Kelso's Choices

1st Graders are working on a unit on Kelso’s Choices. Kelso is a pretty smart frog that teaches students the difference between big problems and small problems. Big problems are those that are scary or recurring and should be shared with a grown-up they trust. Small problems are those that are more everyday problems that may cause you to feel irritated or annoyed. We also talked about these as red light, green light problems and making sure your reaction matches the size of the problem.

Kelso encourages students to recognize they are smart enough and capable of handling many of these small problems on their own. And then he shares 9 choices they have to do this. I suggest that they can try 2 of these before deciding they need to take it to a teacher (reminding them anything dangerous or uncomfortable should always go right to a grown up).

We'll discuss all nine choices and will be practicing them. They are:

· Walk Away · Tell Them To Stop · Talk It Out · Make A Deal · Share and Take Turns · Apologize · Wait and Cool Off · Go To Another Game · Ignore