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RESPECT
Popcorn Party

Subjects

• Arts & Humanities
  --Language Arts
  --Literature
  --Visual Arts
  
• Health
  --Mental Health
  
• Social Studies
  --Civics
  -- Psychology
  

Grade

• PreK
• K-2
• 3-5
  
• 6-8
  

Brief Description

Reinforce respect by celebrating examples of it in your classroom.

Objectives

Students will

• discuss the meaning of the words respect and disrespect.
• record examples of respectful things that others do.
• work cooperatively to achieve a goal (a popcorn party).

Keywords

respect, popcorn, citizenship, disrespect, model

Materials Needed

• picture books and stories that teach about respect (optional, lists provided)
• Thanks for Showing RESPECT work sheet
• colored paper (cut into twelve 4-inch squares)
• popcorn

Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students talk about what the word respect means, and then recognize their peers for the respectful things they do.

Start the lesson by writing the word RESPECT at the top of the board or on a chart. Ask students to discuss the meaning of the word. You might do this as a whole-class activity, or you might arrange students into small groups to discuss the meaning of the word and then bring the groups together to share their ideas.

Talk about ways in which students show respect for adults and other family members... Make a list of some of the students' best ideas.

Ask students to share ways in which they can show respect for one another. Make a list of their ideas.

See additional ideas for teaching about and discussing the concept of repect in the More Activity Ideas section below.

Then introduce to students the Thanks for Showing RESPECT work sheet. The work sheet has six copies of a simple form students can fill out to share with their classmates examples of how others in the class have shown their respect. Talk about the kinds of things students might do to show respect in the classroom and model what students might write on the form when that happens. Set aside a special place for a stack of the forms. Invite students to fill out a form whenever they witness an example of a classmate showing respect to another student, the teacher, or a visitor to the classroom. Provide a box in which students can "submit" those forms. Set aside time at the end of the day to open the box and share some of the respectful behavior students have observed. In that way, you can emphasize and reinforce all the great examples of respectful behavior that occur on a daily basis.

To add another small incentive for behaving respectfully, you might cut out twelve 4-inch by 4-inch squares of brightly colored paper. Paste one cutout or printed letter onto each square to spell out P-O-P-C-O-R-N P-A R-T-Y across the top of a bulletin board. Each day, staple beneath a letter at least five Thanks for Showing Respect forms illustrating some of that day's best examples of students showing respect for one another. For each day that you staple five good examples, the students get one day -- one letter -- closer to the reward: a class popcorn party!

More Activity Ideas Some points students might bring to a discussion of respect -- or that you might work into that discussion -- and some additional activity ideas follow:

• Introduce the "Golden Rule" -- treat others the way you would like to be treated -- as a simple definition of the word respect.
• Have students make a list of synonyms for the word respect; esteem, honor, regard, value, cherish, appreciate, admire, praise, compliment, for example.
• Share books in which respect is a clear theme. You can find booklists at Children's Books That Illustrate the Six Pillars (Character Counts), Heartwood Institute: Respect, and Library Lesson Plans.
• Different people have different likes and dislikes. To emphasize that point, you might invite each student to share something he or she likes very much. That might be a food, an activity, a place... or anything else. After students share, ask some of the students to identify things that other students like but they don't like as much. Conclude the discussion by emphasizing that people should treat one another respectfully in spite of their differences.
• Have students look through magazines for pictures showing people respecting others' differences or pictures of different kinds of people working or playing together. Create a class "We Respect Differences" collage.
• After talking about some of the things respect means, you might start a class or small-group discussion about what respect does not mean. What kinds of behaviors could be considered disrespectful? Students might provide responses such as rudeness, malicious gossip, criticism, insults... As a follow-up activity, ask students to offer synonyms for the word disrespect. For example, rudeness, dishonor, ridicule, scorn, disregard, ignore, disdain...

Assessment

Students model and celebrate respect -- and earn the popcorn party -- within 12 school days.

Lesson Plan Source

Education World

Submitted By

Gary Hopkins

National Standards

FINE ARTS: Visual Arts
GRADES K - 4
NA-VA.K-4.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines
GRADES 5 - 8
NA-VA.5-8.6 Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines

LANGUAGE ARTS: English
GRADES K - 12
NL-ENG.K-12.3 Evaluation Strategies
NL-ENG.K-12.4 Communication Skills
NL-ENG.K-12.11 Participating in Society
NL-ENG.K-12.12 Applying Language Skills

PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND HEALTH: Physical Education
GRADES K - 12
NPH.K-12.6 Respect for Others

Find more activities for teaching about respect on Education World's Martin Luther King Day holiday page.

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Article by Gary Hopkins
Education World®
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