Lesson Plans & Educational Activities
Play it Fair: ERC Toolkit
For grades 1-6
Play It Fair Online Toolkit
Click on the picture above for a toolkit containing many great activities that an elementary substitute teacher use during ERC classes.
Human’s of New York Responses
For grades 7-11
Human’s of New York is a great book/blog for helping us learn about others and develop empathy and openness. The book consists of pictures of random New Yorker and bits of personal information which they decided to share with the world. For an activity a teacher could have students read posts from Humans of New York and write an empathetic response. These posts could be pre chosen by the teacher or chosen by the students. Check out a post below.
Materials: All you need is paper, pens, and access to the “Human’s of New York” book or website.
Human’s Of New York Post
Concept Mapping
For grades 2-6
Give students a list of words in a religious story and ask them to use a line to link the ones that go together. Have them additionally write a sentence explaining what the connection is. Students may connect a word more than once to another. An example would be:
| MOSES | PASSOVER |
| EGYPT | LIBERATION |
| SLAVERY | ANGEL OF DEATH |
| PLAGUES | MIRACL |
This activity is a great way to assess what students understand. Sometimes students know or memorize facts but they do not fully understand the story and any abstract ideas within it.
The Wall Lesson Idea
For grades:
As an activity the teacher could display starting sentences on a huge board (similar to the sentences shown below.) Students could anonymously complete the sentences through a poll and afterwards, students who wish, could come up and share their opinions with the class.
- Life is sacred so…
- War is…
- Religion is…
- Sex should be… (maybe not for elementary school)
- If Jesus/Guru Nanak/Buddha/Muhammad were here today he would..
- The Bible is…
Example of a completed sentences for, “War is…” include the following:
War is…
-necessary
– a waste
– nothing to do with God
– caused by religion
– sometimes moral
-caused by selfishness
-due to violence in humans