Last week I did a lesson that I’ve been doing for a few years, but I changed it up and got the comment that made me know that this is a keeper. Ms. Gracy Griffith, 1st grade teacher said “Make sure you do this one again every year.” YAY for a WINNER lesson!! That’s the phrase every counselor wants to hear.
You should have everything you need in this post to recreate this 30 minute lesson, but contact me if you find that you need clarification. I merged a few resources together to create this Personal Space PPT that walks you through this lesson.
The lesson plan looks something like this:
Materials needed: Paper, glue stick, pencil, crayons, 2 puppets (optional), Personal Space Camp by Julia Book, Personal Space PPT
- Have PPT pulled up to the screen for the lesson.
- Bring in 2 puppets and tell a story. I use 2 cats (I-Care Cat and his sister Kit …yes throwback to Peaceworks. I just can’t quit I-Care!) I tell a short story about the little kitty sister and the big cat brother who get into a fight over a toy and end up scratching each other. Both have time out and no dessert.
- They need to keep their paws to themselves just like we need to keep our hands and feet to ourselves. This is important for all of us so that we don’t make others uncomfortable or angry.
- Show PPT which begins with a social story on the screen and discuss with class the concept of personal space. (thanks to Beth Vorhaus from where I got this social story)
- On Slide 9 of the PPT is this video reinforcing this concept. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDz_nAaspsw
- I have a great book about this concept, but it is a bit long and I want to still have time for an activity. So, I will tell the story in my own words as we look at the pictures, so we can learn about this guy Louis who has a tough time understanding personal space. In fact he gets it confused with outer space.
- I then paraphrase the story Personal Space Camp by Julia Cook.
- Then say that are going to all build our own “Personal Space” Ships. This follows part of the lesson that is a freebie on TPT by Melissa Finch at Autism Adventure (THANK YOU FOR THE IDEA SHARING!).
- Hand out Parent note for Personal Space-Ship that the students can glue on the back of their drawing. This gives parents the connection of what we did in the lesson and provides parents with discussion questions they can ask their children.
