"Growing" into Good Citizens, Creating Great Communities

1.  CLASS DISCUSSION:  [ Life Skills cards will be posted so all students can see] " We're going to read a book about FROG AND TOAD.    They are good friends.   I want you to think about some of these LIFE SKILLS  as the story is told, and which ones FROG and TOAD use with each other."  [read story]

2. "Can someone tell me some of the LIFE SKILLS Frog and Toad used with each other to keep their friendship strong?  [teacher points & reads] Caring?   Patience?  A sense of Humor?" [Students offer answers]

3.  Let's take turns reading about Life Skills because we're going to learning about them, and HOW TO USE THEM in our lives at school, and also with our families.  [Let different students read a life skill; maybe let them come up and read, as you point out the words.]

4.  What are some of the LIFE SKILLS that attract you to a friend?   [draw a stick figure on the smartboard, as you write the "traits" this friend would have....caring, cooperation, sense of humor, honesty kindness, etc...]  

5. What traits are important for a parent or teacher? A school custodian? A cafeteria lunch server? A bus driver? A principal? [kindness, courage, common sense, responsibility, patience, etc.] and WHY?

6. Whether you are a child or an adult, it's important to think about how you treat other people...it not only makes a family or classroom more pleasant, but it ends up affecting our city, state, and even our whole country!  
7.  No person is always perfect with these "life skills," whether the person is an adult or a child. It is a lifelong learning job to understand how to treat others fairly and kindly. When we forget to be patient, kind or forget to appreciate nice acts people do for us,  it is helpful to just  STOP, THINK, APOLOGIZE.  And then realize NO MATTER WHAT AGE a person is, we are all learning to try harder and do better every day.
8.  When we can try this in our families and classrooms, then when we got our on the big world and get a job, it helps us get along better at our workplace...and this makes our country a stronger place because people are cooperating and getting along more.
9. So, learning and practicing POSITIVE LIFE SKILLS makes us get along better...and when LOTS of people are caring, cooperating, and responsible in their jobs, IT MAKES OUR COUNTRY STRONGER!
People are calmer, more contented in their families, happier at their jobs, and all that has an effect on how our country "feels" and how it works.

ACTIVITY 1: 
**Pass out an index card & marker to each student.  "Popcorn" answering:  "Name some jobs that you see that you think are interesting or maybe even fun."  [teacher writes them on board /chart as students answer]  [If "movie star" or "pro athlete" is mentioned, teacher should write those, but say we don't want  to name anything twice, try to think of jobs your parents or neighbors do, or that you've heard about.]  
** After kids have named some jobs, tell them to write one on their index card....it doesn't have to be the job THEY WANT when they get grown, just something they've heard about, read about, etc.]
**TAKE ALL CARDS, mix them up, and pass them out!  Let each student read which job is on their card...which LIFESKILLS would be needed for that?
ACTIVITY 2: SMALL GROUPS GATHER AND LIST:  Each group will have a different task:
[ let students gather into small groups, with one marker and a piece of paper]
*"This group, list all the different jobs that might be needed in a hospital."
*Teacher assigns groups "driving jobs", building jobs, cooking jobs, cleaning jobs, jobs that keep us safe,  jobs working w/ animals, jobs working w/ children,....postal workers, police officers, etc.
**Small groups come to the front and show/read their list to the class
**TEACHER: when groups are reading, always ask "WHAT LIFE SKILLS WOULD BE NEEDED IN THESE JOBS, & WHY? " for example, Trash truck drivers must use responsibility [SHOW UP FOR WORK ON TIME], perseverance [DEAL WITH BEING OUTSIDE IN ALL WEATHERS], problem-solving [WHAT TO DO IF TRASH SPILLS ON THE STREET], patience [MAYBE AN OLDER PERSON IS WHEELING THEIR TRASH OUT LATE}, etc.

ART PROJECT 1: GROWING INTO GOOD CITIZENS, tree display board....create a display for your classroom, AS WE GROW INTO GOOD CITIZENS...OUR COUNTRY WILL GROW TOO!
*** With a dark blue/ black background [bulletin board, or project display board], CUT 3 LARGE TREE SHAPES... 1 is RED, 1 is WHITE, 1 is BLUE [light blue]. The teacher will label each tree as shown in the illustration with the lesson.  
***cut many leaf shapes [ at least 1 for each student, but more is better ] from the 3"x4" sticky notes.    OR:  Cut leaf shapes with a die cutter in your teacher supply room.
***Give each student a leaf.    Ask them to write how a person in a particular job would need to use a certain life skill.   Write the job, draw a line under it, then name the life skill.   Paste it on the JOB tree.
***  Same idea with a FAMILY tree, and ENVIRONMENT TREE.  
*** After students have made a leaf for EACH TREE, give them tape/craft tape to attach leaves to the appropriate tree.
*** After all trees are finished, the teacher can create the BANNER that goes across the top and bottom of the display!  

ART PROJECT 2: Create a LIFESKILLS animal storybook
***each child who wants to make a book gets 2 sheets of 8x11" construction paper [light colors work better.]they will also get 3 large index cards cut in half, on which to draw illustrations.
***Ask them to think of an animal they want to draw in a very simple way because they'll have to draw that animal several times in their book.
***Show them KITTY'S FUN MONDAY from the visuals attach on this ETV lesson.   
***No one should copy that book, but maybe think of another day of the week, and different ways that the DOG or MONKEY or SNAKE they choose, will show how to use life skills.
*** Fold the 2 sheets of paper together, like a book.  
***Provide pencils, crayons, markers, etc.    Be sure to show them a mistake I made on one page...and I left it on purpose to show that sometimes a tiny mistake is made in art...but it's just a fun learning project, so, don't worry a lot about it.   

USEFUL BOOKS:

Talk and Work It Out (Learning to Get Along), by Cheri J. Meiners, M.Ed
Making A Difference:  Teaching Kindness, Character and Purpose, Cheri Meiners, M.Ed.

The art projects are a visual representation of the assessment of learning how using positive life skills are beneficial to a family, school, workplace, and country. As students formulate how to create these projects, and also view their own projects and those of other students, the concepts become more concrete.