Operation Respect: Don’t Laugh at Me - This is a fantastic FREE resource for teachers. It provides detailed curriculum suggestions (grades 2-5, 6-8) helping teach children to express their feelings, to learn to be caring and compassionate, to find creative ways to resolve conflict and to celebrate diversity. Peter Yarrow of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary began this program. The program combines music, video and curriculum guides and was written in collaboration with Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP) of Educators for Social Responsibility.

Scholastic – I am Responsible - This is a lesson plan for the elementary level, which teaches responsibility from the individual to the community to the global. The lesson plan has several headings: interpersonal responsibility, personal responsibility, at home responsibility, community responsibility, and global responsibility, with ideas for teachers on how to present each topic.

TIPS – National Network of Partnership Schools - This website offers concrete examples of ways teachers can involve parents with their children’s schoolwork (primary grades), thereby building positive educational interactions in the home and a positive relationship between the teacher and parents as well.

Lesson Plans for Teaching about Community - What is a Community? This is an introductory lesson about communities to help Grade 3 level children think about what they might find in a community and about different types of communities.

Communities of the Past - This lesson has children using resources in the library and on the web to view differences in their community between past and present.

Community Interview - In this lesson plan, children come up with historical questions about their community. The students interview each other and then find an older person to interview as well, comparing the two sets of answers. This activity helps children to be inquisitive and investigative about their local community.

Dealing with Stereotyping, Discrimination - Through examining a number of scenarios, elementary students evaluate situations of racism and discrimination and look at various strategies used to deal with it to determine which might be the most effective.

Charlotte’s Web: A Story about Friendship - This is a comprehensive teaching guide to the story Charlotte’s Web for the elementary level. There are questions suggested for each chapter and discussion topics around friendship, the power of helping others, loyalty, etc.

Community Building Activities/Energizers - The activities listed here – Hula Hoop body pass, Koosh toss, and Skin the Snake – are activities that can be used in the primary classroom to teach cooperation as well as have the group accomplish a common goal.

Group Cooperation by Faine
This is a fun group activity for younger children to include everyone and communicate thoughts and feelings.

Community Service Project. By Marie Allen
In this unit, elementary students are encouraged to identify community problems and brainstorm ways of addressing these problems.

We’re all the same inside – by Renee
Using white and brown eggs, teachers can demonstrate to young children that we’re the same on the inside.

Human Rights, Human Wrongs - This lesson plan helps high school students focus beyond themselves and their local community to become more aware of global issues and human rights on a universal scale.

Facing Fear: Terrorism and Tragic Events - Offered by the Canadian Red Cross Society, this is a good teacher resource for helping classes deal with difficult and frightening events. The resource is available in four age groupings: 5-7, 8-10, 11-13, 14-16. Within the information packet are concrete lesson plans to help a teacher discuss various issues such as personal feelings or how to be media savvy.

Evergreen Canada - Their Teacher’s Corner section is a great on-line resource to help teachers of all grade levels get the most out of the outdoor classroom. It is set up to share lesson plans from teachers across the country that are integrating school ground greening projects with their curriculum.

PovertyUSA - This is the site on poverty we visit most (besides our own). Their education centre provides classroom teachers, community, church and service group leaders, home schoolers and other educators with resources they can use to initiate meaningful discussions about poverty. The resources included have been divided into three units, based on age and grade level: Grades K-5, Grades 6-12, and Adult Education.

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