Students use photography to capture each other doing positive things, such as picking up litter, helping to tidy up the classroom, volunteering for after-school activities, or reading a written project to the class. The teacher can also take pictures, and it works best if pictures are captured by both teachers and students. When students can recognize the efforts of their peers, they'll begin to recognize their own efforts, and self-esteem will build as a result. Once the pictures are up, students in the picture can add captions explaining what they were doing, how they felt, and what any next steps might be.
Large words can occupy each corner of a bulletin board with the steps for conflict resolution: "Stop," "Say," "Listen," and "Think" to indicate what kids need to do when working out conflicts with others. Students can cut out or draw pictures of conflicts that frequently occur in school. Conflict statements focused on resolution can accompany each picture with phrases such as "I felt hurt when..." or "I feel as if..." or "I am thinking that..."
Writing projects can reflect what students know about giving and receiving respect. Folding a paper in half, students write and illustrate the word "Respect" on the front, then open it up like a card to write inside what it means to show respect, such as saying "thank you," opening doors for others and picking up trash from the floor. They can also write what behaviors from others make them feel respected, such as being asked to do something versus told, or having a second chance to make a project better. These writings will demonstrate what respect means to students individually and as a class.
After reading books about friendship such as "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister and "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein, students take the ideas from the book and create a bulletin board. For "The Giving Tree," they can create a tree using butcher paper and dried leaves gathered from outside or cut from green paper. Each leaf can name something they can do to help friends such as sharing, offering support when a friend might be sad, or celebrating a birthday. For "The Rainbow Fish" students can create a giant fish with scales using construction paper. Each scale contains a child's name. Before placing the scales on the board, students pick randomly from them and write a kind statement about each name they pick. Once all names have at least one kind statement written by another student, the scales are placed on the giant rainbow fish.