January Round-Up: Rules and Responsibilities

January Round-Up: Rules and Responsibilities 

Wow, we've had a whirlwind of a January.  We started things off with Rules and Responsibilities, then spent a week with the Royals.  After that, we did a week about winter, and a week about Arctic Animals.  This series offers a little bit about each theme, though by no means is it everything!

Rules and Responsibilities

In our classroom, we only have five rules:

1. Listen
2. Be Safe
3. Help When You Can
4. Be a Good Friend
5. Try Your Best

I've found that everything else kinds of falls into one of these categories.

Listen

For listening and being a good friend, my class activities came from this great Freebie on Teachers Pay Teachers!

(photo from TeachersPayTeachers.com)

We did the "Listen with your whole body" portion in class on the day we were focused on listening.  We practiced listening with our eyes, our mouths, our hands, our feet, our brains, and our hearts.  These phrases have come up plenty of time in the subsequent weeks, when I ask the children to be "good monster listeners!"

 
Good Listening Craft

1. Children can pick one rectangle, and two small triangles for their shirt.
2. Children can pick two long rectangles for their pants. (All pieces may be cut to make smaller if desired)
3. Help them place and paste clothes onto worksheet, and assist them in drawing hands, feet, and heads.
4. Let them color in body parts and “___________ can be a good listener.” (assist filling in name)
5. Encourage each child to color their picture to look like themselves!

Be a Good Friend

(photo from amazon.com)

From the same packet, we used the "Monster Behavior" cards along with one of my favorite Mo Willems books for preschoolers: Leonardo the Terrible Monster. Instead of doing above the line, below the line, etc, we decided whether the actions would make us "terrible monsters," or "wonderful friends," to go along with the book.  (Fun fact: I talked like a monster so much on this day that I lost my voice!)

(The one on the left is the sample, the one on the right is kid-made)

Friendship Craft (2 parts)

Make a Picture for a Friend

1. Give each child a large piece of newsprint.
2. Using the scrap paper box, allow them to glue on random colors and shapes and make a picture.
3. Remind them to do their best work, as they are going to give their picture to a friend.
4. When they have added all the details they wish to their picture, have them present it to another member of the group.  They can trade, or pass it to the person on the right, etc., as long as no one takes home their own picture.

Create a “Monster Friendship Chain:” 

1. Give each child 3-4 strips of construction paper in various colors.
2. Allow them to decorate as they wish with crayons, and assist them in looping them around each other, taping the edges together, forming a chain.
3. Leave the last link open, so they can join their part of the chain to another friends’.
4. Join all chains together to make one long chain. Hang in room for all to enjoy! 

Be Safe

(photo from amazon.com)

In order to practicing being safe, we had a fun object lesson with the song/fingerplay "Five Little Monkeys."  In each group, I had the kids stand up and pretend to be the monkeys.  They jumped on the "bed" (carpet) until one fell off (I'd grab them around the waist and tickle them to the floor) and bumped their head, at which point I put on a Dora the Explorer band-aid on their forehead.  We talked about who the monkeys might have listened to (momma and the doctor) to be safe.  The bandages were an all day reminder to stay SAFE!

(pattern by Evan Moore, from here)

No More Monkeys Craft

1. Color the toilet paper tube if desired.
2. Color and cut out monkey pieces.
3. Paste arms and legs on the back.
4. Paste face on the front.
5. Curl tail around a pencil or crayon and paste onto the back of the roll.
6. Let your monkeys jump safely around the room.

Help When You Can

(photo from amazon.com)

When we practiced helping when we can, we read another favorite: Mark Teague's Pigsty.  After reading this fun book about a little boy who has pigs move in when he won't clean his room, I had our kids wad up catalog paper (it is softer than copy paper) and drop it into a bucket.  When we had a good amount, I tipped over the bucket and cried, "This place looks like a pigsty!" and they screamed and laughed and raced to clean it up.  This activity not only adds an element of play to cleaning up, but the paper wadding helps with motor control, and the kids aged 2-5 ADORE IT!

Hands Are For Helping Craft

1. Let children choose any color construction paper.
2. From a half sheet or paper, fold in half again and trace hand onto one side, thumb and forefinger on the fold (see illustration).  When open, it will make a heart shape.
3. On one side, let children cover with pieces of tissue paper.  They may glue them on flat, or roll around the end of a pencil (making a flower shape), or crush into small balls and fill up hands.  Whatever they choose, please help them fill in their hands.
4. Glue onto white paper and write “My Hands Are Made For Helping.”

Try Your Best

 (from DLTK-teach.com)

Our story about perseverance was The Hare and the Tortoise (a great version is found here).  Since we covered this lesson on Friday, and we have "Friday Funday," I offered the kids some of our more challenging games and manipulatives.  Many of my kids struggle with fine motor control, so we had Link n' Learn Links, lacing animals, and a fun game where we simply picked up cotton balls using clothespins and transferred them.  We banned the word "can't" during our activities.  (I have a great elementary lesson plan about perseverance, too.  Contact me if you want info.)

 (from DLTK-teach.com)

Perseverance Craft

1. Read the story “The Tortoise and the Hare” to your group.  Talk about what it means to try your best, and not give up, even if something seems hard or impossible at first.
2. Let children color the puzzle coloring page.  Encourage them to do their best coloring, using small circular motions instead of long up and down or back and forth motions.
3. Assist them in adding their initials to the back of the pieces, and cutting them apart.
4. When pieces are cut apart, let kids mix up the pieces and try to put them together again.
5. If you have extra time, let kids have races across the room hopping like bunnies or crawling like turtles.

Do you have other ideas for teaching Rules and Responsibilities in Pre-K?  Most people teach them in the fall, I know, but since we go year round (and I started in January last year), we do them in January.  I'd love to hear your ideas!  Feel free to comment!