Art of Loving How It Relates to Being a Good Citizen

April 24, 2022 Post a Comment

Activities from the editors of Weekly Reader tin aid develop One thousand-6 students' understanding of the five good citizenship themes---honesty, compassion, respect, responsibility, and courage.

Advocating the five themes of citizenship -- honesty, compassion, respect, responsibility, and courage -- is not enough. Exploring those themes, talking near them, and making connections between those themes and your students' lives are the keys to developing a true understanding of the concepts. The activities below, which will assistance develop those themes, a re divided by class levels:

Activities for Students in Kindergarten and Form 1

Activities for Students in Grades 2 and 3

Activities for Students in Grades iv, five, and vi

But first, permit'south have a few words virtually each of the themes:

Honesty is the basic theme of good citizenship. A person must exist honest with others, and with himself or herself, in club to exist a good citizen.
Pity is the emotion of caring for people and for other living things. Compassion gives a person an emotional bond with his or her globe.
Respect is like to compassion only different in some ways. An important aspect of respect is self-respect, whereas pity is directed toward others. Respect is also directed toward inanimate things or ideas as well as toward people. For case, people should accept respect for laws. Finally, respect includes the idea of esteem or admiration, whereas pity is a feeling people can have for others they dont necessarily admire.
Out of honesty, pity, and respect comes Responsibility, which includes both individual, personal responsibility and public responsibility. Individuals and groups take responsibilities. Responsibleness is about action, and it includes much of what people think of as good citizenship. You may wish to betoken out that ane of the main responsibilities of students is to learn. They must educate themselves so that they tin alive upward to their full potential.
Finally, the theme of Courage is important to good citizenship. Human being beings are capable of moving across mere goodness toward greatness. Courage enables people to practise the right matter fifty-fifty when its unpopular, difficult, or dangerous. Many people---including Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther Male monarch Jr., Susan B. Anthony, and Mohandas Gandhi---take had the courage to change the rules to achieve justice.

Activities for Exploring the Five Themes of Citizenship: Kindergarten and Grade ane

A big part of the learning experience in kindergarten and get-go grade is socialization. Children are learning to cooperate and share with peers, to take part in group activities and talks, and to have responsibility for their ain actions and for their own learning. For kindergarten and outset graders, learning the v themes as singled-out concepts is less important than first to recognize that proficient citizenship behavior is based on certain principles. Here are a few activities that might help promote that recognition amongst your students.

Classroom Rules (Utilise as a discussion starter and a writing/drawing prompt.)
Start a word about the rules that should be followed in your classroom. Write each rule equally it is discussed on the board or a chart. Talk about why each rule is important. If students don't suggest anything similar the following rules, which relate to the five themes, you lot tin can add them:

Tell the truth.
Be caring.
Respect others.
Exist responsible for what you do and say.
Be dauntless enough to practice the right thing and to inquire for help when you need it.

Sharing Stories (Utilize as a give-and-take starter.)
1 way of exploring the 5 themes is merely to ask students to tell nearly their experiences. You may wish to employ the post-obit prompts:

Tell a story about a fourth dimension you told the truth, even though that was a difficult affair to do.
Tell a story about a fourth dimension you lot felt happy or sad for somebody or something.
Tell a story about someone you respect.
Tell a story about a fourth dimension you took responsibility for something you had done or said.
Tell a story well-nigh being dauntless.

What Could Happen Next? (Use as a prompt for word, drawing, or writing.)
Enquire students to discuss, draw, or write in response to the following questions:

Y'all find money on the playground. What could happen next?
Everybody is in a hurry. A kid almost y'all trips and falls down. What could happen next?
Your instructor asks the class to be quiet after somebody said something really funny. What could happen next?
You lot borrowed a pencil from the teacher's desk and lost it. What could happen next?
You think somebody is existence vicious past making fun of a kid on the playground. What could happen adjacent?

Activities for Exploring the Five Themes of Citizenship: Grades 2 and iii

In general, second- and third-graders have a pretty firm grasp on what does and what does not constitute good behavior. They should recognize the rights of others, know that they should work and play by the rules, and brand decisions apropos right and wrong with increasing independence.

The post-obit activities may assist students further refine their thinking near skillful behavior by exploring the v themes of citizenship in realistic situations.

The Homework Truth (Utilise as a discussion starter or a role-playing activity.)
For last nighttime'south homework, you lot were supposed to read a story and exist ready to tell information technology to the class today in your own words. You didn't read a story last night because y'all were having too much fun playing video games. Yous figured y'all could recollect an sometime story. When your teacher calls on you, y'all are suddenly nervous and can't remember any stories at all. What should you do?

Telephone call for Pity (Use as a writing prompt or a discussion starter.)
A teenage neighbour is responsible for yous while your parents go to a movie. Your neighbor wears a hearing aid because he is partially deaf. This evening, he tells y'all his hearing aid isn't working very well. The telephone rings, but your neighbour doesn't hear it, so information technology goes to your parents' voicemail. When your neighbor isn't watching, you play the message back. The bulletin is from your parents. They had forgotten to tell your neighbor your bedtime. Yous realize you can get away with staying up later. When your parents observe out, they'll blame your neighbor for not getting the message. What thoughts go through your caput? What do yous do?

Respect (Use as a discussion starter or a role-playing activity.)
You're at a school picnic and there's a long line for buying cold drinks. You lot're really thirsty. You see a friend of yours style ahead of you lot in line. Should you inquire your friend if you can cutting in line? How is the idea of respect for others connected to this situation? How do others in line experience when somebody cuts in line?

Responsibility---Whose Is It? (Use every bit a discussion starter or a writing prompt.)
You lot infringe a neat book from your classroom. It's a lot of fun to read. By accident, yous spill chocolate milk on the book. Information technology'due south a mess. You take the book out of your volume bag as shortly equally you get to your classroom. The instructor is busy. You could just take the book back to the shelf and leave information technology there. What should you exercise? Why?

Brave on the Ball Field (Use as a discussion starter or a writing prompt.)
You are in a dodgeball game. One kid is throwing the ball likewise hard. A couple of kids accept already quit the game, just near don't want to because they think quitting would brand them seem weak. What do you do? If you say something, what do you say and to whom do you say it? (Note that sometimes a person needs to exist brave plenty to walk away from a bad situation.)

Activities for Exploring the Five Themes of Citizenship: Grades iv, 5, and vi

In full general, 4th through sixth-graders take a pretty good understanding of the concepts of honesty, compassion, respect, responsibility, and backbone. Whether they behave honestly, compassionately, and and then on is another matter, but that's true for people of all ages: Anybody finds information technology challenging, from time to time, to alive up to those high ideals.

I key reason for this is that citizenship ideals sometimes disharmonize with one another or with other values. With young people, peer pressure -- the desire to make and go along friends at almost whatever cost -- frequently competes with other ideals. Following are some activities that tin can help students explore some of the issues in living up to the five themes of citizenship.

Truth in Friendship (Apply every bit a writing prompt, a word starter, or a office-playing activity.)
Imagine that a friend is going to practise a comedy act in a talent contest. He tells you the jokes from the human activity. The jokes are atrocious. Do your tell him? If and then, how practise you lot say it?

Examination Your Compassion (Use as a writing prompt or a part-playing activity.)
You notice out that a friend had no time to study for a test considering she had to help around the house when her mother was sick. And so your friend cheats on the exam. What practise you say to her? What do you do? Do you tell the teacher? (Discuss after writing or role-playing.)

Respect (Use equally a writing prompt or a role-playing activity.)
Imagine that you live near an elderly couple. Two or 3 of your friends are visiting y'all and they see the two erstwhile people. Your friends offset making fun of the elderly people behind their backs. What, if annihilation, practice you say to your friends? What might happen if your neighbors overhear what is going on? (Talk over later writing or role-playing.)

Fulfilling Small Responsibilities (Utilise as a writing prompt or a discussion starter.)
Lots of lilliputian things brand up good behavior, such as non littering, keeping quiet when people need to concentrate, and returning library books on fourth dimension. Brand a list of pocket-size responsibilities. (That function of the activeness might be done in small-scale, cooperative groups.) Then effort to think of a situation in which yous fulfilled one of the small responsibilities. Think of another situation in which you did not fulfill a small responsibility. Are the "little" things really that important? Why or why not?

It Takes Guts (Use as a writing prompt.)
Imagine you're playing basketball with a friend. Some kids come upwards and take your friend's basketball. Create more specific details about this kind of situation, then describe what you would do. (Hash out and role-play based on the additional circumstances students depict in their writing. Notation that sometimes a person needs backbone to walk away from a situation.)

Updated: 09/xviii/2017

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Source: https://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr008.shtml