Character Education

For as long as I can remember, I've focused on character education in my classroom. I'm passionate about cultivating leaders and all around good citizens. I enjoy integrating character education into my morning meetings, writing block and shared reading block. 
My favorite books that focus on life/leadership skills are by Julia Cook and Maria Dismondy. For the first couple of weeks in school I read a different book (see this post) during morning meeting and we discuss the theme and message. I also spotlight one life/leadership skill each month. We discuss the skill in depth during morning meeting. As I see students demonstrating the skill, I reward the with the correlating SMART(Brag)Tag.

• September-Initiative 
• October- Organization
• November/December- Responsibility
• January- Cooperation
• February- Problem Solving
• March- Integrity
• April- Effort
• May-Perseverance
• June- Caring

While browsing Pinterest one evening I saw this Character Education Booklet. Rebecca, over at CreateTeachShare, created this wonderful resource and you can download it for FREE! I plan on using this booklet in September as we build our classroom community. Each page focuses on what the trait means and ways to show the it. I've included possible read alouds to teach each character trait below. 
Kindness-

• Recess Queen
• The Potato Chip Champ
• The Jelly Donut Difference
• Enemy Pie
• Have You Filled a Bucket Today

Empathy-

• Stand in My Shoes
• Amazing Grace
• Chrysanthemum
• Hey Little Ant
• Wonder

Courage-

• Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun
• Stand Tall Molly Lou Melon
• The Story of Ruby Bridges
• Shelia Rae the Brave
• Scaredy Squirrel

Integrity and Honesty-

• Lying Up a Storm
• The Empty Pot
• The Boy Who Cried Wolf
• Eli's Lie-O-Meter
• Dessert First

Tolerance-

• The Name Jar
• Strictly No Elephants
• The Brand New Kid
• We're All Wonders
• Separate is Never Equal

Compassion-

• Those Shoes
• Christmas Soup
• The Lady in the Box
• Uncle Willie and the Soup Kitchen
• The Can Man

Spaghetti in a Hot Dog Bun

I LOVE this book! I read this book during the first three weeks of school while I was using childrens books to build character. Best of all, the author, Maria Dismondy http://www.mariadismondy.com/ , has an activity packet full of ideas to go along with this book http://www.mariadismondy.com/uploads/docs/Spaghetti-Readers-Guide.pdf.
It's about having the courage to be who you are, and children nowadays need all the encouragment they need in this area. It would also be the perfect Christmas gift for the child in your life how has or needs the confidence to be themselves!

Now for the awesome giveaway... I'm giving away a SIGNED COPY(from the author) of this book. All you have to do is follow my blog, and leave a comment including your email address, telling me how you would use it in your classroom. I will be choosing a winner on Saturday.