Buddy Bench at OES!!

I could not be any more PROUD of our amazing 4th grade all-stars!! It was truly an amazing, "WONDER-ful" day ending our first PBL CHOOSE KIND! Throughout the unit, we read the novel Wonder, encouraged random acts of kindness with a kindness meter, learned about the types of bullying through various genres of text, created kindness bracelets where each color represented ways to be kind, and we researched and built our very own buddy bench!

 We had the Buddy Bench Dedication and Reveal in front of all of OES students and families!! We dedicated the Buddy Bench to August Pullman, the main character of Wonder, who inspired us to be courageous, to look beyond appearance, and how to be a true friend. "I think there should be a rule that everyone in the world should a standing ovation at least once in their life..." (-Wonder by R.J. Palacio) 


*Link to Wonder Quotes to live by: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/16319487-wonder 

The Dedication Agenda:

First, Honor Choir performed a special song about friendship.

Next, Football Players from Rainbow Lake Middle answered our questions about have they been bullied, what did they do, and how not bullying but choosing KIND really can change the world!

Then, we had some incredibly hard-working, confident, and caring students from each of the fourth grade classes give speeches about what the buddy bench is, how it is used, what they types of bullying are, and how the buddy bench can be used here at the OES playground. ZION from our class did an absolutely outstanding job talking about the creation of the buddy bench!! We are so so proud of you, Zion!! :)

Listen to Zion's AMAZING speech about a young boy named Christian and how the Buddy Bench was created!!

After the student speeches, we had the ribbon cutting and Reveal!!!

Finally, we heard some special words from Dr. Patterson quoting R.J. Palacio

Here is the link of R.J. Palacio, the author of Wonder, writing about Auggie's birthday *that Dr. Patterson read from* http://rjpalacio.tumblr.com/post/33298039991/happy-birthday-auggie 

We also celebrated October 10th as August Pullman's birthday by singing "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" in the cafeteria and enjoying cupcakes and treats :)

Here is the video of 4th Grade singing "Happy Birthday" to August!

4th Graders and Families-post a comment below...what was your favorite part of the Buddy Bench Reveal day??

All of 4th Grade with the Buddy Bench! :)