Looking Back...Christmas, Looking Forward...A New Year (and celebrating Character Virtues)

We made some great ornament crafts this year for the holidays.  One of our ornaments was a pasta shell paper plate ornament.  This was so simple to make.  All you need is a study paper plate, pasta shells, an old Holiday card and spray paint (we used gold).  The kids glued the pasta around the edge of the plate (great fine-motor activity), and cut out the Holiday card.  I spray painted the plate and the students attached the middle image.  We punched a hole and later attached ribbon.

My daughter made this beautiful poinsettia with pumpkin seeds.  It's on a hard circular backing.

Christmas was great, and now we look forward to our new year!  New beginnings are full of so much potential and opportunity.  If you haven't focused very much on Character Education, it's a great time to start!  Our School Board teaches Character Education.  Each month we focus on a different character virtue and look for students who exemplify this virtue.  We teach students what it means to be responsible, caring citizens and look for these traits and celebrate them in our students.  Talking about `character matters`allows students to then put into practice acts of kindness, compassion, caring for others and allows them to be self-reflective learners and think about how they treat others and how they, in turn, want to be treated.  These are values they will carry with them their whole lives.  

Our school honors the students who`ve exemplified the virtue of the month with a certificate.  I`ve made a little pack that includes the virtues we focus on each month, as well as MANY, MANY more!  I wanted each student to be recognized for the good that they do in the class and school community.  The students are always showing goodness in action.  

Friends helping friends do up zippers.

Friends helping friends tidy-up (even if they didn`t make that mess).

Classmates sharing materials at a variety of learning centres.

Students consistently participating in P.E. and showing good sportsmanship in cooperative games.

Click the image above for the Awards and Certificates pack.

I wanted to recognize all of these good actions and more.  Recognizing students` good deeds and actions allows them to feel good about themselves and good about helping others.  This pack has over 70 pages of Student Awards and Certificates.  It includes awards for the monthly virtues my school board focuses on, but it also has SO MUCH MORE.  There are enough awards to allow you to recognize EACH STUDENT in your classroom for the goodness that they bring!  Hopefully it can help start the New Year on a positive note! 

Happy New Year!