What is Project Cornerstone? 

Project Cornerstone seeks to empower youth, parents, and school staff to improve school climate, reduce bullying, and create vibrant, caring communities of learners. Every month, a dedicated group of parent volunteers receives training to be ABC (Asset Building Champions) in our classrooms. Our readers share stories, lead discussions, and plan activities to help all kids feel valued, respected, & known at school.

Project Cornerstone utilizes the developmental assets model to empower over 85,000 students, parents, and school staff to improve school climate, reduce bullying, and create vibrant, caring communities of learners.  In 2017 Project Cornerstone released results from a county wide survey on youth developmental assets. Developmental assets are the positive values, relationships, skills, and experiences that help youth thrive. 

The more assets that young people have, the more likely they are to thrive. Youth in Silicon Valley have told us the following: 

• Half of elementary school students don’t have adult role models. 
• Only half of youth feel their school is a caring place. 
• Less than half of youth are actively engaged in learning.

What All Adults Can Do... 

• Be a caring adult at a school to build positive connections with youth. 
• Spend more time listening to young people than talking. 
• Learn their names. 
• Say hi or smile.

Each month a new book will be read by a Santa Rita parent volunteer to your student's class. A lesson focusing on the above mentioned important building blocks of healthy youth development will be introduced.

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This month's books: 

• TK / Kindergarten
• 1st-3rd Grade - Have You Filled A Bucket Today? By Carol McCloud  
• 4th-5th Grade - Buckets, Dippers, and Lids By Carol McCloud

Have You Filled A Bucket Today? and Buckets, Dippers, and Lids By Carol McCloud uses the image of a bucket to represent our need to be filled with positive, caring words every day. When we are kind to each other, we increase our happy feelings and good thoughts that fill our buckets and our classmates’ buckets. 

The book also discusses bucket dippers, whose negative behavior removes happy feelings from buckets and makes us feel sad. The lesson’s goal is to help students intentionally choose to fill their buckets and their classmates’ buckets with kindness in order to treat each other with respect. Students are taught the 3 laws of bucket filling (happiness): 

• Be a bucket filler.  (Be kind.)
• Don't dip. (Use self-control)
• Use your lid. (Have resilience.) 

Ask your child to tell you more about:

• Bucket fillers-How can you fill your bucket and the bucket of others? 
• Bucket dippers- How can you help bucket dippers fill their bucket? 
• Use your lid- How can you keep a lid on your bucket? 

Reinforcing this lesson at home will help your child practice how to create a positive, caring school climate where students treat each other respectfully. Here are some fun Bucket Filler free resources for your child to do! Crosswords, Color by Number, and more!  Encourage your children to complete all 31 bucket filling activities on this calendar.  These are some complementary books for your children to read or you can read them to your children!

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Kindergarten

Each month, we will be reading a book from Free Spirit Publishing’s “Learning to Get Along” series. If you would like to purchase any of the books for your home, you can order from their website at www.freespirit.com.

This month, we read Listen and Learn by Cheri J. Meiners. Listen and Learn teaches children what listening is, why it’s important to listen and how to listen. We read about how listening helps us learn, and how to be a good listener. The book discusses ways to listen in a positive manner. We read how we can use our whole body to listen: our ears to hear and our eyes to follow the speaker, our mouths to be quiet and our hands still so that everyone can listen, and our minds to think about what we listen and learn from it.  Some key points:

• A good listener keeps quiet, looks at the speaker and thinks about what they hear. This helps me learn. 
• If I do not understand, I can ask questions. I can also answer questions. By taking turns to talk and listen we all learn together. 
• Listening shows I care. I care about my teacher, she’s helping me learn. I care about my friends, I listen and understand them. I like it when my teacher and my friends listen to me. They care about me.

REVIEW: Please ask your children to share what they learned about listening: 

• What body parts do we use to listen? (Body, eyes and ears)
• How do you use your body to listen? (Stay quiet so everyone can hear.) 
• How do you use your eyes to listen? (To watch the speaker and see what he or she is doing.) 
• How do you use your ears to listen? (To listen to the speaker’s words and ideas.)

At Home Activities - Model Listening Skills:

• Encourage the kids to tell you about their day, and show them how you listen. 
• Asking questions is a part of listening, it shows I’m following what you’re saying and I want to learn more. Make eye contact and wait until the speaker is done speaking to ask a question or make a comment.
• Affirm to the kids that you are there to listen to them, to understand them and to learn together with them. If they are upset, they will know there is someone at home who will listen and understand them.
• Notice, name and celebrate, when your child uses good listening skills. Give them positive comments like “I like the way you’re keeping your body still while you listen to me” or “I like the way that you’re watching your father while he’s talking.” 

For more books suggestions that support your child's social emotional learning, check out these supplemental books. 

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Transitional Kindergarten Program

For October TK read, Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae. In this book, Gerald, a gangly giraffe, wants to join in at the dance; but all the other animals make fun of him. Luckily, Gerald meets a friendly cricket that helps him tap into his inner-self and discover his unique talents. This story empowers young children to learn about positive self-talk and personal power.  Read more about how you can help your child build their positive identity.

These are some fun art projects and songs related to the book you can make and do with your child: 

Bookmarks

I am Special Song

Giraffe Headband: Ears to attach to a construction paper strip that wraps around their head. Write "I can" on the headband.

Everyone needs to develop their own positive self-talk. This will help fill our buckets!