Keeping the Virtues Alive - Character Education

Kent and I wanted some way to review the good character traits we had worked on with our classes this winter.  We continued with the ‘Sticking with Good Character’ board, where each student was featured with a picture.   We have a supply of little sticky notes on the board.  The students continue to  recognize their classmates showing good character and write it up on a sticky note.  (John came in early to do homework he forgot – responsibility.    Jenny was having trouble in the skipping lesson but didn’t give up – perseverance.     Bob brought back the ball we borrowed from Division 3 after lunch – trustworthiness.)  

The second review activity was assigning a few students to each of the ‘virtues’.  Each group will be writing a morning announcement to read out over the P.A.  They will define their virtue, say why we should practice it, what it can be like when we don’t practice it, followed by specific ways students could practice it that day at school.  Then they will make a small motivational poster for it using the Big Huge Labs Poster Creator that we will post up on a hallway bulletin board by the water fountain.  We are hoping to bring this activity to the entire school, since our classes are the oldest and therefore leaders. Moreover, it is always great to take the learning outside of the walls of the classroom and make it relevant for our students.

These virtues are abstract ideas and big words for elementary school kids.  By linking them to familiar scenarios and by giving the students specific ways to practice them, the virtues have become something that we can talk about in classroom discussions and behaviours we can recognize.    

Post courtesy of Judy Schneider