Character Education 1

Running Head: Character Education

Character Education

Krista Geesaman- Sartin and Kerri Misiano

Liberty University
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Character Education

In the classroom, it is the job of the educator to incorporate in his/ her curriculum the

importance of morals, values and character that should be reflected in their student’s lives. It is

the responsibility of the school to define and identify the character traits they want represented in

their educational environment. However, it is the responsibility of the teacher to make sure that

character education is implemented in their classroom. Obedience, Compassion, Leadership,

Integrity, Respect, Creativity, Accountability and Responsibility are only eight of many character

traits that could be focused on in a classroom. In the following, the reader will learn different

activities in four different subject areas (math, English, social science, science) that will

incorporate each of these eight traits into the classroom curriculum.

Obedience:

Obedience is a prominent issue in every classroom. To obey is to follow the commands or

guidance of your authorities. In the Christopher Churchmouse Treasury, Barbara Davoll tells a

story called Rainy Day Rescue. This story describes how Christopher disobeys his mother by

jumping puddles near a street sewer. Because of his disobedience, Christopher and his cousin

Ted end up falling in the sewer. Murky the mole ends up saving them and Christopher learns a

valuable lesson on obedience. After reading this story to the class the teacher could incorporate a

few of these activities into the four main subject areas.

Language Arts: Have the students write a journal entry on a time that they disobeyed and how

their situation would have turned out differently had they obeyed. Give the students the

opportunity to share in class what they wrote (SOL: Language Arts 3.9a-e).
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Mathematics: Have the students cut out big puddles using blue poster board. Allow the

students to place them around the room, but they should be able to jump to each one. Have the

students measure the distance between each rain puddle (SOL: Mathematics 3.14a-c).

Social Science: Discuss with the students the importance of storm sewers in their

environment and why they are used. Ask the students to find out where the storm sewers are

located in the area that they live. In class the following day have a class discussion on what the

students found out about the storm sewers near them (SOL: Social Sciences 3.7).

Science: The teacher will teach on the water cycle and where rain comes from. After the

lesson, demonstrate one part of the water cycle. For example, demonstrate evaporation. The

teacher should bring an electric water boiler to class. Fill the boiler with water and as the water

begins to heat it will begin to evaporate. Explain that as the steam rising off the water, the water

is evaporating (SOL: Science 3.9a-d).

Compassion:

Compassion is another key character trait that needs to be addressed in the classroom.

Compassion is to feel sympathy for someone else and strive to help them in their time of need. In

Arthur Dobrin’s Love Your Neighbor, he tells a story called, The Kindness of Squirrels. In this

story, two squirrels are the best of friends and as they grew older they choose to live near each

other and stay friends forever. They constantly strive to help each other. When one was in need,

the other was quick to help. As the two squirrel friends began saving their food for the winter,

they started thinking of each other and taking food to the other’s barn without telling. They never

found out about their little secret, but the neighbors new and they never forgot about the giving

squirrels. After reading this story to the class, the teacher could incorporate some of these

activities in the four main subject areas.

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Language Arts: Using an overhead, the teacher will help the students create a semantic

map in order for the students to infer and identify the characters of the story by their character

traits. Ask the students to identify the characters and their traits from the story and put a box

around each character’s name. Have the students choose their favorite character, write a

biographical poem about the character, and share it with the class (SOL: Language Arts 3.5g).

Mathematics: The teacher will draw and cut out twenty leaf patters on construction paper.

On the back of the leaves, he/ she will write multiplication facts. On five of the leaves he/ she

should draw and acorn. The teacher should put the leaves on the board face down. Divide the

class into two teams. The teams will go back and forth turning a leaf over. If they answer the

multiplication fact correctly, the team gets a point. If the team turns over an acorn, the team gets

a free point. After all the leaves are turned over, the team with the most points wins (SOL:

Mathematics 3.4).

Social Science: The teacher will do a short study on habitats. “Habitats are regions where

certain species of plants and animals grow or live.” The teacher should discuss with the students

the specific habitat where squirrels make their home. He/ she should make a point to discuss

what they eat, where they live, and how long most squirrels live in their natural environment.

After the discussion the class should go on an “on campus field trip” to find squirrels in their

natural habitats. They will take notes and compare the information discussed in class with the

actual information they collect from observing the squirrels (SOL: Social Science 3.7).

Science: The teacher should create a science station called the web of life. Define the web

of life with the class using http://www.kidsplanet.org/wol/page_1.html (2007). After this

discussion, allow the students to go to the web of life station and as a class talk about a

community of living organisms in a special area, their physical environment, and the interactions
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among them. A grasslands community with related cards is used as a circle game for classrooms.

Cards represent the plants, animals, and elements within our shrub-steppe ecosystem. Each

student receives one or more cards. A ball of string is passed from one organism or element as

each student makes a connection' as the sun's energy is used for growing, insects eat sagebrush,

ground squirrel eats insects, badger eats squirrel, and so on with the ball of string being passed to

each and held firmly by that student until all cards have been connected. The intricate web of life

formed by these interdependencies begins to fall apart if, for instance, the ground squirrel drops

the 'web' leaving badgers, hawks, coyotes or rattlesnakes without enough food (SOL: Science

3.4a,b; 3.8b) (Sherer, 2004).

Integrity:

Integrity is so often wrongly measured by what a man is doing when someone is looking,

but the truth of integrity is seen in what a man does when no one is looking. It is true that every

teacher has or will struggle with some issue of integrity in the classroom. Also in Barbara

Davoll’s, Christopher Churchmouse Treasury, she tells a story called, A Load of Trouble. In this

story, Christopher Churchmouse finds some breadcrumbs that belong to his cousin Ted. He

decides to take them for himself and leave Ted with a pile of sawdust. To Christopher’s surprise,

Ted brings him some of the “bread crumbs” to share with him. Christopher had to ask

forgiveness from Ted for deceiving him with the sawdust and for taking his breadcrumbs. After

presenting this story to the class, the teacher could incorporate some of these activities into the

four main subject areas.

Language Arts: The teacher will play the audio book of, A Load of Trouble. Students will

write on a sheet of paper the setting, the plot, the main characters and the end of the story. Have a
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class discussion comparing what the student’s wrote and the actual story. Write the results on the

board for visual comparison (SOL: Language Arts 3.1)

Mathematics: The teacher should write three word problems that use the characters and

props from A Load of Trouble. For example:

If Christopher Churchmouse can eat one wagon full of breadcrumbs in 15 minutes

and his cousin, Ted, can eat one in 12 minutes. How many wagons full will they eat

in a day if they work together? Bearing in mind their buddy, Sed, takes 20 minutes

to eat a wagon full and he eats all day long!

Students should complete one word problem in class in order to ask questions if

they need help. The other two should be completed at home for homework and

turned in the following day (SOL: Mathematics 3.8)

Social Science: Teacher will set up a mock election in the classroom for the

students to participate in. The candidates will be Christopher Churchmouse and Ted.

Take a classroom vote on which mouse he/ she would like to be the class president

based on their morals and integrity. After the election, have a class discussion on

the importance of voting for moral leaders in our government (SOL: Social Science

3.10)

Science: The teacher will bring a bag of sawdust and a bag of breadcrumbs

and display them at the front of the room for the class to see. The teacher will write

all the ingredients that make of each of the materials on the board. The teacher

should mix up the list of ingredients as he/ she is writing them so they are not in

any order. As a class, the students should take turns choosing which ingredient

should go with the breadcrumb recipe or the sawdust materials until the ingredients

match up with their specific objects (SOL: Science 3.3a-c).

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Leadership:

In our society today, it is very easy to distinguish a leader from a follower, but

it is easier to find a follower than it is to find a leader. It is vital that a teacher treat

each of his/ her students as a leader, but he/ she should first serve his/ her students

as a servant leader. Servant leaders are the only true leaders. In Arthur Dobrin’s,

Love Your Neighbor, he tells a story called Riverside. In this story, a spider named,

Zimena goes on a picnic at the riverside. During her picnic, she hears other younger

spiders crying for help. They were drowning while trying to cross the river. Zimena

saves the spiders and gives up part of her day to teach them how to spin a web in

order to cross a flowing river. After reading this story to the class, the teacher could

use some of these activities in the four main subject areas.

Language Arts: Ask the students to make statements using works like these:

some, many, all, everyone and never. Lead them to see that their statements are

based upon specific examples of things they know. These statements are

generalizations. Ask them to point out some generalizations that the author or

characters make in this story. Also ask the students to make generalizations based

on specific examples from the story. Write the examples on the board (SOL:

Language Arts 3.5a-j) (Cooper and Pikulski, 1996).

Mathematics: The teacher will implement a game into his/ her multiplication

lesson plan. Cut out 10 little spiders using a template or just drawing them. Draw 2

rivers on the board or be creative and use blue poster board cut out like a river.

There should be one river and 5 spiders for each team. Divide the class into two

teams. Each team will have the opportunity to answer a multiplication problem. If

they get the problem right the team gets to have one of their spiders cross the river.

The team with all their spiders across their river wins (SOL: Mathematice 3.4).
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Social Science: Teacher will review the leadership displayed by George Washington,

Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Thurgood Marshall, and Martin Luther King,

Jr. The actions these men and took in their early lives, and later in their presidencies and as

leaders in society, demonstrated true leadership qualities. Have each student in the room take out

a piece of paper. Give the students approximately 10-15 minutes to write their answers to the

following:

Questions:

1. What are the qualities or traits of a leader?

2. Are all leaders great and powerful people?

3. Who are the leaders in your life?

4. Why do you think of these people as leaders?

5. How can you be a leader?

Ask the students to volunteer some of their answers to the leadership questions. List some of the

responses on the chalkboard so that all of the students can see them. Briefly discuss the

responses with the class. Direct students to select one of the following leaders discussed in class.

They will complete the next part of the assignment focusing on that one leader. Students, using

their self-generated list of leadership qualities as a guide, will review additional resources on the

achievements of that leader. Students will write a one-page essay on why they think the person

they chose to write about was a great leader. Their essays should include examples of what that

person accomplished to make them a great leader. Have students present their leadership essays

to the class (SOL: Social Science 3.11b, Language Arts 3.2a-e, 3.7a-b, 3.9a-e, 3.10a-e) (2004).
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Science: Read about spiders in a textbook; discuss the readings and brainstorm facts

about spiders found in the reading. Ask: How are spiders special? What can we say about them?

Let's observe them and see. Create a Science Center, students use a magnifying glass to observe

a spider's legs, eyes, and other body parts. They make a drawing of the spider's body parts that

they observed. Students specify characteristics: A Spider has _________________ (suggest

characteristics such as legs, eggs, body parts ) They also write: A spider does not have

_________________ . Students classify pictures or plastic toys as spider or not spiders.

After the students have had an opportunity to explore the idea, discuss the following:

Many people believe that spiders are insects - they are not - they look like insects. There are two

main features that distinguish spiders from insects - spiders have only two body parts and eight

legs, whereas insects have three body parts and six legs. During this discussion, show pictures or

show live spiders and insects to demonstrate the differences. Students report on their

observations of the spiders. They illustrate their report with drawings in their journals (SOL:

Science 3.4 (SEDL, 2007).

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Resources

(2007). Kid's Planet. Retrieved September 3, 2007, from Defender's of Wildlife Web site:

http://www.kidsplanet.org/wol/page_1.html

(2007). Classroom Activity #4: Focus on Leadership. Retrieved September 3, 2007, from

nps.gov Web site: http://www.nps.gov/history/logcabin/html/activity4.html

Cooper, D., & Pikulski, J. (1996). Teacher's Book: A Resource for Planning and

Teaching.Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

SEDL, (2007). Paso Partners: Integrating Mathematics, Science and Language: An Instruction

Program. Retrieved September 3, 2007, from Southwest Education Development Laboratory

Web site: http://www.sedl.org/scimath/pasopartners/spiders/lesson2.html

Sherer, Naomi (2004). Activities At Science Learning Stations . Retrieved September 3, 2007,

from McNary National Wildlife Refuge Web site: http://nwr.mcnary.wa.us/learn.html