Good character is something that must be taught to our students. Inherently, children do not know social skills. They are not going to say please and thank you…unless they are taught that it’s important! They won’t hold open doors for their friends and family…unless someone teaches them that it’s a thoughtful action. They won’t go out of their way to help someone…unless they are taught!
WE must teach our students how to be good citizens of the world!
At back to school night, I always show my favorite Kid President video and give my parents my spiel: Their children will learn to read. They will learn to be writers! They will learn that numbers put into groups make bigger numbers!
What they will not learn on their own is be good little people! It’s our job {their parents and us teachers} to make sure they turn into awesome little people!
I also show this video several times throughout the year to my students. We will often stop after one of Kid President’s thoughts and discuss the importance of his statement.
Teaching Life Skills
This year my school has started a Life Skills mission! Each month, we focus on a new life skill to challenge our students. For the first month of school, our school focused on Kindness.
My classroom used Blair Turner’s Classroom Kindness Challenge to kick it off. The challenge is hanging right by our front door, so the students are reminded of their daily challenge each day as they pass in and out of the classroom! The challenge has been a great way to get the conversation started about this important life skill.
Awarding Exceptional Life Skills
At the end of the month, teachers nominated a student from their class who showed exceptional kindness towards their classmates and others. The awards were handed out at our all-school assembly, where the students could stand up proudly among their schoolmates!
Read About It!
I love when I can find books to drive home what we’re learning about. By far, the best books to teach life skills are from Julia Cook. She covers a wide range of topics to help students become lifelong problem solvers. Isn’t that exactly what we want?
Here’s a peek at a few of my favorites {I didn’t have room to share them ALL!} She has over 50 books!
Each month, we plan to continue focusing on a life skill. Here’s a peek at what our focus is each month.
And at the end of each month, we’ll award a certificate to one student in each class for demonstrating this skill!
You can snag the awards in my Character Counts pack.
Character Counts includes a certificate specific to each life skill listed above, but I also included a bunch of extras…in case you want to award more than one a month so all students eventually get one! I’ve added a version that you can simply type your kiddos names directly into the certificate so all you need to do is print & present!
Character Counts has an editable file so you can create your very own awards! {Please note that the clipart is not editable – just the words!}
Slainte!
