Craft Activities for Teaching Respect and Responsibility

It's important to teach children to be respectful toward one another and to be responsible citizens at an early age. Teaching respect and responsibility will not only benefit children as they grow up but it will benefit the world around them. Teaching children to respect one another in our diversified world will help with interpersonal communication, while children who learn responsibility for their actions will grow into productive adults.

Visual aids help children understand complex concepts. Have children look through magazines for pictures that show people interacting with one other in respectful ways. Examples might include an group of culturally diverse friends hanging out together or a child taking the hand of an elderly person. Create a bulletin board that says, "Show Respect to Others" and allow children to add the pictures they have found to create a collage. Create another bulletin board that says "Show Responsibility" to emphasize the importance of being a responsible person. Explain that responsibility also means being reliable, by following through with any tasks they are assigned. Have children draw pictures of some chores they are responsible for, such as feeding fish or walking the dog. Add the pictures to the "Show Responsibility" wall.

Teach children about interpersonal responsibility by engaging them in a group activity. Set up an assembly line of several students who must be responsible for a single task. For instance, give the group the task of creating a spider out of simple craft materials. One student will be responsible for connecting the Styrofoam balls together, another child can be responsible for cutting pipe cleaner legs and another can have the job of assembling the pieces. When the craft is complete, show children how each person was responsible for a part of the task and if one child had not done his job, the task would not have gotten done.

Use crafts to create incentives for being respectful and responsible. Have students create an "RR" ribbon. "RR" stands for "Respect & Responsibility." They will make a circle out of cardboard, paint it blue and cut two pieces of blue ribbon and glue them to the bottom. Students then write "RR" on the center of the blue circle. Tape the ribbon onto the children's clothes or onto their desks as a reminder of how they should behave. If the teacher notices some disrespectful or irresponsible behavior, she should ask the child to remove his badge. Every student who retains his badge at the end of the day should receive a sticker or pencil as reward.

Highlight children's responsibility towards the community by using crafts. Have students create greeting cards to bring to a rest home. This craft will help highlight the importance of showing respect for the elderly and extend the children's sense of being a part of their community.