Character Building

Honesty

By Kelly Nelson ©2013 Owlinspireyou.blogspot.com

Books on Honesty Grades K-3

A Day's Work - Bunting

The Empty Pot - Demi

Ira Sleeps Over - Waber

Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine - Ness

The Tale of Peter Rabbit - Potter

Too Many Tamales - Soto

What's So Terrible About Swallowing an Apple Seed? - Lerner & Goldhor

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Petunia - Duvoisin

Pinocchio

Ruby Copy Cat - Rathmann

Strega Nona - De Paola

Rooter Remembers: a Bank Street Book about Values - Oppenheim

The Berenstain Bears and the Truth - Berenstain

The True Francine - Brown

Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock - Stevens

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire - De Groat

I Did It, I'm Sorry - Buehner

Tales of Honesty

Name______________________Date______________

Who? Where/When?

What is the moral of the story?

What happened?

Honorable

Open heart Never tell a lie Ethical Sincere Trustworthy You should always try

Have students make an acrostic poem about honesty. Model how to use words and phrases for each letter.

Name______________________Date______________

H O N E S T Y

I am honest because

As Honest As George Washington

Using the story of George Washington and the cherry tree explain to your students the importance of being honest. There are many children’s books that have the story of George Washington or you can use the story on the follow-ing page. After discussing George Washington’s honesty ask your students why they think it is important to tell the truth. Finish the activity with by having each student create a cherry that can be placed on a tree bulletin board. To make the cherry the student should use the cherry template. First, the student should trace the cherry onto a piece of red paper. Second, the student should trace the cherry onto a piece of writing paper. Third, the student should trace the leaf pattern onto green paper. Have the student copy the front of the cherry onto their copy “You should always be honest because…” Then have him/her write their reason on the writing paper. Line up the two cherry pieces and staple at the top. Tape the green leaves to a green pipe cleaner. Fi-nally, attach the pipe cleaner to the cherry and hang from the class tree.

Cherry Tree Template

You should always tell the truth because...

You should always tell the truth because...

As Honest As George Washington

A Poem by Paul Perro

Little George Washington was a good boy So his mummy gave him a brand new toy.

It was a little axe, a real sharp one, And George thought that it would be lots of fun.

He took the little hatchet out into

The garden, where lots of plants and weeds grew. He chopped at some weeds, chopped them to the ground,

After that he began to look around.

He looked around for something else to chop, He was having a ball, and could not stop.

Right at the bottom of the garden he Came across his daddy's best cherry tree.

He chopped at it with his little hatchet

The tree was big, he could only scratch it. So he tried much harder, chopping the wood,

Until at last it fell down with a thud.

Then George was happy and put down his axe And he sat down and started to relax. Suddenly, a cry, it was George’s dad;

He’d seen the felled tree and was really mad.

“Who has chopped down my lovely cherry tree?” His face was red he was really angry.

George was scared to tell the truth but he knew Telling the truth was the right thing to do.

So George said “Sorry daddy, it was I, I killed the tree, I cannot tell a lie.”

At first dad was cross, then he realized

As he looked into his little boy’s eyes,

George’s behavior had been outrageous

But he’d been honest, which was courageous.

“My boy” said dad, “I’m very cross, but still,

Your honesty is quite admirable.

I cannot punish you because I’m so

Proud that you’re my son. I love you, you know.”

If you’re brave and honest, you can go far,

You can grow up to be a superstar.

Yes George grew up to be one of the greats

A President of the United States!

Honesty Talks Use the scenario cards on the following pages as a tool for discussing honesty. Cut the cards apart and laminate them for long-lasting use. Split your students into groups and pro-vide each group with a scenario card. Have the groups dis-cuss the scenario. Some of the cards are examples of dishon-esty and others are examples of honesty. They should talk about the following things, “Is it honest?”, “Would I do this?”, “What is a better choice?” or “It was a good choice because…” Then have each group read their card to the class and then explain what they thought about it.

Marco cheats on his spelling

test.

Susie budges in line because she

wants to be first to recess.

Honesty Talks... It isn’t her job, but Mia helps

Chan with the ball bin.

Lila asks her friend to do her homework for

her.

Cooper finds a backpack on

the bus and he keeps it.

Nick finds money on the floor so he

gives it to the teacher.

Honesty Talks... Sal finds a letter in the trash so

she delivers it to the teacher.

Dee walks to the water fountain instead of going

to class.

Leah does her homework with her brother’s

help.

Tim writes on the board

without asking.

Honesty Advocate

Honesty Advocate

Honesty Advocate

Honesty Advocate

Honesty Badges Print and cut out the badges. Give a badge to a student if they do something honest and honorable during the day.

Thanks and TOU The material and ideas in this packet were created

by me, Kelly Nelson. It is for your personal use only. If you share any ideas from this packet,

please place a link back to me at

http://owlinspireyou.blogspot.com

Lastly, I would like to thank the artists that help make my packets possible with their wonderful

clipart and fonts: