Character Council for Elementary in 4 Easy Steps

#1: Decide the Purpose of Character Council

The first thing to creating a Character council  is to hash out the “why”. Don’t organize a group just to have one!

Decide why you need one and how they will be utilized in your building. For me, I knew I wanted to make a Character Council because there were things I needed to get done, that were so easy… students could do. In fact, what better way to let them have ownership of their school and assemblies by getting to be apart of it. Also, I knew our Middle School and High School had council groups that met regularly and I wanted our students to be able to have the same experiences and build on them as they got older.

One way we utilize character council in our elementary building is to get them involved in service projects. We live in a small-town community and we want our school to be recognized for partnership and service. What can we do to give back and help our community? The businesses and community members go above and beyond to help our students, so we need to return the favor and give back to our community.

When we are deciding on what projects to do, the kids love it! They get really involved and invested.

#2: Talk It Up

Now, that you know why you are creating a character council and how you’re going to do it… let’s share all the good news!

Kids need to know what it is, what they will be doing, and the time/work expectations upfront. There will be some students who realize they don’t want to put forth that much effort and some who need to focus more on their academic work. That’s totally fine! Sometimes, the job students need is to work on being a student!

After you’ve explained all the details, you can talk to them about how to get involved. In my building, we use our character council to carry out and plan our assemblies. So, we have an application and audition piece so that students can all have a fair shot at getting to be a part of it. If they are not chosen directly for Character Council, every one of their names is written down for a helping role in one of the assemblies or service projects. Everyone can play a part somehow.

#3: Plan it Out

This is your time to plan! Yay… this is my favorite part! Get your calendar out and decide what days/times you want to have Character Assemblies. We used to have ours on a Monday morning, once a month. This year we are switching it up… because Monday mornings are so hard! Click to read more about 6 Tips for Student-Led Assemblies.

But, once you have that lined out, go ahead and decide on what you’ll talk about (Character Words, Habits, Expectations/Procedures, etc.).

Then write them into the calendar, something like this…

• Aug 28th – Welcome Back to School (Expectations, What is Character?)
• September 18th – Responsibility
• October 25th – Cooperation

After you plan out your assemblies, decide if you want to do any service projects and how many, maybe doing once a quarter or semester. Then decide which grade levels are appropriate to help. Throughout the year try to have something that everyone can be apart of… even littles can make cards!

Talk these ideas through with your administrator and make a plan to get dates on the calendar.

#4: Meet and Carry Out the Purpose

Now you’re ready! You have the students to help you and dates on the calendar. Take time to meet and carry out your plan!

Have the students come up with expectations for Character Council, just like you would small-groups. Then have them develop a mission statement for group. I know this sounds silly, but it helps, trust me! When students start acting super silly and distracted come January, you can refocus them with the group expectations and mission of group.

Get them started with a routine. Every Wednesday we are going to meet in my office at 1:00.

Students know to come to my office every Wednesday at that time. They also know if my door is shut or my lights are out, they need to return to class. That’s a routine I’ve set up with them because… let’s face it… sometimes that happens!

Go through what routines you want them to do automatically and teach those until they do them each time.

Another one I like to do is when they do come into my office, they grab the Character Council Binder and start discussing the next assembly topic. I have them discuss what they know about it and how they can teach it. This allows them to come in quietly, sit at the table and start working.

 

I really enjoy running my Character Council group! It’s one of my favorite things to do because I get to see tremendous social growth while working with these students all year long!

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