Books By The Bushel
Books By The Bushel's
October Fun "holidays" Calendar
We have updated our free activities page with our October Fun "holidays" calendar.
Our calendar includes one important week!
Character Counts Week is October 21-27th.
Over the next four issuess our e-newsletter will focus on the 
6 Character Education Pillars
Help put an end to bullying and violence by focusing on and teaching positive peer interaction.  
Each pillar will include a classroom activity and suggested reading material.
Be sure to check out our full set of Character Education Books
along with our NEW Character Education Category!


Character Counts Week
October 21-27th
Character Counts
TRUSTWORTHINESS
Trustworthiness- The Boy Who Cried Wolf The boy Who Cried Wolf
This popular fable introduces children to the notion that trustworthiness must be earned and will be lost if one lies repeatedly.

Read the story about the boy who cried, "Wolf!" A young shepherd boy, for his own entertainment, makes believe and screams that a big wolf has come. The people in the village run out to help him. After he pulls this prank several times, the villagers realize he's just pretending. One day a wolf really comes, but this time when the boy cries out, everyone ignores him. The wolf eats the flock.

Discuss the importance of telling the truth all the time. Use the following questions in your discussion:

  • What happens if someone lies a lot? (Others stop believing you.)
  • Why didn't the people believe the boy when there really was a wolf? (Because his repeated lying made him untrustworthy.)
  • What is the best way to make sure people believe us all the time? (Always be honest.)
  • Has this ever happened to someone you know?
 

RESPECT

When studying the Respect pillar, we talk about how respect sounds and what it looks like: tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language. Everyone is special and unique  

 


This activity provides a great visual about how important using respectful language is, how quickly words can come out, and the importance of thinking before we speak because of how difficult it is to take words back.

Materials

  • A tube of toothpaste
  • One 4" x 6" index card
  • A marker pen
  • A popsicle stick
  • A toothpick
  1. Draw a big, black "R" on the index card
  2. Tell students "We're going to brush up on our Respect by covering that R, which stands for Respect, with toothpaste."
  3. Give the toothpaste to a volunteer and ask him or her to squeeze out the paste to completely cover the R, as if painting it.
  4. As they're covering it, make a connection to the cleansing power of toothpaste and speaking good words, using good manners, and using a respectful tone of voice.
  5. After the student has hidden the R under the paste, say that this black R actually stands for Rude, and we don't want to brush up on Rudeness.
  6. Have the volunteer take back Rudeness, un-painting the R by putting the toothpaste back in the tube.
  7. He or she will try, but it won't work very well.
  8. Offer your volunteer a popsicle stick or toothpick to keep trying, all the while discussing how easily the R was covered by the paste.
  9. Correlate the activity with how quickly our words are spoken, but how difficult it is to take back disrespectful, hurtful, and rude words.
  10. Follow up by discussing the steps you would have to take to fix it when Rudeness happens.
  11. Then role play how to give a genuine apology, complete with, "Will you please forgive me?"
  12. This activity also lends itself to teaching "I"statements as a strategy for reacting when someone is rude or disrespectful to us. Have the students practice using this formula:

I feel ______ when you _________. I need _________. 

It's very empowering, for example, when a child is able to look someone in the eye and say, "I feel hurt when you call me names. I need you to stop."

 

 

In this newsletter
Character Counts Week
Trustworthiness
Respect
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