Lambs at school
After listening to a story about lambs on a farm, Emily Brittain Elementary students' surprise at hearing bleating coming from outside the gym turned to excitement when two lambs joined them Monday afternoon.
The lambs belonged to David Andrews, instructional coach for student engagement for the Butler Area School District, who brought them in as a reward for the students, who demonstrated good behavior through the district's Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) program.
Andrews said introducing students to lambs acts as a reward for them, but it is also an educational opportunity.
“We decided along with the other coaches to implement the Learning with Lambs program this year,” Andrews said. “We're learning about the lambs a little bit, and the kids have great questions, but at the same time it's a reward for the students for doing what they're supposed to in school.”
According to Cassie Pencek, principal of Emily Brittain Elementary, the school uses what is essentially a large Bingo board to keep track of when students exhibit good behavior. When the stickers fill up an entire row, they get a prize.Students at the school earned a double bingo this month, and the ones in the row, including kindergarten through fourth grade, got to meet the lambs in the gym.“It's awesome because this year we don't have a lot of out-of-classroom experiences,” Pencek said. “And it's a great opportunity for them to learn about sheep.”After reading the story, Andrews talked to the children about the lambs, explaining how they are bred and raised, and how the students should pet and interact with them while they were in the gym. While the children learn facts about lambs and sheep, Andrews said having them pet the lambs to learn how to interact with them is the best lesson he could give through PBIS.“All of the kids get science during the day, so we can incorporate some of the animal portion into science and crops and growing grass,” Andrews said.
Pencek said students have earned rewards through PBIS in the past, and recently earned a Popsicle party for the last bingo.PBIS is a national program school districts adopt to promote good student behavior, and Pencek said Emily Brittain promotes the district's own positive behavior system, SOAR, which stands for Safety, Ownership, Attitude and Respect and Responsibility.Teachers keep track of when their students display good behavior related to this rubric, which earns them a sticker on the bingo board.“Being safe might be walking rather than running in the halls,” Pencek said. “Ownership might be turning assignments in on time. Assisting might just be helping a friend, and respect is just being kind and cleaning up after yourself.”Andrews has taken the two lambs to other schools over the past few months as a reward for PBIS, but he said this could be the last opportunity because the 4-month-old lambs are starting to get too big. However, every time he brought the lambs to school, he said the students had a great time.“It has been fantastic,” Andrews said. “It's eye-opening, and the kids and teachers and staff are enthusiastic about it.”
