A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue

If you are an Elementary School Counselor, then I am sure you know how wonderful Julia Cook's books are.  If you do not use her books for your classroom guidance lessons, then you may want to start right away!

 

I recently read A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue to our 2 kindergarten classes and it was a HUGE hit.  Tattle Tongue is when your tongue turns yellow with purple spots and it starts to itch and grows long when a kid tattles.  The book does a good job of teaching the difference between tattling and reporting. I think it is very important to encourage kids to tell adults when students are being mean or bullying, but teachers really struggle with kids telling just to get other kids in trouble.  The book teaches "4 rules of tattling: be a danger ranger, be a problem solver, now or later, and MYOB (mind your own beeswax)."

After reading and discussing the story, the students made tattle tongue masks.  I copied a page from the workbook and the students colored the face, glued it to a paper plate, and poked holes for their eyes.  I let the kids take their masks home to share with their families, but I gave an extra one to the teachers to use in their classrooms.  Both teachers keep their mask close at hand, and if a student is tattling (not reporting) they hold the mask up and say "think about it, you don't want to get tattle tongue!"  They say it works really well. Do you have other ideas for using A Bad Case of Tattle Tongue in the classroom? If so, please share.