Below you will find a series of worksheets that helps students understand the nature of this type of behavior and how to take steps to address many common issues that may arise. When someone is experiencing bullying, it involves one or more people targeting a vulnerable person. It is often accompanied with aggressive, threatening behavior, and intimidation. When this type of behavior is repeated it can often result in long term harm either mentally or physically for the person that is the target. The worksheets in section will help you learn to identify these behaviors and develop methods for extinguishing the situations. In today’s classroom there are an overwhelming number of ways in which this can occur. The best way to help students learn to cope and take action is to explore it with them.
Printable Bullying Worksheets
Click the buttons to print each worksheet and answer key.
Recess is Ruined
What do you think Kevin did when he ran back inside? What do you think he should do?
Conflict or Bullying
State whether each situation is bullying or conflict and explain why. It may help for you to draw pictures, at times.
Explain the Scenario
You will explain what is going on in each situation. Here is an example: Marissa is very good in science. Her best friend Betty struggles in science, and Marissa frequently helps her with her homework. Marissa likes Betty regardless of her grades. But when Marissa wins the science fair and a scholarship to go to Space Camp in Florida over the summer, Betty suddenly stops talking to Marissa.
Chalkboard Humiliation
Label each sentence GOOD if it is a good way for Jeremy to deal with the situation, or BAD if it is a bad way for Jeremy to deal with the situation.
Bullying or Not?
At the very back of the bus, two bigger boys take Paul’s backpack and start to pull things out of it. Paul asks them to stop, but that only makes them laugh.
Reflecting on Bullying
Choose one of the journaling prompts and write in your journal. I would suggest that you only answer one per day.
Mean Girls
Watch the movie or movie clips. Answer the questions. You will need clips of this movie that can be pulled from most video sites.
Feelings and Body Language
If you were the teacher, and you saw a student looking this way, what would you do?
How Would You Feel?
For each situation, color the thermometer to show how you would feel. You'll notice that the hotter you get, the more uncomfortable you are with the situation.
What Would You Say?
Your best friend has become the target of some bullies at school. They trip her in the hallway. They have told her that she is not allowed to use the bathroom closest to her classroom or they will beat her up. Your friend is now sometimes late for class because the other bathroom is so far away. The situation is starting to affect her grades.
What Happened Here?
Imagine it is show and tell day at school. The boy in the picture is one of your classmates. Just before school starts, you find him next to his locker looking like this.
How Do You Feel?
It is recess time. Some kids are playing soccer, but they won’t let you play. Another group of kids is playing tag. They don’t want you to play with them either.
How Do You Feel?
Read each scenario. How would it make you feel? Color in the happy face or the sad face.
Is it Bullying? What Would You Do?
Write what you would do in each situation and why. Do you have a series of options?
Help Students Deal With a Bully
When someone issues a threat to abuse or dominate another it is seen as an act of bullying. Being bullied is a common situation that children and even adults are faced with daily. It is often difficult to understand why the person is being aggressive towards us and how to diffuse their aggressive behavior. Bullies will often wait to exhibit this behavior until we are isolated and there are minimal chances for them to be corrected by an authority figure, which is often a teacher or another adult. This type of behavior can happen just about anywhere: in class, on the bus, in your neighborhood. All over the world, there are some heinous acts and behavior that is carried out by people, even though they are well aware that its bad and it shouldn't be done. One such act is bullying. Do you know what it is? Let us see.
Bullying is an act where a person or group of persons pick on others. It is an aggressive and unwanted behavior, typically in school aged children where they use perceived or real power imbalance. It also involves giving threats to someone, spreading rumors about someone, as well as attacking someone on purpose.
Bullying is usually of three types: Verbal bullying, social bullying and physical bullying.
Verbal bullying involves the use of words like calling mean names, teasing, passing sexual comments or threatening to cause harm. In social bullying, the most common behavior is spreading rumors about someone. It also includes telling someone not to be friends with a specific person or leaving someone behind purposefully. Physical bullying is attacking someone, slapping, hitting, punching, and even spitting.
Here is something very important: bullying is extremely horrible, and you should never do it. If you ever see someone being bullied, make sure you call an elder one for help!
There are several techniques that we can use to soften these situations. It is often overwhelming to start using these practices but having good and consistent habits are one of the best ways to counter this. The first thing to do is to speak up and say that something wrong is going on. In some cases, this is simply enough to change the situation. If that does not help, ask other peers around you to speak up as well. If that does not help, seek out the help of an adult. It is best is perpetrator knows the adult, so that an established relationship can be followed up with this person.
I had a school bully when I was in my elementary years. Online chat rooms and other technological advances were popping up back then, in 2005, and cyberbullying was difficult to navigate. Over ten years later, bullying has become even more complex, and youth, families, so educational staff must understand how to help a student deal with their bully.
There are many meaningful ways to help your students deal with a bully, such as sharing your experiences, offering validation, and encouraging the use of the student’s WITS. These techniques will help the student feel less isolated and more comfortable handling conflict and their bullies.
An adult that is confronted with a bullying situation should remain grounded. Youth look to the adults in their life for guidance, and impulsively reacting to this kind of news might be nerve-wracking for the student, who is entrusting you with sensitive information. The remainder of this article will offer some suggestions on how to help students deal with a bully.
Share Your Experiences
Bullying is an extremely isolating experience, yet it’s more likely than not that you and many others have encountered a school bully at least once in your life.
Share your experiences with your students. This lets them know that while being bullied is a hurtful situation, they are not alone and others have felt similarly in the past, including yourself.
Additionally, it shows your students that bullying doesn’t last forever and with the proper coping techniques, they can deal with their bully in a productive manner, just as you did!
Offer Validation
On an emotional level, the act of sharing painful experiences can also serve as a way to validate the student’s feelings.
Validation is when a trusted family member, friend, or connection genuinely hears and understands the experiences the students share with them. It's when they accept the student regardless of difficult emotions or unpleasant experiences.
Offering this validation to students lets them know that you will support and love them through anything.
Encourage Students to Use Their W.I.T.S.
A common abbreviation that educators share with many elementary and high school students is: WITS.
The letters in WITS stand for:
- W - Walk away
- I - Ignore
- T - Talk it out
- S - Seek help
Encourage the bullied students you’re working with not to engage with hurtful comments. It’s the best way for them to stay grounded in a confrontational situation. Insults can make them feel angry, shocked, sad, disappointed, and so much more.
Walking away and ignoring the bully are two techniques that sometimes work, however it’s possible that the bully may follow the student, especially when out on the playground. Children are then encouraged to try and talk the situation out.
Talking out the problem works best when all students are calm and open to receiving others' opinions. Of course, this isn’t always doable. If talking it out isn’t an option, students are encouraged to seek help from an adult.
Children are learning conflict management through social interactions, so it’s best to allow the students to do everything in their power to manage the situation. You are there to act as a mediator between the students, to protect the safety of the students and intervene when the children can’t proceed further.
Final Thoughts
Educational staff do more than just teach their students - the staff helps their students navigate the intricacies of life, and that always presents opportunities for bullies. With the proper support circle, students will be encouraged to share their experiences.
Doing so can help relieve stress, dissolve confrontation and promote harmonious relationships among students of all ages.