Sunday, March 11, 2012

We Promise to Be Faithful... (A Kid-Friendly Pledge of Allegiance)

I get incredibly jealous of beautiful, organized classrooms online, and I have to say... that's just not me yet! I'm continuing to figure out how to make a classroom best work for me, especially because I'm not one of those naturally organized people, to say the least.

One thing, though, that's incredibly important to me is having a lot of print made WITH the kids up around the room. I know I'm not alone in that!

I wish I had thought to get the whole poster in this, but under our flag, we have a Pledge anchor chart. The kids say the pledge every morning, but so many of them don't actually know what words they are saying, or they don't know what those words mean.

My school is very diverse, and I have multiple students who are from other countries, so I think it's particularly important to teach the Pledge! (We are in a college town and a lot of visiting professors come to the area for short amounts of time.)

We spent some time at the beginning of the year copying the words of the Pledge, and then breaking it down into kid-friendly language. It's a great lesson in synonyms and practical use of the dictionary, but it also helps students learn some of the basic principles of our country.

They say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning, and I love feeling like my class actually understands what they are saying!

3 comments:

  1. If I did something like this, it might be extra motivation to stand tall and not rush the words. It's my class's turn to say the Pledge on announcements this week, so it is the perfect time to read your post. Welcome back to the blogging world!

    Tammy
    http://secondhelpingsforteachers.blogspot.com/

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  2. I LOVE this! We talked about the words to the pledge clear back in September, but this visual makes it stick! Definitely going on my plans! Thanks!!

    Oh My Little Classity Class

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  3. I really like this and think the pledge should be more than just recited words. I live in a similar college town with lots of foreign students and other religions. I was just curious how you addressed the "under God" part of the pledge?

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