Connecting Classroom Rules to Real-World Citizenship in the Primary Classroom

As a primary teacher, one of my all-time favorite topics to teach is citizenship. Why, you ask? Well, beyond the classroom, these topics will serve my kiddos very well throughout their lives! It's easy to connect real-world citizenship with classroom rules and expectations, and ultimately help the children understand its value. In fact, that's exactly what we're talking about today! 

Teaching Citizenship in the Primary Classroom 

In my first-grade classroom, teaching citizenship is the first thing we focus on in our social studies curriculum. I love teaching this topic at the beginning of the school year because it's simple to connect classroom rules with real-world citizenship. It helps students understand important concepts such as respect, responsibility, and community. All of these benefits will pay off tenfold in your classroom as you foster good citizenship with engaging classroom lessons. I love this topic so much that I actually created an in-depth unit on it to use in my classroom. Here are some ways I like to connect classroom rules and expectations with concepts of citizenship. 

First, Introduce Citizenship to Students 

First things first, it's time for a great introduction on this topic. I have always found that using books and group discussion is a wonderful way to introduce new things in the primary classroom. When we first get started with our citizenship lessons, I use a small classroom reader to help my students understand what being a good citizen means. 

In the reader, the word "citizen" is defined and explains how we are citizens of our country, state, and community. It then goes on further to explain that within our communities, we all have jobs or responsibilities that help contribute to the well-being of everyone. There are examples given for what this might look like at home, school, and in the community. Then. . . to connect it to our classroom rules, we talk about how each of us is a citizen in our classroom community. This really lays the foundation for these citizenship concepts to apply to our classroom, too!

I like to give each student a copy of these mini readers. Then, I read each page aloud as everyone follows along and looks at the pictures. After this, we chat about what we learned and dig into this topic a bit deeper. Great things to discuss with your students on this topic include why it's important to be a good citizen in various areas of our lives and what might happen if we weren't good citizens. The perfect book to follow up this conversation with is "What if Everybody Did That" by Ellen Javernick. 

As you chat with your students, tie in your classroom rules as examples. Perhaps one of the rules in your room is to treat everyone with respect and kindness. Ask the children why this is important and how it relates to good citizenship as you discuss. This is a great way to get them thinking a bit more deeply about these concepts and considering why and how their actions make an impact. 

Identify Good Citizenship from Poor Citizenship 

After introducing this topic and chatting with your students, continue to build on these concepts by helping children identify the difference between good citizenship and not-so-good citizenship. I do this in my classroom with a fun sorting game. We play it as a group by using a large pocket chart to display all of the colorful cards. Then, I call on volunteers to help me sort them into the correct category. 

To help connect these things to our classroom rules, I always pause as children sort each card and ask them why they think it belongs in that category. It might seem simple, but asking them to verbalize it helps SO much when it comes to following classroom rules. It gets those gears turning and (hopefully) reminds them to stop and pause when making questionable choices. 

The cards included in the sorting game that we play include examples of good and poor citizenship for home, school, and the community. When we come across an example of poor citizenship at school, I like to chat about the consequences and what those same consequences might look like in other areas of their lives. 

For example, being disorganized at school could mean that they lose important schoolwork and have to complete an assignment again. At home, the consequence of this could be losing valuable belongings, making them run late, or getting in trouble for not completing chores. Having these types of conversations as you sort will help your students understand that your classroom rules are there for many reasons and will help them be successful in other areas of their lives. 

Discuss How Rules are Similar To Laws 

In my Citizenship Unit, I also have a mini reader for the topic of Rules and Laws. I find that this is especially helpful when it comes to connecting classroom rules with real-world citizenship. I think it's pretty common for students to think that rules are arbitrary and not really valuable in real life. When you take the time to break this topic down, they will start to see the connections all on their own! In turn, this results in a lot more compliance with various classroom rules, which is a huge benefit. 

Rules and Laws Mini Reader Booklets

In my room, we go over the mini reader together, just as we did with the first book. Then we talk about rules versus laws and even make an anchor chart about their similarities and differences. From here, I like to use a worksheet that compares rules and laws at school, at home, and in the community. The children cut out pictures of specific rules and laws and sort them into the correct category. Then, we talk about those rules and their purpose. For example, at school, a rule might be to raise your hand to speak. I ask the kids why we might have this rule. What are the benefits for the whole classroom? It's always fun to hear the kids share their ideas. 

After we talk about the benefits of each rule, I take this one step further by asking them if they can think of similar examples of good citizenship for home or their community that provide the same benefit. In our example of raising your hand, you might point out that this is respectful and allows everyone a chance to talk uninterrupted. In the community, we might practice this by waiting in line for our turn at places like restaurants, the library, and the movies. At home, we might practice the same values by not interrupting others. Once you give a few examples, your kiddos will be able to make these connections on their own, which I find to be so valuable for better classroom management. 

Give Out Citizenship "Homework"

Another great way that I love to connect classroom rules to real-world citizenship is with gentle encouragement. The Citizenship Unit is taught over quite a few days, and we revisit the concepts often. It's a lot to take in, so don't expect your kiddos will have it figured out on one day. Instead, be patient and give opportunities to practice real-world citizenship. 

Turn Citizenship into a Take-Home Assignment

In my room, I focus on specific classroom rules one at a time and discuss why we practice them. We do this throughout the unit, as I mentioned above, but I like to go beyond this by encouraging students to show a similar form of good citizenship at home or in their community. This is a "homework" assignment you can give at the end of the day, and let the kids know they will be sharing their act of good citizenship the next day in class. The kids LOVE this and it gets them to be really creative, too! They will love looking for ways to show respect and kindness to others, be giving, foster community, follow rules, or take care of their community. 

I like to assign one of these per day, focusing on a classroom rule each time. After the kids share their good deed with the classroom, they write them down in little booklets that are inside the unit. Each day, I love to pass out little recognition tags for these positive behaviors, and the students collect them and glue them inside the booklet. 

It's an encouraging way to connect with your students and help them understand that behaviors of good citizenship can be applied everywhere in our lives. You can also hang out these little recognition tags for a job well done in the classroom, too, for even more positive reinforcement. On the final day of the week, we even make Good Citizen Crowns to celebrate these positive choices! 

Revisit Good Citizenship Concepts Often

Perhaps my best tip for connecting classroom rules to real-world citizenship is to revisit the concepts frequently. I like to read books throughout the year, talk about examples of good and poor citizenship, and encourage the children to make positive choices frequently. I find the mini readers in this unit to be especially helpful for this! You can pull them out again for a review anytime a behavior in your classroom seems a little lacking. 

Another fun way to follow up on these concepts is with a craft after you've covered all of the lessons inside the unit. This Mobile Craft is a student favorite and puts them in the driver's seat when it comes to brainstorming ideas for good citizenship. The mobile has 3 little tags on it that the students will cut out, color, and fill out with their ideas for how they can be good citizens at school, home, and in the community. You can have them choose a theme for these categories, such as responsibility or respect, or let them take the full lead! Either way, it's a great exercise to review and see how much your children remember from your discussions. 

Make Teaching Citizenship and Classroom Rules Simple 

If you're looking to simplify this process in your classroom, I highly recommend checking out the Citizenship Activity Unit. Inside, you will find all of the activities mentioned here and many more. In the unit, you will find 3 different reader booklets on citizenship topics, a sorting game, practice worksheets for various topics, good citizen award tags, crowns, and the mobile craft. 

I love to spread these activities out and work through them slowly, allowing for plenty of discussion on each topic. And don't forget to revisit them throughout the year to ensure retention of this information. After holiday breaks and long weekends, it's always a good idea to review these concepts. Not only will these resources help make teaching citizenship easier, but I think you'll also find that they make your classroom rules much more effective as well! 

Connecting Classroom Rules to Real-World Citizenship the Easy Way

I hope that this post was helpful to you as you work out how to approach this topic in your classroom. The big takeaway here is that discussion is going to be a valuable asset in making these concepts stick. In review, here are the steps for connecting classroom rules to real-world citizenship in your classroom:

1. Introduce citizenship, respect, responsibility, and their impact on our lives. 
2. Sort good citizenship from poor citizenship behaviors and discuss the consequences. 
3. Talk through how classroom rules relate to positive citizenship behaviors in other areas of our lives. 
4. Discuss the similarities between rules and laws. 
5. Encourage good citizenship both inside the classroom and outside of the classroom. 
6. Revisit and review these topics frequently!

I know that once you start trying some of these strategies to build good citizenship and classroom community, you will see so many incredible benefits. Teaching children key values such as responsibility, respect, and kindness will serve them well in your classroom and beyond! Don't forget, you can find all of my favorite resources for teaching this topic here if you need a little extra support. 

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