Lesson Plan

Subject: Health Grade: One

Content (Topic): Pebbles of Promise

Strand: Social Relationships
Topics: Making Friends, Relationships in the Classroom
Concepts: Being a Good Listener, Making it a Good Place for Learning

Foundational Objectives: Learning Objectives: Students will:

• Students will better understand the
basic elements of social and
emotional well-being (PSVS)
• Students will treat themselves and
others with respect (PSVS)
• Students will develop attitudes
necessary for healthy living (PSVS)
• Recognize the need for healthy
personal relationships with
members of their family, friends
and others in the community
• Develop their interpersonal skills
• Increasingly accept responsibility
for themselves and others
• Value friendship

Assessment:
• Participation in the making of a promise
• Nature of the promise made (Will it contribute to a positive space for learning?)

Common Essential Learnings (CELs):

• Communication
• Personal and Social Values and Skills (PSVS)

Prerequisite Learning: N/A

Major Resources: “A Pebble” poem by Rick Masters

Lesson Preparation
Equipment/materials:
• Pebbles (1 each member of the classroom)
• Lg. clear bowl
• Overhead
• “A Pebble” by Rick Masters
• Paper for each member of the classroom
• Books from “Additional Resources” for book look

Advanced Preparation: N/A

Presentation
Set: (10 min)
• Introduce some scenarios to students: How would you feel if…
o Ex. You kept trying and trying to tell your classmate or your teacher something
important, but he/she wouldn’t listen to you.
o Ex. Your teacher asked you to choose a partner, but everyone in the class that
you asked said no, they did not want to be partners with you.
o Ex. At recess, a classmate kept on pushing you when you walked by. Even
though the problem was never solved, you still had to sit next to this person.
• Ask students: If that happened, how would you be feeling? Would it make it easier or
harder for you to focus on your schoolwork?
• What happens if somebody pushes you? Do you want to push them back? If you are
feeling sad and bad, do you think that might have an effect on the other people around
you? What if I (the teacher) was feeling tired and angry and I was having a bad day. I
might be acting really grumpy, and maybe I would get angry with you for something
small. Would my actions change how you might feel?
• Our actions affect the people around us.
• Introduce and read the poem “A Pebble” by Rick Masters
• Think of a pond of water. When you touch the water, what happens? (Use the bowl of
water to show the ripples that are created) When I touch the water in one spot, ripples
are created, and those ripples make more ripples, and those ripples make more ripples,
until the whole bowl of water has been affected by me touching that one spot.
• Our actions work like these ripples. When we do something, it can affect all the people
around us.

Development: (20 min)

• Tell students that we are going to make promises to one another in order to make our
classroom a good place to be.
• Show students the pebbles. I call these pebbles “pebbles of promise” because they will
represent the promises that we make to each other.
• Should you ever break a promise? A promise is something that lasts forever.
• Ask students to think of a promise they could make to their classmates and to us that
could help our classroom be a nice place to be (Take possible answers and write on the
board)
• Ask students to write down their promises
• When students are finished writing down their promises, re-focus the students
• Explain that we are going to tell each other our promises. A promise is not something
that should be broken. We are making promises to each other about our classroom
community.
• When you come up to read your promise, you may take a “pebble of promise” and drop
it into the bowl. (Teacher demonstrates reading a promise and dropping a pebble in).
• Ask for volunteers.
 • After the third promise pebble is dropped in, draw students’ attention to the ripples.
See? Each of our pebbles, and each of our promises, touches all of the other pebbles
when the water ripples out to touch all of the pebbles
Closure: (15 min)
• When every student has made their promise, thank the students. Show them where the
pebbles of promise will stay in the classroom
• If a student is forgetting their promise and needs help remembering, they can be directed
(by themselves, by the teacher, or by a friend) to the “Promise Pond” and read their
promise to remember how they will help make the classroom a nice place to be.
• Invite students to do a “book look” with a partner, focusing on books that highlight
social relationships, friendship, promise making, etc. (See “Additional Resources”)

**Possible promises made by grade one students might be:

o Not to touch
o To Listen
o To be a good friend
o To include everybody

**If students are having trouble thinking of a promise, ask them to think of something that they
would want someone to promise them. If they don’t like to be touched, maybe they could
promise not to touch.

Extensions: Promises could be written with permanent marker (two or three words) on
larger stones; Students make posters to go along with each promise, which are then hung
in the classroom to show a set of “rules” or a “classroom creed”; Display the promises
stemming from the poem in the centre. Display the promises and poem near the promise
pond which will stay in the classroom.
Adaptive Dimension: Students who feel shy about talking in front of the class are
invited to say one word of promise (ex. nice, listen)
I promise…

I promise…

II promise…
promise…

Copy so that there is

one “I promise…” sheet
for each classroom
member
 A pebble
does not
enter a pond
without
a ripple
moving out
and
in time
touching
every
single
shell
we are
all
everyone of
us
in this thing
together

(Rick Masters)

Pebbles of Promise
Sample Student Promises Made by Grade Ones:
• I promise to share
• I promise not to touch
• I promise to be anyone’s friend
• I promise to listen
• I promise to always play with you
• I promise to listen to your questions and respect feelings