Character Education: Love

Here are some ideas to teach about Love.

There is a fun book called "My Map Book" by Sara Fanelli (all of it was done by a young girl). I came across this from one of my professors at UC Santa Barbara and I loved it. This book has different maps she has drawn ranging from a map of her room to a map of her tummy. Towards the middle of the book is a page called "Map of My Heart" where she writes and draws people and things that she loves. You can show this to your students and then have them draw their own map of their heart.

Here is an example of how a completed Map of My Heart would look:

(On a side note: You can also use some of the other pages for other subjects in the classroom. For example, to teach about timelines there is a page in the book called "Map of My Day" or they can learn about maps in general from the page about "Map of My Neighborhood")

Click on the picture of this book to find out more about it on Amazon:

A great song to is called "Caring and Compassion" by Red Grammer and Pamela Phillips Oland on the album "Be Bop Your Best".

Click on the image of the CD to find out more on Amazon.

Now it's your turn...I would like to hear from you :). 

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Character Education: Justice

Ideas for teaching about Justice.
You can also explain that to be just means to be fair and to share with others.

When discussing justice in your classes, you can make cards that say "justice" on one side and "not justice" (or the word justice crossed out, like "justice") on the other side. Then give examples and have the children hold up the side that says "justice" if they think the example shows justice or the side that says "not justice" if they think the example does not show justice. You can make the cards out of index cards or card stock. This helps keeps the students engaged in the discussion and moves them towards being more active participants rather than just passively listening.

I used the following examples for our discussion  (I have put a J in front of the examples that show justice):                   

1. 
   
   (J) Sharing crayons with others.
2. 
   
   (J) Following the rules when playing a game.
3. 
   
   Taking away someone's toy without asking to use it.
4. 
   
   (J) Making sure everyone gets a slice of cake.
5. 
   
   Cutting in front of others in line without permission.
6. 
   
   (J) Taking equal turns on the swing.
7. 
   
   (J) Finding a game everyone can enjoy.
8. 
   
   Taking someone's candy if they were mean to you.

 (Note: you may want to provide less examples if the children are getting antsy)

You can then give the students a chance to raise their hand and offer their own examples and have the rest of the children hold up their cards to say if that child's example shows "justice" or "not justice." When I did this in our class, the children seemed to enjoy giving their own examples. It also encourages children to listen to each other's examples because they know they will be having to raise their card after hearing it.

This is an example of the two sides of the cards:

I also came across a story online called "Fran the Fair Frog" which you can download for free as a pdf file. You can then use the Frog Craft heart shape theme as an arts and crafts project. It makes a really cute frog out of heart shaped parts. I then typed up some tips on how to be fair and taped it to the back of the frog that each child made. You can find the story "Fran the Fair Frog" and also the heart shaped frog craft by going to http://www.first-school.ws/THEME/animals/amphibians.htm

This is how the end product will look (I glued the tips of how to be fair on the back):

Now it's your turn...I would like to hear from you :).

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Character Education: Kindness

Some ideas for Kindness:

A great song to use is called "Kindness" and it is from the album "Be Bop Your Best" by Red Grammer.

You can find out more on Amazon by clicking on the CD picture:

This whole album is a great resource for teaching character/virtues education. For more info, go to http://www.redgrammer.com/.

You can also have the children make coupon books/cards for their friends/family. I cut out heart shapes from pretty flower wrapping paper and gave one to each child to tape the edges onto the inside of their card. This made a heart-shaped pocket inside their card. I then made flower shaped coupons for them to store inside the heart-shaped vase (pocket). The coupons could say things like, "This coupon is good for: cleaning my room."

This is how the coupons look:

This is how the inside of the card could look:

Here is a free pdf file of the coupons I created. You can download or print to pdf and use for your own class. The stem has the "This coupon is good for" and the flower part is blank for the children to write in something like: "A big hug" (or you can help them write it in):

Kindness Coupons

Now it's your turn...I would like to hear from you :).

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Character Education: Unity

Here are some activities and resources for teaching about Unity:

The Ruhi Book 3 lesson on Unity, includes a beautiful song that starts with:

"We are drops of one ocean,

           We are pearls of one sea,

           Come and join us in our quest for unity,

           It's a way of life for you and me..."

To get the lyrics and music, CDs with this song, and other Ruhi Book 3 materials, you can go to  http://www.ruhiresources.org/

Also from this lesson is a Baha'i quote: "So powerful is the light of unity that it can illumine the whole earth."

One of my all time favorite books that can be used to teach multicultural education or character education is called "The Crayon Box That Talked" by Shane DeRolf (it was based on an anti-racism campaign). Kids love it and the illustrations are adorable. It is about a box of crayons where the crayons don't get along. Eventually a girl comes and buys them and uses all the different colors to draw a picture. They then start to realize how special they each are. I love the ending part:   

"We are a box of crayons,
                Each one of us unique,
                But when we get together...
                The picture is complete."

You can get more info about this book on Amazon by clicking on the book here:

You can also have children make a collage with pictures they cut out that show people working together in unity.

Anyways, those are just some extra ideas you might want to use to supplement your lessons on unity.

Now it's your turn...I would like to hear from you :).

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Character Education (useful websites)

Check out http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/chared.htm for a list of useful websites to use when teaching Character Education.

Also look through my posts about Character Education by clicking here

Find more Character Education resources at http://www.gradebook.org/Character%20Development.htm

On the A to Z Teacher Stuff website there is also a section on Character Education here.

Check out my latest posts

Now it's your turn...I would like to hear from you :).

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