by Joan Inong

Created on: September 23, 2009

Every child should learn good manners so that he/she will develop into a conscientious and responsible adult. While parents have the largest responsibility towards their children, teachers also play an important role during a non-homeschooled child's development. The following article will help teachers find easy and fun ways to teach their young students about the importance of having good manners.

Songs

The following songs are simple yet they are short enough to keep your students' attention. The first song is primarily about teaching children to respect people, and the second song is about teaching children how to be tolerant.

"Respect means giving thanks,

And being nice to those around you,

Helping everyone as much as you can,

Respect is being a good person."

This song can be sung by groups. First, divide your students into four groups. Start the song by having one group sing the first line. Once the first group starts to sing the second line, the second group should start singing. Then, when the second group sings the second line, the third group should start, and so on. Clapping is a good way to keep the song fun, too.

"Tolerance means accepting everyone,

No matter where they come from,

Whatever color they are, or the religion, too,

Tolerance means that we are all humans."

Again, this song can be sung just as the first one was sung. If you want, you can sing one song after the other (so that they are 2 verses) and you can follow the basic format of the song and write your own.

Activities

- Good manners encompasses many "positive" characteristics, tolerance and respect being only two of them. Ask your students what "respect" means to each of them. How do the children's definitions differ, and how are they similar? Make a chart on the board and show them that "good manners" has a universal meaning.

- Once your students have seen what it means to have "good manners," ask them to act out a skit or little play in front of the class. Divide the students into groups of four or five, and then ask each group to write a play that teaches some kind of good manner. Have each group act out the play in front of the class while the other groups try to guess what the play is trying to teach.

Since a young child's brain is still developing, it is imperative for teachers and parents to teach them good manners at this point in their lives.

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