Learning About Respect in First Grade

I'm linking up with Maria's "Make a Difference Monday".  On the first Monday of each month, Maria is collecting a variety of ideas for teaching children about character traits. April was all about Empathy, and this month is Respect.

Last night, when Maria invited me to join I decided I might as well jump right in and teach a Monday morning lesson on respect.

First I introduced the children to this book:

Mr. Rabbit is concerned about whether or not his new neighbours, the Otters, are going to be friendly. Mr. Owl tells him not to worry, all he has to remember is: "Do unto Otters as you would have Otters do unto you!"  

I had to explain the play on words to my class, and most of them weren't very familiar with the Golden Rule, so we talked about that for awhile, too. They loved the book (it's very simple but witty) and even clapped when I finished reading it!

Then we made a t-chart showing what respect looks like and sounds like.

Tomorrow I'm going to follow up the lesson with this book:

This is a sweet story about a little girl who does not like being called Betsy, Liz, Lizzy or any other version of Elizabeth. She politely insists on being called Elizabeth, and happily, everyone respects her request and does exactly that (well, almost everyone :))  

Be sure to click on the "Be the Difference" button above if you'd like to read more ideas OR join in yourself.

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