With many of our students and children returning to school comes the need to wear a mask to school. Not only do our children need to wear a mask to school, they need to keep their mask on all day. Wearing a mask can be challenging for students, particularly young learners, students whose first language is not English, or students with disabilities or exceptionalities.
In order to encourage students to wear their masks all day, this social story teaches them about the importance of wearing a mask all day, how a mask can help keep them safe, and keep other people safe. It also teaches correct mask wearing as well as incorrect mask wearing.
I love social stories because they teach children big concepts but in kid terms. This social story helps break down the idea of wearing a mask into a tangible script that they can follow.
When students need reinforcement of a skill, a social story can serve as a bridge to help the student understand why the skill is important. It is critical that students know the why behind the ask to wear a mask. When children do not understand the why behind wearing a mask, it may cause defiant behaviors to arise as well as unnecessary anxiety or fear–just because wearing a mask is an unfamiliar behavior.
Social stories help break down unfamiliar concepts, making unknowns less scary for children. This social story shows children that their mask needs to cover their nose and mouth, and that while they are at school they need to wear their mask all day.
This can be such challenging new habit for young learners who may want to take off their mask and may not be used to the feeling of wearing a mask for an extended period of time.
Included in this social story is a follow-up activity on how to correctly wear a mask. Children can color in the smiley face or the frowny face to decide if the mask in the picture is being worn correctly.
There are also two classroom posters that you can hang which show correct mask wearing and incorrect mask wearing.
Wearing a mask social story can be used during small group reading time, a social-emotional learning group, a whole group reading activity, or even a virtual partner activity.
I hope this social story helps support your children and students! You can grab it here or by clicking any of the images above.
Best,
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