Helping Your Street and School: What Good Citizens Do Every Day
In 2013, a 9-year-old named Mack noticed that his local park had no benches for elderly visitors to rest on. He wrote letters, held a lemonade stand to raise $200, and convinced the city council to install three new benches. He was nine. Good citizens do not wait until they are grown up—they help right now, in their own neighborhood.
What You'll Learn
• What a citizen is and what belonging to a community means • How citizens have rights AND responsibilities • Simple actions that make neighborhoods, schools, and communities better • How to plan your own citizenship act this week
What Is a Citizen?
A citizen is a member of a community. You are a citizen of your school, your neighborhood, your city, your state, and your country—all at the same time! Being a citizen means two things: 1. Rights: Things you are allowed to have or do. At school, you have the right to learn in a safe classroom. 2. Responsibilities: Things you are expected to do in return. At school, your responsibility is to let others learn in peace. Rights and responsibilities go together. The more everyone takes care of their responsibilities, the more everyone's rights are protected.
Citizen Actions: Big and Small
You do not have to run for president to be a good citizen. Here are real actions that kids take every day: • Pick up litter on the playground, even if you didn't drop it. • Hold the door open for someone carrying heavy bags. • Welcome a new student who looks nervous. • Recycle cans and paper at home. • Say thank you to your bus driver, cafeteria worker, and crossing guard—people often forget to thank them. • Attend a local town meeting with your family to hear community plans. Each of these actions makes your community a little better. One small act of citizenship, repeated by many people, creates a very big change.
The United States has over 335 million citizens. If each one picked up just ONE piece of litter today, 335 million pieces of trash would disappear from streets, parks, and beaches. Big change starts with small, repeated acts.
Match each citizenship RIGHT to its matching RESPONSIBILITY. Drag each right to the responsibility that goes with it.
Terms
Definitions
Drag terms onto their definitions, or click a term then click a definition to match.
Your Community Needs You Now
Communities are like gardens. If everyone waters the plants and pulls the weeds, the garden is beautiful. If people only take flowers and never tend the soil, the garden turns brown. You have the power to water your community's garden—at school, on your street, and in your city. Saying hello to a lonely neighbor, picking up trash, or making a welcome card for a new classmate all add water to the garden.
Jayla thinks the school's no-yelling-in-hallways rule is unfair. What is the BEST way for her to be a good citizen about it?
Which of the following is an example of a citizenship RESPONSIBILITY—not just a right?
My Citizenship Mission This Week
Choose ONE real citizenship action you will complete before next week. Write it as a mission briefing: 1. Mission name: (example: 'Operation Clean Playground') 2. What I will do: be specific—not 'help the environment' but 'pick up 10 pieces of litter on the soccer field at recess.' 3. Who benefits: your classmates, neighbors, wildlife, etc. 4. When I will do it: day and time. After you complete it, write two sentences: What happened? How did it feel to help your community?
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