Rice Experiment

Kids are not nice to each other.  They call one another names and make fun of the differences in certain kids.  "Four eyes" for a child with glasses. "Dumbo" for a child with big ears.  Today I heard a fellow mom volunteer in my 8 year olds class tell a boy that she really liked his new glasses.  Then she told me that her son informed her that the little boy was made fun of and feeling bad about needing glasses.
I had been sitting on the rice experiment for a couple of months waiting on the right moment to incorporate it in daily lessons.  So after I got my boys home we did homework, ran a couple of errands, and boiled some rice. 

It took a bit longer to cook than I thought so as it was being stirred it created a lovely skin around the top of the pot.  Yummy!

We watched the video here.

As I spooned the cooked rice into 3 separate jars we talked about how it feels when people call us names.  How it feels to be ignored.  And how it feels to be loved.

The jar on the left is the "hate jar".  It even has a mean face.
The jar in the middle is the "love jar".  It has a heart and a happy face.
The jar on the right is the "ignored jar".  It has a blank label.

If this goes as planned and the rice actually does change badly in the "hate jar" and "ignore jar" then I will see a very big positive change in my boys.