Character Education lesson plan on Moral Character for grades 4th to 6th

Introduction/Warm-Up (approximately 10-15 minutes):

Read the passage/story below to the students and then discuss what the best option is.

Passage: Johnny’s mother always makes great dinners and they eat promptly at 5pm every day. His mother tries her best to make sure that Johnny eats right so he is not allowed to have any snacks one hour before dinner. Johnny really wants to eat his favorite cookies, even though; he is going to eat dinner in 45 minutes. Johnny’s mother is on the phone. He knows that she won’t notice if he eats a cookie. What should Johnny do? What is the most responsible action Johnny can perform?

Discuss this with your students. Ask them what they would do and why their decision is right or wrong.

Lesson Explanation (20-30 minutes):

Step 1

Write the words responsibility and moral on the board. If you do not have access to a board then instruct students to write the words on a sheet of paper.

• Ask the students what the words responsibility and moral means.
• Discuss their definitions.
• Then ask them how being responsible is similar to being moral.
• Talk about how being a responsible person demonstrates good morals.
• Ask students to share a time when they were responsible and a time when they were irresponsible.
  • Illustrate through these examples that sometimes being responsible means doing the right thing even if it is the more difficult option.
• Explain to the students that doing the right thing in a hard situation is responsible and demonstrates a good moral character.
• Give the students an example of this:
  • “If all of your friends are going to take pencils that are not theirs out of the school library and tell you that if you do not you cannot play with them anymore, the right thing to do is to not take the pencils. That is being responsible and demonstrates a good moral character.”
• Have the student’s complete worksheet #1 & #2 with a partner.
• Once worksheet #1 & 2 is complete have the groups share their answers with the class and facilitate a discussion about this.

Step 2

Responsibility Theatre Activity

• Break the students into groups of 3-4 students.
• Once the students are in groups explain to them the following:
  • Each group will be given a scenario; this scenario represents a situation where someone must make a responsible decision that is difficult.
  • The groups will then create a skit about the scenario.
  • Once this is complete then they will perform the skit to the rest of the class.
  • The other students must guess what their scenario was and identify the responsible decision that was made.
  • Then as a class discuss how this scenario relates to building a positive and moral character and that sometimes the most difficult option is the responsible option.
• Sample Scenarios: Use these scenarios’s or create your own.

Scenario 1

Sam’s parents have a strict internet policy. Sam is not allowed to go onto any website that allows Sam to have an internet chat with someone else. This can be in the form of an IM or in a chat room. Sam knows that his parents are doing this to protect him from predators on the internet. However, everyone at Sam’s school always goes onto a certain website to chat and hang out in a virtual setting. Sam’s new friend Dave tells him to meet him on the website at 4pm. Sam is faced with a dilemma, should he ignore his parents rule and go on the website or tell Dave he can’t use that website.

• Two students must play Sam’s parents.
• One student must play Dave and another Sam.
• Let the students determine how they will act out the skit.

Scenario 2

Shelly wants to fit in at school. She recently started at Valley School a month ago and is desperately trying to fit in with other students. Jen is the most popular girl in school and is known as a bully. She and her two friends have been bullying Shelly. You hang out with Jen, once in a while, and today she told you to trip Shelly when she is on her way in from recess. What should you do?

• Two students must play Jen’s friends.
• One must play Shelly and one play Jen.
• One must play the girl that must trip Shelly.

Scenario 3

Chloe and Chris were dog sitting for their Aunt Mae. This was the first time they were allowed to dog sit, and they knew Aunt Mae loved her prized greyhound, Lucky, more than anything. After carefully feeding Lucky his special dog food they left him in the kitchen and went to watch tv in the living room. All of a sudden they heard the outside door creak open—Lucky had escaped. Chloe and Chris must have accidently left the door open after walking Lucky. They quickly chased after Lucky just in time to watch him barely escape getting hit by a car. As soon as the traffic passed, they crossed to street after him. They were too late--the neighbor was yelling at Lucky to get out of the flowerbed he just destroyed. Chloe and Chris quickly apologized and took Lucky home to give him a bath before Aunt Mae returned. When Aunt Mae asked them how everything went, they both said there were no problems.

• Two students must play Chloe and another Chris.
• One must play the neighbor.
• One must play Aunt Mae.

Scenario 4

Gil and Sasha are brother and sister. They have always been curious about their mom’s special closet where she stored all her treasured items. She never let them go in the closet, and they were so curious to know what was in there. One day Mom and Dad left for the store, telling Gil and Sasha they’d be back in an hour. Gil talked Sasha into exploring the special closet. They were both having a great time exploring items like old pictures, Mom’s wedding dress, and a collection of teacups. Sasha went to grab a box from the top shelf. As she pulled it down, a vase suddenly came with it and smashed against the floor. It broke into a million pieces. Gil and Sasha carefully cleaned it up. They knew what they had to do. Mom and Dad arrived home and they told them exactly what happened.

• Two students must play the parents.
• One must play Gil and one play Sasha.

Step 3: Character Reflection

• Have your students’ complete worksheet 2 individually.
• Then have your students reflect about their learning in a Moral Character Journal.
  • Your students’ journal can be a notebook they have or you can create one as a class. Another option is to have them reflect on a single sheet of paper and turn it in confidentially to you.
    • To create one as a class, have students take 5-10 pieces of notebook paper, fold it the sheets of paper in half and then staple it in the middle so it looks like a book.
  • The purpose of this activity is to have students reflect about their learning. You can provide students with writing prompts or have them write about anything that comes to mind that is related to the lesson topic. The idea is to have them think about how the lesson relates to their life and how they can build their character from their learning.
• Sample Prompts:
  • How does being responsible effect your life and why?
  • Talk about 5 things you learned today.
  • Can you recall a time when you were irresponsible just to fit in? Why did you do it?
  • What are 2 other things you can do to build your moral character?