As I was making Aebleskiver (or Pancake Puffs as they're now being marketed on t.v.) for breakfast this morning, it occurred to me that cooking foreign foods is a great activity to get children interested in different cultures. Aebleskiver is a Danish treat; the word means apple slices. My mother, who is also Danish, taught me to make them years ago and I'm working at teaching my children. Here's the recipe that I use should you decide to go out and buy an Aebleskiver pan to give them a try. We use a knitting needle to turn them, but a pointed chopstick would also work. Encourage students to find a recipe from their ancestors' place of origin and share it with the class. It's a yummy way to teach your little citizens about the traditions of other countries.

Standard Aebleskiver

2 eggs, separated
1 1/2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 T. vegetable oil
1 cup flour
1 cup buttermilk

In medium bowl, beat eggs yolks until light in color; stir in sugar. Stir together remaining dry ingredients; add to egg mixture, alternately with buttermilk. Mix in oil. In separate bowl beat egg whites until stiff. Fold into batter. Pour into lightly oiled Aebleskiver pan on medium heat, turning as they brown. You can fill them with fun fruits or creams once they're cooked, or add a cube of cheese, some applesauce, or jam while they're cooking. Enjoy for breakfast with syrup and sausage or as a dessert treat. Yield: 28

Here's a fun little rhyme (adapted from a School Song) that your kids can recite using the Hand-Jive motions. How do the words of your School Song reflect your character mission?

If you want rights, then listen to me.
You've got to take responsibility!
Do your part and you will be
a dependable part of your community.

One of our Character Education program goals at Westwood has been to take our service projects to a deeper level to include all students at all grade levels and find a tie-in with our pillars as well as our academic standards. Service learning takes the kids well past merely performing a service; it allows the students ownership in the process. This spring, Westwood students voted that our service project be aimed at helping animals. Click here to read all about our plans for a Pet Project as we launch our first-ever school-wide Service Learning Project.

While it could also double as the perfect resource for a respect lesson, The Golden Rule by Ilene Cooper is a newcomer to the children's literature market that sheds light on the way that different cultures through the ages have all used the same good-neighbor rule: Treat others the way you want to be treated. A grandfather and his grandson spot a billboard that reads, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." When the boy asks his mentor what that means exactly, it sparks a conversation about the Golden Rule. From individual people to entire societies, Grandpa offers concrete examples of the Rule in action. So how does this book connect with the Citizenship pillar? Being a good citizen means making wherever you go better because you're there. The message of this story parallels the concept that practicing the Golden Rule "begins with you." Over several pages, Grandpa shares with his prodigy the wording of the universal rule across the different religions, opening up a myriad of extension possibilities in the classroom for reflective discussions, essay writing, and cultural studies. I ordered 6-inch golden rulers for my students and had them imprinted with the message: We measure our character by the Golden Rule. Ask students what the saying means. Students can enjoy even more enrichment by looking for other ways of saying the Golden Rule - how did Aristotle or Confucius say it? - or by re-wording (and then illustrating) it themselves.

Litterbug Doug is a wasteful lazy-bones. He's stinky and he's messy. And he hates recycling! Not thinking he's doing anything wrong, Doug throws everything on his heep of trash, including his two cats. The stench is so strong that even his friends - the rats - can't stand it. So it goes in Michael Recycle Meets Litterbug Doug, by Ellie Bethel, a sequel to Michael Recycle, until our green-caped crusader comes to the rescue and shows an almost-doomed Doug that it's never too late to make the right choice. Michael befriends the lonely litterbug and helps him learn to waste less and recycle more. Just in time for Earth Day 2009, this gem provides some valuable tips in the back to help its readers "Go Green." Use it as a springboard to make a conservation action plan with your green teamsters. Want more earth-friendly ideas? Click here for the Josephson Institute's Character Chronicle Earth Day issue.

One of the reasons that I like for our Knitting Club to make patchwork afghans is so that students can see how their small part is used to complete the whole. The blanket wouldn't "work" without each patch, so the individual effort benefits the teamwork product. So it is in society. Individual citizens working together make communities work. Even if your class can't knit, you can make a classroom quilt to illustrate this very concept. Use blocks of paper or, better yet, have each student bring in a 7X9-inch swatch of fabric from a shirt or outfit that no longer fits. Have them write (or draw) about the special qualities that they bring to the class. Bind the pieces together and you'll have a whole; use it to show how each individual classmate brings something unique to the class family. As a fun twist and to show what would happen if someone were to leave the class - or choose not to be a contributing classmate - you could purposely keep one of the patches out. Unveil the quilt minus the missing piece. After a reflective discussion about what it would take to complete the quilt, attach the missing piece and finish the project as a group. Hang it in the room as a visual reminder that everyone in class is an important part of the whole.

If you're like us, you say the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school. If you're in Texas, it's likely you say the Pledge to the Texas Flag as well. What other pledges do you know? A pledge is a promise that members of a group make to the group, to each other, and to themselves. If you were in 4-H, you may know this pledge:

I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service, and my health to better living, for my club, my community, my country, and my world.

They added the "and my world" part during my years as a 4-H member. I remember it so clearly because it's hard to change something like that once you've memorized it the other way. Do you know the Westwood pledge? It's likely that your school has a pledge as well. Research what other organizations or groups have pledges. What do they promise? If you were to write a Friendship pledge, what would it say? How about a Citizenship pledge? Or a Character pledge? The next time you recite a pledge that you've memorized, really concentrate on the words and then ask yourself, "How might my day, my week, my month, my year be different (better?) if everyone were to live out the promises we've made in our pledge?"

A good citizen respects authority and obeys the rules. What happens if we decide not to obey the rules at home? At school? On the road? On the soccer field? Why is following the rules so important? Students deserve to know and understand the "why" behind the rules they're expected to follow. In many cases, it's a safety issue. Basketball, for example, might not be a safe sport if there weren't rules and subsequent consequences imposed on those who break the rules. You could say the same for any sport for that matter. Extend the discussion further by asking if it's okay to break a rule as long as you don't get caught. A radar detector is an example of a device that's used, in some cases, so that people can exceed the speed limit without geting caught. Are there other examples of situations where people might break the rules if they know they won't get caught. On their tax returns, maybe? At school, I periodically catch little ones on an errand or en route to the bathroom scurrying, okay running, down the hall. They slow down, of course, when they hear, "even when nobody's looking,." Was it okay to run until I saw them? Is it ever okay to break the rules? Consider the case of the Nazi Germany. Was it okay to harbor a person of Jewish descent? How about today? Would it be okay to offer work to an illegal immigrant? Use dilemmas like these for an engaging discussion about the role that one's character plays in following the rules.