Moral Development Activities for Preschool Community Helpers

This free set of moral development activities for preschool and kindergarten helps young children understand kindness, responsibility, and fairness through stories, role-play, drawing, and simple discussions about their classroom community.

Overview

Students explore what it means to be a helpful and caring member of a group. Across several class meetings, children listen to a story, act out situations, observe behavior examples, and create a shared class book about positive choices. The focus is on concrete behaviors children recognize: sharing materials, helping others, telling the truth, waiting for a turn, and including classmates.

Subject Connections

Social Studies: community roles and responsibilities.
English Language Arts: listening comprehension, speaking in complete thoughts, and drawing to communicate ideas.
Art: illustrating actions and expressing feelings visually.

Learning Goals

Students will identify behaviors that help a group work well together.
Students will explain simple examples of fairness and kindness.
Students will demonstrate helpful behavior during classroom routines.
Students will describe how their actions affect others.

Materials

• Picture book about kindness or helping others
• Chart paper and markers
• Drawing paper
• Crayons or colored pencils
• Large poster paper
• Glue sticks
• Simple role-play props (blocks, books, classroom items)

Preparation

Prepare a chart labeled “Helpful Choices” and another labeled “Unhelpful Choices.” Select a short story that shows characters cooperating and solving a problem. Arrange an open floor space for role-play. Prepare blank pages for a class book.

Teaching Procedure

Each session fits a standard class period of 25–35 minutes.

Session 1 – Introducing Community Behavior

1. Teacher reads a story aloud and pauses to ask what each character is doing and how others feel. Students respond verbally and point to pictures showing emotions.
2. Activity: Teacher tells students they will become “community helpers” today. Using classroom objects (books, blocks, crayons), the teacher demonstrates a helpful action and an unhelpful action. Students watch, then act out one helpful behavior using the same materials and show it to a partner. Students demonstrate sharing, helping pick up, or inviting someone to join.
3. Teacher records student examples on the Helpful Choices chart. Students explain why each behavior helps the group.

Session 2 – Recognizing Fairness

1. Teacher presents simple situations: one child takes all markers, one child waits for a turn, one child helps clean up. Students vote thumbs up or thumbs down and explain their reasoning.
2. Students work in pairs and role-play one situation. Each pair shows the class what happened and classmates describe whether it was fair.
3. Teacher adds new behaviors to the charts and reviews them aloud with students.

Session 3 – Practicing Kindness

1. Activity: Teacher gives each child a paper circle and says they will notice kindness. Throughout the day, whenever a student sees a helpful action, they quietly tell the teacher. The teacher writes the action on the circle and students draw the behavior. Students create visual examples of helping, sharing, and cooperating.
2. Students gather in a circle and share drawings. Teacher guides students to explain what happened and why it mattered.
3. Teacher posts drawings on a “Our Community” display.

Session 4 – Creating the Class Book

1. Teacher asks each child to think of one helpful thing they can do every day. Students discuss with a partner before drawing.
2. Students draw themselves doing the helpful behavior and dictate a sentence to the teacher. Teacher writes the sentence clearly under each picture.
3. Students help assemble pages into a class book. Each child reads their page aloud to the group.

Assessment

Teacher observes students during role-play and daily routines. Students demonstrate understanding by identifying helpful behaviors and explaining their effects. The class book pages provide evidence of each student’s understanding.

Differentiation

Provide sentence starters for students who need language support. Allow students to act out rather than verbally explain if needed. Offer visual choice cards showing behaviors for students who need additional structure.

Grade Adaptation

Kindergarten students can write simple words independently. First Grade students may write complete sentences and describe consequences of actions. Younger preschoolers focus mainly on acting and identifying emotions rather than explaining reasons.

Extension Ideas

Create a weekly “helper role” rotation in the classroom. Invite students to identify helpers in the school and draw them. Practice greeting routines and polite requests during transitions and playtime.