Chapter 4 of the CARE handbook focuses on Resilience - “a set of

qualities and circumstances that foster success despite risk and

adversity” (Benard, 2004). It states that “Students who are resilient
have strengths and characteristics that help them succeed in school
despite the difficulties they may face in their lives”, and I find this to be
of great help, especially in this time of chaos. The resilience research
has shown that the presence of just one caring adult in the life of a
child can make the difference between success and failure in school
(Gay, 2000), and I always hope I can be that caring adult to my
students.
The strategy I learned from the book is “Fostering resilience” through
activities like How Do Trees Get So Tall? (page 4-8), Stress Buffer Shield
(page 4-10), “Cutting Out” Stress (page 4-12), Be Gentle with Yourself
and Others (page 4-14), and Believe It…or Not! (page 4-17). The one
activity I find most appealing is “Be gentle with yourself and others”,
aiming at “even the youngest students who are confronted with
stressful or disadvantaged situations on a far-too-frequent basis” to
“help students understand how we can know when to be gentle with
ourselves and others, and how to develop that skill, in order to deal
with stress, trauma or loss”.
The activity consists of a story about Saint Bernard – a brave, gentle,
loving breed of dog. After using the story of Barry, a famous Saint
Bernard, to start a discussion about how we can know when to be
gentle with ourselves and others, and how to develop that skill,
students are given a dot-to-dot picture of the dog.
Since the target of this activity is K-2 students, this can be a really fun
and friendly way for them to be open about their difficulties at an early
stage of life without being too stressed out.
A fun way to do this is to ask students if they have a pet dog at home,
then put them into teams to make lists of 1. a dog’s personality and 2.
difficulties they can have in life. The team with the longer list wins.
After the discussion, there will be circle time for them to sit together
and share things that bother them. At the end of the activity, rewards
can be given to those who traced and colored the best dogs.