Jewish Values and Bullying

As educators we are all worried about Bullys and kids being unkind to their peers. 3 and 4 year olds are testing the power of their words and learning how to be good friends but sometimes they cross the line and it can become bullying. We were beginning to have this problem in one of our 4 year old classrooms. One of the teachers in the room pulled the 2 boys aside who were not being kind to some of the other kids and started talking to them about Superheros and what makes a Superhero. They knew that Superheros are kind, ( Derech Eretz),  help other people (creating Shalom Bayit) and do "good" things for people. The discussion was then taken to the whole class about what makes a superhero and what qualities in each of the kids in the class are super hero qualities. The children came up with great examples how each of their friends were superheros. The children understood the concept because when one child was being unkind to his friend another child reported that "Joey" was not being a superhero. This was reinforced even more in another 3 year old class where they were talking about Princesses and how Sarah was the first Princess in the Torah and Sarah means Princess. They talked about the kind of person Sarah was (speaking kindly to others, Shmirat Lasho) and what a Princess should be.