Teach children how to act properly during family dinners through a role-playing project. Take the students, one by one or in small groups, through a step-by-step scenario on having dinner at home. Set a table as it may look at the preschooler's home and role-play a family dinner. Include the practice of washing hands, waiting for everyone to sit down before eating, praying where applicable and saying "thank you" when being served. Show students how to put a napkin in their laps and how to keep their elbows off of the table while eating. Other topics to cover are not talking with a full mouth and asking to be excused from the table when finished. Help preschoolers create a poster that includes visual cues as to how to exercise good manners at home. Draw pictures of hands being washed and children playing nicely together. Paste these drawings onto the poster as a reminder to children to be polite to parents and family.
Ask students to create paper bag puppets that resemble themselves. Use these puppets to teach children how to act in public places. Role-play typical situations a preschool student may encounter, such as a trip to the grocery store or a dinner at a restaurant. Go over general rules about not running in stores and not throwing a tantrum in a restaurant through short role-playing projects with the puppets. Children can also learn how to meet new people and how to act politely to other children on the playground.
Prepare preschool students for kindergarten by teaching them to raise their hands when they wish to speak. Create a craft project to encourage hand raising. Have students draw full-length pictures of themselves. Help them cut out the pictures and then cut off one of the arms from each picture. Use a brad to reattach the arm. Now the portrait's arm can be lowered or raised.
Help children learn to practice the "Golden Rule," which states that we should treat others the way we wish to be treated. Have children look through magazines and cut out pictures of people adhering to the "Golden Rule" and displaying good manners. Picture choices might include children playing together in a kind fashion, someone sharing, or someone eating neatly at a table. Have the children make a collage of pictures on a large classroom poster or on individual small posters to take home. Try other projects to help teach children about good manners. Teach children to be good listeners by playing "Follow the Leader." Instruct children to say, "Please" and "Thank you" at all times and reward good manners with a sticker and praise.