Citizens in our community — welcoming a new student

Skills targeted

Objectives

Students can describe one civic virtue (kindness, honesty, courage, responsibility, fairness).
Students can plan and act on a small civic action — welcoming a new student or helping a peer.

Vocabulary

citizenvirtuekindnesshonestycourageresponsibilityfairnesswelcome

Lesson plan

Warm-up

3 min

Daily YTT chant; Morning Meeting greeting in a 'welcome' style.

Teacher moves

Demonstrate exaggerated warm welcome
Affirm: 'today we are CITIZENS of our class'

Direct instruction

8 min

A citizen is a person who BELONGS to a place and HELPS make it good. We are citizens of our class. Citizens have virtues — kindness, honesty, courage, fairness, responsibility. Today we'll think about HOW to welcome a new citizen — a new student who might join us — or how to help a friend who is having a hard day.

Key examples

Each virtue is something you DO, not something you ARE.

model Kindness: holding the door. Honesty: telling the truth even when it's hard. Courage: trying when you're nervous. Fairness: taking turns. Responsibility: putting away your own materials.

prompt Show the virtues picture cards one by one

Checks for understanding

Show me a virtue with your face (a kind face, a brave face, a fair face).
Name one virtue and one thing you can DO to show it.

Media


        M-K-F-CIV-15-A

Chart

24x36-inch poster, 5 vertical bands. Each band: one virtue word in 32pt sans-serif at top, photo of a child showing the virtue in the middle, sentence in 20pt at bottom. KINDNESS (child holding door), HONESTY (child returning lost pencil), COURAGE (child raising hand to read aloud), FAIRNESS (children sharing blocks), RESPONSIBILITY (child cleaning own materials). Multi-ethnic children across the panels.

Guided practice

9 min

Tasks

Make a welcome card for a hypothetical new student (or a real one if available)

scaffold Sentence frame: 'Welcome to our class. We are kind. We will help you ___.'
Role-play: how would you welcome someone? Practice with a partner.

scaffold Teacher models first; pairs practice the greeting + showing one room

Media


        M-K-F-CIV-15-B

Manipulative Physical / non-image

4x6-inch folded card. Front: 'WELCOME!' in 36pt sans-serif with a child-portrait drawing space. Inside-left: 'Dear ___, Welcome to our class! We are ___. We will help you ___. Love, ___.' Inside-right: blank drawing space.

Formative assessment

2 min

Exit ticket

Show me your welcome card. Tell me which virtue you used and HOW.

scoring Virtue named + action described = mastery; virtue only = practicing; neither = re-teach with frame

Closure

Moves

Place welcome cards in a 'welcome basket' kept near the door
Preview: tomorrow, the museum visit

Homework

5 min

Tasks

At home, do ONE act of kindness for someone in your family. Tell us tomorrow what you did.

Exercises in this lesson

hist.gK.f.civ.citizenship_action.ex_02 Plan how you would welcome a new student. Tell me THREE things you would do.	plan welcome · diff 3
hist.gK.f.civ.school_community.roles_rules.ex_03 With your partner, act out two scenes: (1) what it looks like when we follow a class rule, (2) what it looks like when someone forgets.	act out with partner · diff 2

Differentiation

Scaffolds

Pre-printed welcome card with picture choices
Sentence frames at each desk
Role-play with teacher

Extensions

Make TWO welcome cards
Add a drawing of yourself doing the virtue

English Learners

Bilingual welcome card with home-language greeting
Picture-choice virtue

Ieps 504s

ASR for dictating card
Pre-drawn card to color
Extended time

Teacher notes

Civic virtues at K need to be CONCRETE actions, not feeling-words. The 'show with your face' move makes the virtue embodied. Have a real welcome card delivered to the office for any new student joining mid-year — turns the lesson into an ongoing practice. The 'welcome basket' near the door becomes a year-round routine.