Electing to be a good citizen

Voting= our right
Voting= our responsibility
Voting= our priviledge
Voting= our freedom
Voting= our calling

Voting= the list could go on and on. We all know the importance, even if our opinions are not very positive about the matter, we all know that voting is our right as a US citizen. It is important that we continue to instill this quality into our youngsters. They need us to show them how to be good citizens and taking the time to vote puts our words into actions! Have you exercised your right to vote?

Here is a little unit to teach your students the importance of voting!

Hurricane Day

Well, here in the wonderful Sunshine State it is not so sunny. We are currently awaiting the Category 4 hurricane named Matthew. During my down time I have pulled together some resources for you all of things that I have created over the last few weeks!

Character Education Writing Bundle

 

After reading the story, The Giving Tree, we brainstormed ways that we are responsible and create this little tree craft .



We Want To Be Responsible Unit

 

I hope that you enjoy these quick resources! To all of my fellow Floridians, stay safe!

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, tell me what it means to you (you can thank me later for getting that song stuck in your head!

When I am teaching respect, I like to begin with teaching a student to respect themselves. If we don't respect ourselves, how can we truly learn to respect anyone else?

To teach this concept toK-2nd grade students, I used a book called It's Okay To Be Different  by Todd Parr. If you haven't seen this book, you need to order it ASAP. I got the idea of this lesson when my two year old daughter brought me the book to read during her night time routine. I sat there afterwards asking myself how I never noticed this book before....

Needless to say this book is now sitting on my bookshelf in my office to use during lessons. Can someone please tell me that I am not the only teacher-mommy that does that? hahaha

Before reading the book, I had students verbally tell me what the word respect means to them. I had varies answers, I have to respect my mom, using my manners to someone older, sharing with others, etc. Before long I had the response loving yourself.  That was out of a mouth of a first grader. Respect is loving yourself. I froze in that moment because she had just stolen my whole lesson. I applauded her and continued with the rest.

We read the story and then discussed ways that each students ways different by using the stem: It's okay to... (Students responded with: eat ice-cream for dinner, have curly hair, have holes in my shoes, like T-Rex, etc)

The students were then asked to write "It's okay to.." on their paper and then draw a picture to match. You better believe that once the students were finished we created our very own class book for their teacher to keep.. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE going back and reading their class books to them throughout the year!

 

Have fun creating this project in your class! 

Me First

How many times do we hear that while we are at school or if you have little ones at home as well. I currently have a two year old daughter and she is an only child but she still has this independent, I can do it all by myself mentality..... AT THE AGE OF 2.....really... where does that come from? haha

Well for the pillar of fairness I came across this cute story by Helen Lester called "Me First". This story is able a pushy, demanding pig named Pinkerton who always has to be first, until one day he got himself into something that he wasn't quite expecting.

After we read the story aloud, we discuss why it's important to let others go first sometimes. I created an anchor chart with their responses to this statement: Being first isn't always best, tell about a time when you were fair and took turns with someone else. I had some lower level students and I allowed them to just draw a picture while others were a little more advanced and could write a complete sentence or two!

Of course there is a cute little craft to remind them of the story and once I put it all together, it looks likes stinkin' adorable.

 How do you teach your students to be fair in your classroom?

To grab the entire unit, use the link below:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Being-First-Isnt-Alway-Best-2806946

What is my responsibility?

Here is the tried and true frustrating moment in a teachers life... Are you ready for it?

You have just give out an activity and within 10 minutes your little ones are finished and telling you that they are bored and have nothing to do. Your response???

I would always say to my students, can you go and be a responsible student and move on to the next task. But does that really mean to a 5-8 year old? More times than not, we as adults fail to model what we expect our students to really do.

Ok maybe I exaggerated, we as teachers would not do that would we? Maybe we have modeled it over and over until we are blue in the face, but this little unit is a really fun and easy way to remind students what their responsibility is in school, at home, during play time, etc.

Check it out and tell me what you think!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Whats-My-Responsibility-2806924

Hello there

Hey old friends, new friends and family! Hope that each of you have had a splendid day! I am thrilled and  excited about picking up blogging again and keeping you all updated on this new journey that the Lord has placed me on. I have recently stepped away from the classroom (totally a God thing) after teaching for 5 years at a fabulous Title 1 school. This past summer I was approached with the opportunity to be the Coordinator of Character Education and Community Partners with our school district. Of course my initial thought was very similar to yours, what on Earth is that?

To sum it up quickly, I organize, teach, mentor and create lessons to develop student leadership and character education. I do not have one school or classroom, instead I travel to all of the schools in our district, all 36 of them. My day is never the same from one day to the next and I am very grateful for that. I have to brag and say that I have been blow away to see how teachers, no matter the grade level, strive to inspire students to be become the leaders that they were designed to become. We do we have some pretty creative and amazing teachers in our district.


In our district uses the CHARACTER COUNTS initiative to teach character education. Our district adopted the CHARACTER COUNTS! initiative in 1998.  Within the frame work of CHARACTER COUNTS!  is the six pillars of character that we encourage our teachers to focus on: fairness, responsibility, respect, trustworthiness, caring, and citizenship.

As I create new resources for character education I will share ideas and resources. My goal is to always test out lessons and resources in the classrooms that I visit before posting so keep checking back for resources to be updated weekly!