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Lessons, Resources, and Activities to Practice Good Manners

By Phil Nast, retired middle school teacher and freelance writer

Found In: classroom management, character education, health & phys. ed., preK-2, 3-5

Manners are rules for common behavior for moments when good sense deserts us. September and the beginning of the school year coincide with National Children's Good Manners Month, which affords the perfect opportunity to see how classroom rules, manners, and good sense make perfect sense. Manners change with time and vary in different cultures.

Use the following lessons, resources, and activities to practice good manners, investigate temporal and cultural differences, and test students' knowledge.

Lesson Plans

Is This Yours?
Students in grades K-1 learn that computers, like other objects, are property and should be respected. Student and home connection sheets in PDF format.

Good Manners Everywhere
Students in grades 2-3 discuss good manners in the real world and learn some do's and don'ts when using E-mail in cyberspace. Student and home connection sheets in PDF format.

Good E-mail Manners
Students in grades 4-5 learn good manners and the dos and don'ts of sending E-mail. Student and home connection sheets in PDF format.

Activities

The Good Behavior Game Manual ( PDF, 122 KB, 38 pgs.)
“A team competition for prizes, privileges, and special activities. Check marks are recorded on the blackboard for a team when disruptive behavior of any team member occurs. If the check marks for a team remain below a pre-set number (4) by the end of the Game the team wins. All teams may win if their check marks do not exceed the pre-set number (4).”

• Games to Teach Kids Good Manners

Background Resources

• How Table Manners Became Polite
• Making Introductions
• Cultural Savvy
• George Washington’s Rules of Civility

Etiquette: Online Books
Links to three centuries of books on etiquette and manners for children, teens, men, and women.

Etiquette: A History of Social Dance in America
Etiquette in eighteenth and nineteenth century ballrooms

Quizzes

• Table Manners for Kids and Parents
• Table Manners
• Don’t Gross Out the World
• Etiquette Quiz - What is your Etiquette IQ?
• Miss Business Manner’s Etiquette Quiz

Printables

• “Good Manners” ( PDF, 831 KB, 1 pg.)
  First issued to Queensland, Australia schools in 1898.
• Table Setting Guides

Booklist

National Children’s Good Manners Month
Books for primary students, recommended by Scholastic.

• 365 Manners Kids Should Know: Games, Activities, and Other Fun Ways to Help Children Learn Etiquette
  By Sheryl Eberly
  Three Rivers Press; 1 edition (November 27, 2001)
• Do I Have to Say Hello? Aunt Delia's Manners Quiz for Kids and Their Grown-Ups
  By Delia Ephron
  Viking Adult (November 16, 1989)
• The History of Manners (The Civilizing Process, Vol. 1)
  By Norbert Elias
  Pantheon; 1st paperback edition (August 12, 1982)
• Learning How to Behave: A Historical Study of American Etiquette Books
  By Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr.
  Cooper Square Publishers (1968)
• A Short History of Rudeness: Manners, Morals, and Misbehavior in Modern America
  By Mark Caldwell
  Picador; 1st edition (July 7, 2000)