Fair rules

Explore why it is important for rules to be clear and fair with this drawing activity.


What will I learn?

  • What rules are and why we have them
  • Why rules should be fair and clear for everyone
A Z

Glossary words

law

Curriculum alignment

Year 3 AC9HS3K06
Year 4 AC9HS4K07


Getting started

  • Share the following definition: 

Rules are instructions for a place or situation, such as school, home or a sports team. Rules are based on ideas about what is right and what is wrong. They can be made by people who have authority, such as teachers, parents and coaches. Sometimes they are made with the input of the whole group.

  • As a class discuss what rules have in common, for example:
      • to keep us safe
      • to help us know what to do
  • Ask students to think about parts of their lives where they have to follow rules e.g. sport or games, home, place of worship. Discuss:
      • Why do we have these rules?
      • What would happen if we didn’t have these rules?

 

Activity (up to 20 minutes)

  1. All students will be drawing either an alien or a house. Decide which drawing students will be completing and print off the corresponding worksheet.
  2. Explain that in this activity students will complete a drawing, and they will receive points at the end of the activity.
  3. Students should follow these 3 instructions to complete their drawing:
    • They must complete their drawing alone.
    • They can use any colours they like.
    • They have 10 minutes to complete their drawing.
  4. The rest is up to them to decide. They can decide how many eyes their alien will have or how many windows their house will have etc. If they are stuck, they can use the pictures in the borders on their sheet for inspiration.
  5. Once the drawings are finished, explain that students will now score their drawings and each person will have 20 points to start. Make sure students have a pen/pencil, paper, and their drawing.
  6. Read out the scoring rules from the scoring table in the toolkit.
  7. Once students have tallied their score they can share their results with the class.

 

Discussion questions

  • What rules did you follow?
  • After the activity you were asked to mark your drawing based on rules that you didn’t know about. How did you feel when you realised the rules weren’t clear at the start?
  • Why do you think rules should be clear?
  • What happened because you didn’t follow all the rules? Was it fair?

 

Extension

Give students the Reflecting on rules worksheet and ask them to circle the emoji that best reflects how they feel about each statement. Students can also explain their reasons in the ‘why’ column.

 

Teacher toolkit