THE GOLDEN RULE
The Golden Rule spans ages and religions. "Treat others as you would like to be treated," is sound advice. Not only that, this basic tenet is easily understood by children. This lesson plan is for ages 2-6, but the younger ones will have a tough time grasping it in its entirety. However, they wills till get something from it.
Hook and Inform
In this presentation, students will be introduced to the Golden Rule. There is a song to learn, and then slides introduce "Treat others like you would like to be treated". Imagine how you feel when ____, and how would you want to be treated in that situation is questioned. The presenter can pause on each slide to do a little discussion. The words empathy, compassion, help, kindness, courtesy are introduced. Click the picture to access the video presentation.
Explore
For older children, exploring information would be finding some things on their own that relate to the lesson. With the littles, exploration information or manipulatives are an excellent way to secure information in their minds. For the Golden Rule lesson, I made a YouTube playlist that brings some of the vocabulary to life. Click the pic to go to the playlist. Discuss the situations with the children and reinforce the concepts.
ACTIVITY
We first attempted to make a Golden Ruler out of salt dough. That failed because there was no mold to help it hold it shape. It ended up looking more like a ribbon than a ruler.
For our second try, I bought a couple rulers at Dollar Tree, masked off the color that was already on them, and painted the wood part with gold glitter glue.
Once they are all gold, I will use my vinyl cutter to add the Golden Rule and the vocabulary words in the image above: courtesy, kindness, empathy, help, compassion.
ASSESS
Read the story and ask the students who is the person who followed the Golden Rule. Click the pic below to go to the online book.