Believe in Yourself

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Woof! Woof!: This lesson will focus on involving children in activities that encourage a sense of community through literature, language, and creative expression.

Teaching with Clifford’s Big Idea: Believe in Yourself
When children are given opportunities to try new things, they gain confidence and belief in themselves. Learning about one's own potential early in life can help motivate and inspire young children to become the best they can be!

Teach: City, Town, or Country?
Objective: The following activity nurtures essential:

• language and literacy skills
• creative expression skills
• social and emotional skills

Read Clifford's Family by Norman Bridwell (Scholastic). Ask children to tell about the different kinds of communities illustrated throughout the story. What details in the story text and illustrations describe a city, town, or country setting? Divide children into three groups of city, town, and country dwellers. Have groups take turns making sounds from objects (cars, trains, sirens, etc.) and animals most commonly found in each community for a fun guessing game.

Practice: All About Me!
Objective: The following activity nurtures essential:

• social and emotional skills
• fine motor skills

Encourage students to cooperatively share about themselves, family and friends, home, pets, favorite foods, toys, pets, etc. Then help students express their own uniqueness through illustration by using these page headings to create an "All About Me!" book:

• This is Me! (self-portrait)
• My Family
• Home, Sweet Home
• Favorite Pets
• Best Friends
• Eats and Treats That Make Me Smile
• Playtime is Fun! (special toys, activities)
• Read, Watch, Enjoy! (favorite books, movies, and cartoons)

Wrap pages in11x17 construction paper. Staple on fold. Glue photo of child facing the camera on front cover. Have child color or trace the book title. On back cover, glue another photo of the child facing away from the camera for a fun "Good-bye for Now" or "The End" to this special book! Sign and date books. Create a special time for each child to share their work with their classmates.

Extend: Discovering the uniqueness of local people and places can create great learning opportunities for everyone!

• Help children explore their own community by inviting a local historian to share stories and artifacts.
• Make a math connection by finding basic shapes like squares, triangles, rectangles, and circles in community structures, signs, and places of interest.

Clifford’s Library: These books support Clifford’s Big Ideas and reinforce valuable early literacy skills:

• Clifford Takes a Trip by Norman Bridwell (Scholastic)
• The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle (Harper Trophy)

Reproducibles:

• "M" is for Me Printable Activity

Have Respect: Lesson plan based on Clifford The Big Red Dog, by Norman Bridwell
Woof! Woof!: This lesson's focus is on teaching children the value of respect through reading, language, and activities that share the uniqueness of diversity.

Why Play Outdoors?
Playing outside builds physical strength, and boosts social skills too. See what your child learns from cooperative outdoor play. Make use of this list of great outdoor games.

Be Kind: Lesson plan based on Clifford The Big Red Dog, by Norman Bridwell
Woof! Woof!: The focus of this lesson is to recognize acts of kindness through reading and language experiences and to encourage children to share acts of kindness with someone special.

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