Resource: Honesty Makes Me Stronger Read Aloud by Elizabeth Cole

Activity: Students view the video.They divide into two groups and make posters that describe and illustrate advantages of honesty and disadvantages of dishonesty. They do a show and tell with their posters.  

Materials needed: video (optional); blank poster boards; decorating and writing materials; teacher list of all the charts (see below) - prepare chart instructions for each student/pair of students

Directions: Introduce the topic: advantages of honesty, disadvantages of dishonesty. Ask students to define both words. Show the video. Lead a discussion about the story, or if the video is not available, discuss the two words and ask students for examples. Divide the class into two groups. One group will make charts about the advantages of honesty, the other will make charts about the disadvantages of dishonesty. Provide everyone with the following scripts to copy and give them materials for writing and decorating their charts. Each student can make one chart or you can create pairs.  

From the book, “Honesty Makes Me Stronger”

Advantages of honesty: 

• Chart #1: Trust: When you tell the truth, people trust you more and want to be your friends

• Chart #2: Peace of Mind: Being honest makes you feel calm

• Chart #3: Respect: People respect those who always tell the truth

• Chart #4: Better Communication: When you are honest your relationships become stronger

• Chart #5: Pride: When you are honest, you can feel proud of yourself because you know you are doing the right thing

Disadvantages of Dishonesty: 

• Chart #6: Harder to fix mistakes: When you lie, it can be harder to solve problems because people don’t know the truth

• Chart #7: Losing trust: If you lie often, people will stop believing you

• Chart #8: Feeling guilty: Lying can make you feel bad inside and cause you to feel guilty

• Chart #9: More stress: Lying can cause a lot of stress because you have to worry about keeping your lie hidden

• Chart #10: Hurts relationships: When people find out you’ve lied, it can damage your relationships with friends and family

When students finish their charts, conduct a show and tell. Ask students to explain in their own words and give an example from the book or from their own experience of what they’ve written on their charts. Post the charts in the room, and refer to them whenever there’s a teachable moment.

Wrap it up: Explain: “I really enjoyed your show and tell! As you can see there are a lot of very good reasons to be honest! I will put your posters in the classroom so we can refer to them often. Being honest is very important to you and to your friends and family. Let’s try our best to remember what we’ve learned today.”