Everyone is planning their first lessons around being good citizens and how we respond as a community when there is a crisis, like 9/11. How do our actions speak our values? Actions are louder than words. How we relate to others usually shows our true colors.
Below are some great starting resources and lessons showing kids how to become good citizens and community members, looking at the needs of the whole as opposed to the self. This kind of character building takes shape at home and at school.
Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility – Keep scrolling to get to the lesson ideas. We have many of these books in our school library.
Boatlift: An Untold Tale of 9/11 Resilience is my favorite resource about 9/11. Can you believe 9/11 was the world’s largest evacuation by sea? Everyday heroes who just happened to have boats in the harbor came together to help. View it here on YouTube. I have a saved copy for use in school.
Teaching Tolerance has a great series of lessons on rights and responsibilities.
The Center for Civics Education has a great 9/11 and the Constitution lesson as well as a Constitution Day lesson on their Lesson Plans page.
Last year Joyce Valenza created an amazing list of resources about 9/11.
For citizenship and values, browse the folk tales (398.2 section) and the government section (330s). Folktales were told to transmit values and strengthen community. Get some of those election books there in the 330s, also!
welcome to the CAS LIBRARY 