The kids are back in school! (Lots of feelings, I know.) It’s an exciting time, but we also know it’ll be a long year if we don’t establish our core values right off the bat. I personally don’t enjoy chaos, so addressing these topics as soon as we return is important to me. In fact, it’s at the top of my teaching to-do list.
And, if you’ve ever had recess duty for even five minutes, you already know why every single one of these is integral to your sanity.
SO LET’S GET TO IT
I don’t think one core value is necessarily more important than another, but I can say I put a high priority on the core value of kindness. If we can embrace that concept fully, it creates the foundation for many of the others.
Obviously, nice people make life more enjoyable. And, also obvious, most kids already come that way. But (1), some don’t. And (2), I want them to know that kindness matters to me. I want them to know it’s something I value and why. I want them to know what it looks like when we aren’t kind and the impact it can have on our classroom community.
These are important conversations to have, especially during those first few weeks back to school. Once we’ve given kindness it’s time in the spotlight, we can move forward with other core values, like empathy, respect, perseverance, and sportsmanship.
There are a lot of ways to go about teaching core values in the classroom. We like these PRINTABLE RESOURCES👆, but there are also several great children’s books on a variety of related topics, so don’t forget to visit your media specialist for some ideas.
You can find some of our favorite books and activities in this post about👉 CHARACTER EDUCATION. They tie in nicely to these core values and are another way to make your lessons engaging.
CORE VALUES ALL YEAR LONG
Every year, I always say I have the best class in the whole world. (And, of course, that’s true… wink.) But, as outstanding as they are, they go through phases over the course of the year and sometimes they’re real stinkers. Kids have moods, too. It’s that plain and simple.
I think it’s safe to say that lessons on core values and character education bear repeating. It’s never a one and done.
And I want these kids to be the best kids that ever walked the planet next year, too. And the year after that. And the year after that. So we don’t let up. We talk about these core values as if they’re the most natural thing to talk about.
One of our strategies is to post visuals👆 that serve as reminders of the character goals we have in our classroom community. If you’ve been looking for something like these to support your conversations, you can take a look at the full set HERE.
Hopefully you found something today you can add to your teacher toolbox.
Until next time, happy teaching!
