See Think Wonder

Connect- Just like with earth day and sending a message to students that earth day should be every day, I pulled this picture from a book called A Dream of Freedom just recently for them to think about prejudice, even though Martin Luther King's birthday has passed The students in the photo were being escorted into a high school in Little Rock once schools were desegregated.  First I put the picture on the data camera had them fill out one column at a time.  Some of their responses in the "think" section were pretty deep like, "I think soldiers are following them because they have dark skin."  And some were able to infer this was taken in the past based on the women's clothing, which led them to wonder "why did people dress so weird in the past?"  After I showed them the caption and we discussed the event, I asked them if they think prejudice only happens when people have different skin colors.  Most thought yes.   We then looked at the word "prejudice" written on the board and thought about what small word sounds like "prejudice"? (judge). Next, we brainstormed all the ways people judge (appearance, houses we live in, cars we drive, money we have, etc).
Extend- After an hour of discussion (very few were off task!  It was lovely! Almost every single student shared a time when they felt like someone judged them. ), one student piped up and said "Mrs. Smith, I wish everyone just always the followed the Golden Rule.  Then the world would be nice all the time.  Treat others the way you want to be treated!"
Challenge-Just like with  any of these thinking routines, I expect them to go WAY deeper than they do. I forget that they're only 6.  I have to remember that if I'm exposing them these thinking strategies now, they'll surely have it down next year.  The more you exercise, the stronger you'll be!