Activities, Lessons, and Resources for National Bullying Prevention Month
CategoriesOctober is National Bullying Prevention Awareness month. We’re here to get you prepared with a list of valuable activities, lessons, and resources designed to help prevent and address bullying among students in grades K–12.
Let’s begin with a feel-good video for everyone:
Inspire kindness with this empowering 6-minute video that will draw students in as they watch how the act of kindness is set in motion and spread from one person to the next – and back again.
Life Vest Inside – Kindness Boomerang – “One Day”
KidsHealth.org provides lessons and activities designed to teach children how to identify bullying behaviors and how to effectively deal with and prevent bullying and cyberbullying. Check them out here:
- Grades K-2: Is it Bullying? Friendship Chain Month
- Grades 3-5: Acting Against Bullying, Bully-Proofing Your School
- Grades 6-8: Shutting Down the Rumor Mill, Circle of Friends, Acting Against Bullying
- Grades 6-8: Unplugging the Cyberbullies, Everyone’s Involved
- Grades 9-12: Bully Busters, Bully Pulpit, Shutting Down the Rumor Mill
- Grades 9-12: Pair and Share, Innocent Bystander
PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center is the founder of the National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month campaign and is a leader in the battle against bullying.
- In 2014, PACER partnered with Nick Vujicic and shared this inspiring video, full of hope:
Nick Vujicic – No Arms No Legs No Worries
- In 2015, Disney supported PACER’s initiative with this touching PSA based on Winnie the Pooh’s wise words:
You are Braver, Stronger and Smarter than you Think
PACER also provides numerous free resources on their website including:
- Lesson plans at the elementary level
- More engaging activities for elementary students, including Spookley, the square pumpkin - just in time for October!
- Curriculum materials designed for middle and high school students
- A pledge-signing event, student-created videos, a community run/walk/roll, and more are all included in this list of activities to educate and inspire middle and high school students
Second Step is a PK – grade 8 curriculum focused on social and emotional learning (SEL) and provides free lessons and activities created to address and prevent bullying:
- Grades 1-8: Bystander Skills
- Grades 1-3: Class Meeting: Empathy Helps Stop Bullying
- Grades 4-5: Help Stop Bullying with Kindness and Respect
- Grades 4-5: Blocking Rumors
- Grades 6-8: Bullying or Joking?
Using children’s books and novels is a great way to teach any topic, including bullying prevention. ReadWriteThink.org provides lesson plans and activities based on popular books:
- Grades 3-5: “A Bad Case of Bullying” is a lesson plan targeted for students in grades 3-5 based on the popular children’s book, A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon.
- Grades 6-12: This podcast episode features ten books about bullying targeted for older students.
- Grades 9-12: This interactive, engaging unit plan is based on the high-interest novel, The Bully by Paul Langan.
Below are a few additional general resources dedicated to the bullying prevention initiative:
- The National Association of School Psychologists provides helpful resources for families and educators including publications addressing cyberbullying, the connection between bullying and suicide, supporting the LGBTQ community, along with several other relevant topics.
- StopBullying.gov provides numerous resources and tools specific to the needs of schools including: information on bus driver training, classroom teacher training, and webisodes for students.
- Stomp Out Bullying offers a free online toolkit for educators designed to encourage students to “act out against bullying and cyberbullying.”
What are your favorite go-to resources and activities to address and prevent bullying? Please share! Interested in learning more about bullying prevention? Register for our online course – The Bullying Conundrum: A Journey from Awareness to Activism
Here are a few classes related to this topic:
ADHD: Teaching and Learning Strategies
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) in Education
Anxiety Awareness: Strategies to Improve Student Well-being and Performance