Service activities teach respect for property through respect for others. One activity is to do a community cleanup. The primary focus of a community cleanup is to remove vandalism from local businesses, homes and parks. An extension of the community cleanup activity is to do a litter pickup. Both activities teach students the detriment that disrespect causes to both public and private property and they teach students how respect for property is beneficial not only to themselves but also to the community as a whole.
Discussions function in a similar way to writing activities. The value in discussions is that they force students to analyze other opinions and they expose students new ideas. One activity is to hold a group discussion where you moderate the discussion. You should ask students what they think respect for property is and why it is important. You should also pose hypothetical situations to them that test their ability to recognize respect or disrespect for property. A twist to a group discussion is to assign the students into groups of two or three to evaluate the same hypothetical situations.
Writing activities force students to actively engage themselves in what it means to have respect for property by allowing them to express their own thoughts about respect. For a quick writing activity, ask students to write what they think the meaning of respect is. Another writing activity is to instruct your students to write down examples of what they think respect for property is. They should include in their answer times where they have shown respect for the property of others. Also, make sure they write down how respecting property made them feel, as well as how they think it made the person who owned the property feel.
Activities that focus on stealing force students to understand the nature of the relationship between property and owners. They also enable students to empathize with the feeling of stolen property. One activity to teach kids about stealing is to read stories to them. There are dozens of fairy tales, parables and short stories that focus on the theme of stealing. Some stories you can choose from include "The Lark and Her Young Ones," "Robin Hood," and "The Thief." Another activity is to hire law enforcement officers to come to your school to lecture the kids about the legal and moral consequences of stealing.