are a bit more subtle. Bring this book to your school's anti-bullying committee and have them reinforce the idea.
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17. How I Beat My Bully
Starting an anti-bullying book club might be a good idea to mitigate the effects of any bullying that might be going on. It can be a springboard for anti-bullying education. Even keeping an anti-bullying journal can help kids work through their feelings about their experiences.
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18. Kindness is My Jam
You can create an activity where students sign and design their very own anti-bullying pledge. This task can be done outside of the anti-bullying month and be included in any anti-bullying lesson you are teaching. Check out this book down below!
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19. Mistakes Are How I Learn
A growth mindset and bullying can go hand in hand. Creating an anti-bullying poster or anti-bullying slogan in pairs or groups can really make this lesson stick with students for a long time to come. It will resonate with them more than simple anti-bullying worksheets.
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20. I Choose to Calm My Anxiety
Use your next circle time to have students make a list of activities they can do or safe people they can talk to when they are feeling anxious or experiencing anxiety. Teach them that anxiety can be a result of bullying someone else and what they can say instead.
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21. Words Are Not For Hurting
Teaching students substitutions for certain mean words they might want to say to others in a moment of frustration will help you to create a comforting environment in your classroom. Pointing out the effect words can have is beneficial too.
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22. All Feelings Are Okay
Students who are getting bullied might be feeling shame, guilt, embarrassment and a lot of other emotions all at once. An activity that allows them to name different feelings they experience throughout the day could help them process their situation more effectively.
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23. Stop Picking on Me
A classroom discussion about what it means to be picked on or pick on someone else might be one of those conversation starters that lead students to share their own ideas that surprise you.
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24. Pink is for Boys
Tear down stereotypes in your classroom today by reading this book to the students. An activity centering around things "meant for boys" and things "meant for girls" not being accurate might give some students relief if they don't fit in.
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25. Friends Ask First!
These illustrations are suited for young elementary learners. They can learn about social skills with this book too!
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