Let's Be Polite!

Let's Be Polite!

4 comments Behavior Management

Recently I noticed that a small number of my students were struggling with arguing, being unaware of others, and/or being disrespectful. So, I decided it was time to spend a bit of time teaching my students about being polite.  I felt like politeness was a great place to start with them since being polite means one has the ability to share, has an awareness of others, is respectful of others, and so on.

So, the start of our week marked the launch of "Politeness 101."  I started by reading this book.  Don't let the title fool you, this book talks about much more than saying please and thank you.  And, it's pretty straightforward too.

I loved the Richard Scarry books as a kid!  Yep, I'm old.  And, I was beyond excited when I found this book on Amazon for super cheap! 

After we read the book, we buddied up and had some think/pair/share time.  Their task: think of ways to be polite every single day, at school.  I added their ideas to a chart and we talked about each one as it was added.  The chart now hangs in a prominent spot so that I can refer to it as needed throughout the day.  {I love that they had to throw burp etiquette in there}.

Then, we made a class book.  Each student wrote a sentence telling the reader how they can be polite every day.  Then, they added an illustration to their page.  I am sure I have expressed this before, but I absolutely adore class books!!

I plan to read our book aloud every day for a week so that we can review the ideas the students came up with and to keep them motivated in making polite choices throughout their day.  Eventually, the class book will wind up in the class library where it can be read by the students when they have free time.  In my experience, class books are usually the most popular books in the library, so I know this will be a go-to read.  Click {here} to grab a copy of this book.  Simply make as many student pages as needed and you have yourself a book!

Finally, I also made some brag tags to recognize when students are being "perfectly polite." I've already been able to give out a few!  You can grab these for free by clicking {here}.

I am hoping that this activity pays off in the long run!  Kids will be kids, and I'm sure a refresher course will be needed down the road. But, so far, they seem pretty excited about being polite!

Toodles!

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