Character education is always high on our back-to-school to-do list. I mean, who doesn’t want to be surrounded by people who are friendly, fair, and patient? Especially if you’re spending most of your waking hours with them.
Establishing classroom management systems is important at the beginning of the year, and a big part of each system working well is having a community that acts with integrity.
Most kids come to school with a lot to offer. Their families have already done a lot of the heavy lifting developing character and any good preschool program piggybacks on that to keep kids going and growing.
But it doesn’t stop there. As kids get older, there are new scenarios that provide unfamiliar challenges and then bam… they don’t always know how to act. This is why character education is an ongoing process, not only now, but as we continue to work our way through life.
BOOKS TO SUPPORT CHARACTER EDUCATION
There are so many children’s books with topics that support character development, it would be hard to list them all here. A quick search online will yield dozens of books for you to choose from. Chances are, your media specialist would be thrilled to make a stack for you. You can even be specific and search for books that address certain issues like interrupting, bullying, and lying, for example.
Here are a few of our favorites to get you started on your plans for character education:
- My Magical Choices by Becky Cummings
- What If Everybody Did That? by Ellen Javernick
- Nell & Fluffy by Anne Liersch
- Decibella and Her 6-Inch Voice by Julia Cook
- Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns About Sportsmanship by Howard Binkow
- Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein
- Pig the Fibber by Aaron Blabey
- Do Unto Otters: A Book About Manners by Laurie Keller
In addition to published children’s books, we love adding in these PRINTABLE BOOKS👇 that support character education. There are five in the set and they cover multiple core values in the classroom.
- How to Show Empathy
- How to Be Kind
- What Does It Mean to Be a Good Sport?
- What It Means to Persevere
- How Do We Show Respect at School?
Each book comes with related follow-up work to help children understand how these behaviors impact their emotional well-being and the relationships they’ll have with other kids in the classroom. They’re a great tool for teachers and school counselors who serve children in first and second grade.
CLASSROOM POSTERS FOR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
In the spirit of “use it, or lose it,” we like visual reminders of the positive traits we’ve been working on. These CLASSROOM POSTERS👇 help us accomplish that goal and are a quick way for us to reference and redirect children when needed.
The pictures are simple, but highly relatable for young kids. And the speech bubbles provide an example of how the core value might sound in real life.
To save on color ink, we like the idea of printing each poster on colored paper using black and white ink. If you have a specific color theme in your classroom, this option is a good way to make the posters match your overall aesthetic.
For the purposes of character education, the set encourages children to BE:
- brave
- confident
- content
- curious
- fair
- friendly
- generous
- grateful
- helpful
- honest
- kind
- loving
- patient
- persistent
- polite
- respectful
- responsible
- a leader
- a team
…as well as an additional one that says, LOVE YOU, a reminder about self-care.
FUN ACTIVITIES FOR CHARACTER EDUCATION
We also like these fun, active ways to work on developing strong character in the classroom. They cover a variety of traits and can easily be popped into lesson plans.
- Act It Out – Short Scenario Skits: Present character-building dilemmas, such as “You found some stickers that don’t belong to you. What should you do?” Invite the children to act out right and wrong ways to respond to the situation. This activity helps them develop honesty, responsibility, and respect.
- Classroom Jobs: Assign meaningful jobs to the children. Then, make time each day for a short check-in where students reflect and share how they did their job. This routine will help them develop not only responsibility, but accountability and community awareness, too.
- Kindness Jar: Use a kindness jar in your classroom, allowing children to add a small object (like a marble or pom pom) to the jar when they see another child doing something kind. This helps them strengthen traits like kindness and generosity… great for character education.
- Be Mistake Fixers: Gather in a circle and share a fictional situation where someone made a mistake, such as yelling at a friend, tearing someone else’s paper, or cutting in line for the slide. Then, spend time discussing kind and responsible ways to make it right. This is a great way to develop problem-solving skills, empathy, and forgiveness.
- Sportsmanship Games: Play simple group games and emphasize cheering each other on, taking turns, and losing with grace. When you’re finished, talk about what good sportsmanship looks and sounds like. Discussions like these help kids develop courtesy, fairness, and patience.
Compliment circles and daily shout-outs are other simple ways to work on skills like gratitude, encouragement, kindness, confidence, and respect.
Hopefully, you found a few new ideas to work into your classroom routines this year. The most important part of character education is being consistent… that type of intentional planning will go a long way toward helping kids meet these goals.
Happy teaching!
MORE CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT POSTS
VOICE LEVEL POSTERS FOR K-2 CLASSROOMS
CLASSROOM JOBS – APPLY AND INTERVIEW
