Ruby Bridges - Making Spaces Welcoming and Kind
- Balance Learning Resources
- Jan 23
- 5 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
Grade Level: K-2
Duration of video: 7 minutes, 39 seconds
Themes: Kindness • Fairness • Belonging • Courage • Helping Others • Being an Upstander
Description:
Students learn about Ruby Bridges, a young girl who helped change history during desegregation as the first African American student to attend an all-white school in her community. Ruby showed bravery and kindness when she faced unfair treatment at school. Through a short, age-appropriate video and guided discussion, students explore how kind choices help create safe, welcoming environments and how telling a trusted grown-up is an important way to help when someone is being treated unkindly.
Lesson Plan:
🎯 OBJECTIVES (SWBAT)
Identify unkind or unfair behavior.
Describe how unfair treatment makes people feel.
Explain how kind actions help create safe places.
Name simple ways to be an upstander.
Practice telling a trusted grown-up when someone is being treated unfairly.
🧰 MATERIALS:
Video I Am Ruby Bridges | Kids Read Aloud Books | Classroom Read Aloud Books| Black History
Student Worksheet 1: Upstander Steps: How to Make Spaces Safe (Printed for each student or digital copy)
Two sheets of drawing paper per student
Crayons (or markers) for each student
📋 LESSON FLOW
Warm up
Teacher asks:
“Have you ever seen someone treated unfairly?”
“How does it feel when someone is left out?”
Write the word DISCRIMINATION on the board.
Teacher says:
“Discrimination” is a very big word that means being unfair to someone because they might seem a little different than you.
Today, we are going to watch a video about the true story of a little girl named Ruby Bridges. She was born in the 1950’s when Black children were treated unfairly and were not allowed to go to school with White children.
When our country realized how unfair this was, they made a new law called “Brown versus Board of Education,” which allowed ALL children to go to school together.
Ruby Bridges was the FIRST Black child to go to the school in her neighborhood.
Video
Prior to showing video teacher says:
“As you watch the video about Ruby Bridges, notice how she felt, who was not kind, and who was kind. We’ll talk about that after the film.”
Play the video entitled: I Am Ruby Bridges | Kids Read Aloud Books | Classroom Read Aloud Books| Black History
Whole-class discussion
Ask:
“What happened to Ruby that was not fair?”
“How did the new law try to make things fair for Ruby and all Black children?”
“Who did not welcome Ruby? What did they do?”
“Who welcomed Ruby? What did they do?”
“What feelings did Ruby feel?”
“How did Ruby act?”
“What did Ruby want most of all?”
Activity: Drawing a kind and helping place
Give each student a piece of drawing paper and markers or crayons.
Ask students to draw a “Kind and Helping Place” where everyone is kind to each other.
Ask:
“How does this space feel?”
“Would you like to be in a space like this?”
Teacher says:
“Kind choices make safe places.”
Ask: “How can we help make the spaces we are in safe for everyone?"
Hang up the students’ art on a designated wall in the classroom.
Be an upstander
Hand out Student Worksheet 1: Upstander Steps: How to Make Spaces Safe (Printed for each student or digital copy). Teacher holds up/ points to the worksheet and says:
“Sometimes we see someone being treated unfairly or unkindly, and we might not know what to do. An upstander is someone who helps make the situation safer and kinder.”
“Being an upstander does NOT mean yelling or getting into trouble. It means making a kind and safe choice.”
Teacher points to the icons on the worksheet and reads aloud, pausing after each step.
1. 🚫😂 Don’t laugh or make it worse Teacher explains:
“When we laugh or join in, it can make the unkind behavior feel bigger. When we don’t laugh, we show that we do not agree with being mean.”
Ask:
“How does not laughing help the person who was hurt?”
2. ❤️ Be kind Teacher explains:
“Being kind can be as simple as a smile, a kind word, or standing next to someone. Kindness helps people feel less alone.”
Ask:
“What kind actions can you take to help people feel welcome and safe?”
3. ➡️👫 Help someone move away
Teacher explains:
“Sometimes the best way to help is to help someone leave a mean situation. We can say, ‘Come with me,’ or ‘Let’s go play somewhere else.’”
Ask:
“Why might moving away help stop the mean behavior?”
4. 🧑🏫 Tell a grown-up
Teacher explains:
“Some problems are too big for kids to fix by themselves. Telling a grown-up helps keep everyone safe.”
Teacher adds:
“Telling a grown-up is not tattling. It’s being brave and caring.”
Ask:
“Who is a grown-up you trust at school or at home?”
Key Reinforcement-
Teacher says:
“You don’t have to do all of these steps.” “Even doing one action makes a difference.”
Have students repeat together:
“One kind choice makes a kind and safe space.”
5. PRACTICE (Role-Play or Modeling)
Choose 4 children to act out the following with upstanders using the upstander steps:
One child is unkind
One child is hurt and left out
One child helps
One child tells a teacher
After the ‘skit,’ the teacher asks:
“How did our actor feel when s/he was left out?”
“How did our actor feel when his/her friends helped?”
“How did the actors who ‘helped’ feel about themselves?”
“How did the kind actions make our space/place feel?”
Exit ticket/Assessment: student drawing
Hand out another paper, crayons, or markers to the students. Ask them to draw themselves doing some of the upstander steps to make school a kind and safe space.
Hang up these pictures side by side with the first drawing the children made in this lesson or on another designated wall in the classroom.
Teacher Notes (K–2)
Emphasize that courage can be quiet and kind and telling a grown-up is brave.
Telling vs. Tatting: Telling an adult about hurtful behavior is not the same thing as tattling (reporting another student’s small, unimportant behavior to the teacher just to make the student look bad).
Reinforce: Good grows when people choose to act kindly.
Core K–2 Message (what kids should walk away with):
– I can help – I am not alone – Telling a grown-up is brave - Kind choices make safe places.
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