School Rules Scroll

1. With classmates, students create a list of suggested classroom rules to help each person be responsible for his actions. State rules positively, describing what TO DO. Use a democratic decision-making process to select three or four of the most important, general rules.
2. Students cut a recycled paper grocery bag with Crayola® Scissors so it lies flat.
3. With a ruler and Crayola Erasable Colored Pencils, students measure 2-inch (5 cm) high lines. Students use Crayola Ultra-Clean Markers to print the rules large enough that they can be read from a distance.
4. Students illustrate the rules on another recycled paper bag. Cut out and glue these illustrations next to the rules with Crayola Glue Sticks.
5. When the glue is dry, students crumple the paper slightly to give it an aged effect. Roll up the finished scroll and tie it with a bright ribbon. As needed, a student unveils the rules for all to see.

LA: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade level topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

LA: Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences.

MATH: Convert like measurement units within a given measurement system.

SS: Explore and describe similarities and differences in the ways groups, societies, and cultures address similar human needs and concerns.

SS: Compare ways in which people from different cultures think about and deal with their physical environment and social conditions.

SS: Identify roles as learned behavior patterns in group situations such as student, family member, peer play group member, or club member.

VA: Use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories.

VA: Use visual structures of art to communicate ideas.

VA: Select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning.

Possible classroom resources include: Watch Out! At Home by Claire Llewellyn; Officer Buckle & Gloria by Peggy Rathmann; I Can Be Safe: A First Look at Safety by Pat Thomas

Students work in in small groups to collaborate on writing a short story about a student breaking a rule. How was the infraction discovered? Who drew attention to the infraction? How was corrective behavior encouraged and by whom? Students prepare to read the story orally or present it to classmates in the form of a skit. Original costumes can be constructed out of recycled materials.

Working in small groups, students compose an original commercial promoting positive, safe behavior in school. Videotape students acting out the commercial. Post a computer in the school's lobby. Have students commercials stream in the school's entrance to encourage positive, safe behavior by all who enter.