“Pete’s Pals”
Peer Leaders…Leading the Way at OFRS
Peer Leadership is alive and well at Old Farmers Road School! With the help of some very special people, our youngest and oldest students have had a wonderful opportunity to not only strengthen their academic skills, but more importantly, to develop some very positive friendships with one another.
Pete’s Pals is a school developed initiative with the targeted goal of supporting our youngest students socially, emotionally and academically. All OFRS 5th grade students were given the opportunity to sign up for teaching opportunities based on their areas of interest in hopes of providing support to our youngest learners. These 5th grade students are known as our Peer Leaders. With the help of “Pete the Cat” and his “Tips from a Cool Cat on How to be Kind,” our youngest learners have participated in classroom-based mini-lessons centered around the Responsive Classroom tenets. “Pete the Cat’s Groovy Guide to Kindness” was the springboard for this school wide initiative.
Here’s just a snapshot of what our Peer Leaders have been up to:
Student Created Lessons: Peer Leaders have created and presented their very own classroom lesson for our 1st-3rd grade friends. This includes developing lessons with multi-media elements, such as slideshows, music & art. Peer Leaders then followed up their lessons with a classroom discussion and reflection of their selected topic. Topics thus far have included friendship and kindness.
Warm and Fuzzy February: Peer Leaders are busy collecting and displaying acts of kindness drawn/written by our younger students for display during the month of February.
Peer Leader Recess and Lunch Buddies: Peer Leaders have been paired up with our younger learners since October to model and encourage appropriate socialization, conflict resolution and problem-solving, all while enjoying recess activities and lunchtime conversation.
Reading and Counting Buddies: Peer Leaders who have chosen this option get to “teach” their younger counterparts counting and reading skills.
Community Servants: Peer Leaders have collected, organized and loaded the bus/truck for the food pantry, pet shelter, and Toys for Tots initiative.
Talk about leading by example! This endeavor has been an incredible learning and growing experience not just for our youngest learners, but for our oldest learners, too.