Character Education lesson plan on gossiping for grades 1st to 3rd

Lesson plan on gossiping for elementary grades

Looking a for quick, effective lesson plan on gossiping for elementary grades? You have come to the right place!

Introduction: Story and initial discussion (10-15 minutes)

Read following story with students:

Sarah and Amy were classmates. They were friends, but like many friends, theywere different.

Sarah liked to study. Reading was her very favorite thing to do. She enjoyedschool and taking tests were very easy for her to do.

Amy liked to play sports. She enjoyed baseball, and she was a very good swimmer.

One morning, at school, their teacher gave them all an exam. Like usual, Sarah found it very easy and had fun doing it. Amy did not find it so easy, but she had a lot of fun that afternoon. She went to a swimming pool with her family and she was the fastest swimmer of any of the children there.

The next morning, everyone got their scores from the exam. During recess, Amy told Sarah that she didn’t pass her test. Amy also told Sarah about winning all the swimming races at the pool the day before.

Sarah went to play with her other friend, Emily. A few minutes later, Emily walked up to Amy and began to tease her, saying, “Amy isn’t smart. She didn’t pass her test.”

This made Amy feel bad.

Ask your students which children in the story did something they should not have done.

Encourage discussion and responses. Bring out the point that Emily did something wrong by teasing, but that Sarah also did something wrong by gossiping.

Gossiping Girls - Lesson plan on gossiping

Lesson Explanation (20-30 minutes):

Step 1: Ask students for their definition of the word gossip.

Definition: idle talk, not always true, about other people and their affairs.

  • Simplified definition: to say something unkind or untrue about someone else when they are not around, also called talking behind someone’s back.

  • Encourage students to think about the effects of gossip by asking questions such as:

    • Has anyone ever gossiped about you? How did that make you feel?

    • Have you ever talked about someone else when they were not around?

  • You can encourage the students to share any true stories of what has happened to them, if you so choose.

    • Bring out the following points:

      • Sometimes we don’t realize that what we say can hurt others or make then feel bad.

      • Sometimes we say something because we want to seem smart, or cool, or because we want to sound like we know something important.

      Lesson plan on Gossiping worksheet

      Lesson Plan on Gossiping

      Step 2: Explain the two important rules about gossip:
            • Rule number one: if there is something you would not say to the person, then you should not say it about the person.

              • Additional explanation of rule number one: If there is something that you wouldn’t actually say to the person, it isn’t fair to say it behind their back. Just ask yourself, “How would I feel if someone were saying these things about me?” If the answer is that you would feel bad, then you shouldn’t say it at all.

            • Role play rule number one with the students:

              • Choose a student and you can be “talking” with them. Have students call out “gossip” if the conversation is “gossip”. Choose another student and try again until students get the point of what gossip is.

            • Rule number two: The other rule is so important that it is called “the golden rule”. It says that you need to treat others the way you want them to treat you. So if there was something you wouldn’t want someone to say about you, you wouldn’t say it about them.

            • Encourage students to think about the effects of gossip by asking questions such as:

              • In the story, do you think that Amy’s friendship with Sarah was the same after that?

              • Do you think that Amy told Sarah her score next time they took a test?

            • Lead students to the realization that gossip hurts not only the person who was gossiped about; it also hurts the person who gossips. People realize that person can’t really be trusted, and they will not have many friends if people realize that they gossip.

      Lesson plan on gossiping worksheet

      Application game (10 minutes):

      Ask children if they have ever played the game “Chinese whispers” [also called Grapevine, Broken Telephone, Whisper Down the Lane, or Gossip]. Organize the students in a circle if possible and play at least one round of the game.

            • Write the first and last sentence on a whiteboard or find a way to draw attention to the fact that the message changes over time. Bring out the concept that gossiping has the same result: the message changes.

              • When a person says something about someone, who then passes it on to someone else, who then passes it on to someone else, the story can change until it is very far from the truth. In that way, gossiping is like spreading lies about someone else. And this is when you need to remember the golden rule. If you would not want someone spreading those lies about you, you shouldn’t do it either.

      Lesson Plan on Gossiping 100

      Lesson plan on gossiping for grades 1st to 3rd.

      Additional points regarding gossip (5 minutes-Optional):

              • If you hear something about someone else and you feel it is important and something that you need to share with someone else, you can talk to a parent or teacher that you trust.

            • Student can institute the rule of “say something nice”. Ask the question:

              • If Emily had gone to Amy and said, “I heard you were a really fast swimmer,” how do you think Amy would have felt?

            • Bring out the positive effects of saying something kind about someone rather than something unkind or selfish.

              • When we make someone else feel good, we feel good too and it’s a game that everybody wins.

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Lesson Plan on Gossiping

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Gossiping Grades 1-2-3

Lesson Plan on Gossiping

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