Book 13: The Selfish Crocodile

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:

The book The Selfish Crocodile is a story about a crocodile that only cares about himself. The crocodile lives in a large lake and he does not let anyone near the lake and he calls it “his lake” All of the other animals avoid the selfish crocodile and if they came near the lake the crocodile would say to the animals “stay away from this lake, this is MY lake!” The animals had to walk miles to get their water. One day the animals hear a loud sound. They figure out it is the crocodile and no one wants to help him because he is so mean that they are scared of him. Finally, a little mouse decides to ask the crocodile what is wrong. The crocodile tells the mouse that he has a toothache and the mouse takes out the crocodile’s hurting tooth. Once the crocodile felt better his whole personality changed. He let everyone come in the water and called it everyone’s lake and not just his.

Objective:

The students will demonstrate qualities of a good citizen by re-enacting the story of the selfish crocodile.

Materials:

Book: The Selfish Crocodile by Faustin Charles and Michael Terry

Procedure:

1. The teacher will read the book The Selfish Crocodile to the children.
2. After the book, the teacher will talk to the students about how the crocodile acted in the book and ask them if they think that the crocodile acted like a good citizen of his community at the beginning of the book.
3. Then the teacher will ask the students if they think that the crocodile acted like a good citizen at the end of the book.
4. The teacher will ask the students what changed about the crocodile for him to be a better citizen.
5. The teacher will discuss with the students what qualities make a good citizen and why it is important to be one in a community.
6. The teacher will place the children in groups and have them act out the crocodile and the other animals in the area and replay the first scene in the book where the crocodile does not let any of the animals into the lake.
7. The teacher will explain to the students that she wants them to act out the beginning part of the book but by changing it to where the selfish crocodile is a team player and a good community member.
8. Each group will present their version of the beginning portion of The Selfish Crocodile and once they have presented the teacher will asked them about what they changed and why and how the crocodile in their version represented a good citizen of his animal community.

Book 12: The lady and the Spider

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:

The Lady and the Spider is a story about a spider that has made a home in a lettuce leaf. The home is perfect for the spider and is just the right size with a pool for water that catches food for the spider as well. The spider is so happy in her home.

The spider does not realize however that her home is in the middle of a lettuce garden. One day the lady who tends to the garden comes out to pick lettuce and picks the lettuce head that is the home to the spider. When she goes to make her lunch with the lettuce she notices the little spider in his home. The lady notices how wonderful the spider is and how important it is even if it is little so she places it back in her garden in her home.

Objective:

The student will demonstrate being a good members of their community by picking up trash around the school.

Materials:

Book The Lady and the Spider by Faith McNulty

Grocery Bags for each child

Procedure:

1. The teacher will read the book The Lady and the Spider to the students and talk about what it was the lady in the story did that shows she is a part of a community.
2. The teacher will discuss with the students how it is important to be good members of society and of their community and how this means respecting all living things, even the small ones in life.
3. The teacher will talk to the students about different things that they could do to help the little ones of the community (the small animals).
4. The teacher will explain to the students that they are going to go on a nature walk outside of the school where they are going to pick up trash that they find along the way.
5. The teacher will talk to the students about why this is important to the community and to nature and how by picking up trash they are demonstrating what it means to be a good citizen by being responsible and taking care of their environment and their home as well as other’s homes as well just like the little spider in the story.

Book 11: The Giving Tree

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:

The giving tree is a book about a relationship between a boy and a tree. When the boy is little he loves the tree and spends all of his time beneath the tree in its branches. The boy grows older and no longer is small enough to swing from the trees branches. The boy comes to the tree asking for money and the tree says she has no money but that the boy might take her apples and sell them for money. The boy returns again and asks the tree for a house. The tree tells the boy she has no house but that he may cut down her branches and build a house. Then the boy comes to the tree asking for a boat. The tree has no boat to give the boy but she says for him to cut down her trunk and make a boat. The boy came back to the tree and the tree told the boy that she had nothing more to give him. So the boy sits on her trunk and the tree was happy.

Objectives:

The students will demonstrate being good citizens by donating their own non-material gift anonymously to the class.

Materials:

Book The Giving Tree by Shel SilverStein

Leaf shaped pieces of paper

Paper tree on wall

Pencils

Procedure:

1. The teacher will start the lesson by reading the book The Giving Tree to the class.
2. The teacher will ask the students if they understand what the message of the story is.
3. The teacher will talk to the students about the message of the book and how it is important to give to others.
4. The teacher will talk to the students about how giving to others is a part of being a good citizen of a community and how it is a great thing to give to others and share your gifts with others.
5. The teacher will explain to the students that they are going to make their own giving tree in the classroom.
6. The teacher will have the students go back to their desks and will hand each child a green construction paper leaf.
7. The teacher will explain to the students that she would like for them to write their non-material gift to the class on the leaf.
8. The teacher will give some examples to the students so that they understand what the assignment is.
9. The teacher will explain to the students that they could put that their gift to the class is to be a good student, a good friend, to help others in need, to say something when they see others doing a good job.
10. Whatever his or her gift is, the student should write it on the leaf and then place it on the tree that is on the wall of the classroom.
11. Once each student is done writing their anonymous gift to the class and placed it on the class giving tree, the teacher will read all of the gifts that have been given to the class and talk about how they all relate to the community and helping each other out.

Book 10: Friends

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:

Friends, is a story of three unlikely friends of a pig, a rooster, and a mouse. Throughout the story they do all kinds of things together but sometimes they have to do things differently or share things in different ways because they are so different. Even when they eat cherries, they give the pig twice as many because he is bigger and it is fairer for him to have more. Throughout the story the animals are great friends and they share and are fair in almost all of the situations. Until they try to sleep together at night and realize that they all can’t sleep in the same place because they sleep differently. Although they cannot be together at night, they are still best friends no matter what.

Objectives:

The students will demonstrate an understanding of what it means to be fair through a fairness exercise.

Materials:

Book: Friends by Helme Hine

Candy

Chart paper

Marker

Procedure:
1. The teacher will begin the lesson by telling the students that she is going to pass out candy to the students today.
2. The teacher will give each child a piece of candy, but skipping one child at each group of tables.
3. If students make comments during the exercise the teacher will ignore them.
4. Once the teacher has passed out all of the candy she will listen to what the students are saying about some not getting any candy.
5. The teacher will ask the students if they think what she did was fair or not.
6. The teacher will talk to the students about what it means to be fair and will introduce the book Friends.
7. The teacher will read the book Friends to the students in the class.
8. Once the teacher has read the book to the class she will talk to the students about what it means to be fair.
9. The teacher will explain to the students that to be fair means to be reasonable and to treat others equally.
10. The teacher will ask the students what they think it means to be a fair member of the community and write them on the chart paper.
11. The teacher will go over each item with the students and talk about how being fair means being part of a community and doing the right thing.

Book 9: Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse

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:

Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse is a story of a mouse named Alexander. He lives in a home where when he tries to get food from the kitchen he gets scared away with a broom. One day Alexander meets another mouse in the house. This mouse is not like him, it is a wind-up mouse that cannot move unless he is wound-up but people love him and he gets attention and hugs and kisses every day. Alexander makes friends with the wind-up mouse but finds himself to be a little bit jealous of him because everyone likes him. Alexander had heard that there is a lizard in the woods that can turn an animal into any other animal that he wants. The lizard says that in order to change he must find a purple stone. When looking for the stone, Alexander finds the wind-up mouse in a box and asks him what he is doing there. He says that the little girl he belonged to got some new toys and he will be thrown away. Alexander then finally finds the purple pebble and brings it to the lizard. Instead of changing himself like he had originally wanted, he changed the wind-up mouse into a real mouse so that he will not be thrown away and will be happy.

Objective:

The student will demonstrate what it means to be a good citizen by describing something that they have done for someone else to be a good helper of their community.

Materials:

Book Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse by Leo Lionni

Paper

Markers

Crayons

Pencils

Procedure:
1. The teacher will read the book Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse to the students in the class and point out where Alexander gives up his dream to make the Wind-Up mouse happy.
2. The teacher will talk about the book with the students and ask them if they know how Alexander was a good citizen of his community.
3. The teacher will talk to the students about how Alexander was a good team play and community member because he gave up something that he wanted for someone else.
4. The teacher will talk to the children about how sometimes we do things even if we don’t want to do them to help others.
5. The teacher will talk to the children about times when they have done things that they might not have wanted to such as help pick up, or set the table, or do homework, or brush their teeth.
6. The teacher will have the students go to their desks and will ask them to write a sentence about a time when they did something for someone that they did not want to do but that they felt great after they did it because they were being good community members and helping someone else out in their family or classroom or community.
7. Once the students are finished the teacher will call them to the circle where they will present their drawings and read their sentence and explain to the students why what they did demonstrates them being a good participant of their community or home.

Book 8: A House for Hermit Crab

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:

A House for Hermit Crab is a story of a hermit crab that grows out of his shell and has to get a new one. The shell that he finds is great, but it is very plain. As Hermit Crab gets used to his new shell he comes across several different other animals in the sea and asks them if they will live on his shell to decorate it for him. After a while Hermit Crab has collected a sea anemone, a starfish, coral, snails, sea urchins, and a lantern fish. All of these animals decorated Hermit Crabs shell and he loved the way it looked. His shell was perfect and Hermit Crab loved it more than anything. But soon, his beloved shell was too small and Hermit Crab had to give it up. He gave his home that he loved to another smaller hermit crab.

Objective:

The student will demonstrate an understanding of what it means to be a good citizen through donating an article of clothing that is too small for him or her.

Materials:

Book A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle

Procedure:

1. The teacher will read the book A House for Hermit Crab to the students.
2. During the read the teacher will point out the different instances when the other animals help hermit crab to decorate his shell.
3. The teacher will have a discussion with the students about how it is important to help others and give to others as well when you can or you have something that you cannot use anymore and someone else could use.
4. The teacher will talk to the students how they too grow like Hermit Crab and how like Hermit Crabs shell did not fit him anymore, they grow out of their clothes as well.
5. The teacher will talk to the children about what they do with their clothes that they have frown out of or that are too small for them.
6. The teacher will point out to the students that once Hermit Crabs shell was too small for him, he gave it to another Hermit Crab that was smaller than him that could fit into the shell.
7. The teacher will ask the students if they ever donate, or give their clothes that are too small to an organization or a person.
8. The teacher will talk to the students about why it is important to give those things away that they no longer have a use for because it can be a use to someone else.
9. The teacher will talk to the students about how giving away these things can help others and make you feel good as well because you are helping someone else and being a good citizen of the community.
10. The teacher will ask the students to please bring into the class one item of clothing that no longer fits them anymore that they will donate all together to the Goodwill organization.
11. The teacher will summarize the lesson by explaining to the children that those items that they bring into the class will be donated so that someone else who is smaller than them will be able to use them and that by doing this they are being good citizens of the community.

Book 7: Six-Dinner Sid

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:

This is the story of a cat named Sid who lived on Aristotle Street. Sid lived in six houses so that he could have six different dinners. Each night he would leave one and go on to the next to have six different dinners. The neighbors on Sid’s street did not talk to each other so they did not know what Sid was up to. One day Sid became sick. The next thing he knew he was being taken to the vet six different times and given his spoonful of medicine six different times too! The doctor thought something was suspicious and he called all of the owners of the black cat and Sid was found out. The owners made sure that Sid only had one dinner a night and Sid was not happy about that so he found a new street. Everyone talked on his new street so everyone knew about six-dinner Sid and because they knew, they were okay with it.

Objective:

The students will demonstrate an understanding of what an honest citizen is through acting out a scenario through dramatic play that demonstrates the qualities of a good citizen.

Materials:

Book Six-Dinner Sid by Inga Moore

Strips of paper with honesty situations

Procedure:

1. The teacher will read the book Six-Dinner Sid to the students and talk about Sid’s actions.
2. The teacher will point out to the students that Sid’s first owners are upset with him because he was never honest with them about where he really lived and how his new owners understood, because Sid was honest from the beginning.
3. The teacher will talk to the students about why honesty is so important and ask them why they think it is important.
4. The teacher will talk to the students about how honesty is a large part of being a good citizen of a community and how a person must be honest with others and with himself or herself.
5. The teacher will explain to the students that they are going to be divided into four different groups and that they are going to act out a situation where the main character has a difficult decision on whether to be honest or not. (Ex: you did not read your story for homework and your teacher calls on you in class).
6. After each group has gone the teacher will discuss with the students why it was important for the main character to make the decision that he or she made and why honesty is the right thing to do because it is a big part of being a good citizen.