Book 6: Rotten Ralph

Standards:

K-4.1 Identify qualities of good citizenship, including honesty, courage, determination, individual responsibility, and patriotism.

K-4.2 Demonstrate good citizenship in classroom behaviors, including taking personal responsibility, cooperating and respecting others, taking turns and sharing, and working with others to solve problems.

Summary:

Rotten Ralph is a story of a very rotten cat named Ralph. Ralph has no self-control and does whatever he wants. He pulls the heads off of his little girls dolls, makes fun of her when she dances, saws off the branch when she is swinging, ruined Sarah’s party by taking a bite out of every single cookie. Ralph did a lot of rotten things. One day Ralph went to the circus with his family, but he was more rotten than ever there and his family left him behind to be in the circus because his behavior was so bad. Ralph had to work so that he could be fed and he did not like it. Finally one day he escaped but he was so sad and lonely. Ralph was sitting on a trashcan at the park when Sarah found him. She took him back home and Ralph promised to never be rotten again.

Objectives:

The children will demonstrate an understanding of being a good citizen by providing an example of something that does not show self-control in society.

Materials:

Book: Rotten Ralph by Jack Gantos

Chart paper

markers

Procedure:

1. The teacher will read the book Rotten Ralph to the class while constantly pointing out all of the bad things that Ralph does that he should not do.
2. The teacher will talk to the students about how it is not acceptable to behave as Ralph did in the story because it is our job to be good citizens and have self-control which means not doing something that may be considered not appropriate or following the rules.
3. The teacher will talk to the students about why it is important to have self-control in a community and things that they do that show self control.
4. The teacher will ask the students to describe some behaviors that do NOT show self-control and she will write them on the chart paper.
5. As she writes each one she will discuss with the students why that behavior is not acceptable and does not demonstrate self-control and talk about the opposite behavior of the one suggested that would show self-control.
6. The teacher will conclude the lesson by going over what it means to have self-control and remind the children how important it is to have this at home, at school, and in their communities.