According to the Kids Window, role playing is a great way to get younger children to understand the values of authority--simply putting the children in different roles of authority means they can experience roles of both command and obedience. Situations in places such as the office, the kitchen or the zoo cannot only be fun but also provide various roles of respect and authority. The office, for example, can be quite fun for kids because of the machines and smart clothes they might have to use and wear. But, it can also provide levels of authority. There could be a top boss who commands everyone, some sub-level workers who only command their respective groups, and some low-level workers who have no responsibility at all. Ensure that the children get to play in both lower and higher roles--having certain children do all of the telling could promote bullying or antisocial behavior outside of class.
Teaching the children the rules of the classroom is an effective way of teaching authority. Rules such as "always listen to the teacher" are good indicators of how to behave and how to respect others. Turn the rules into an activity by asking the children to stand in front of the class and reciting the rules together--you might have a different student do it each day. Whole Brain Teacher Andrea Schindler gets her pupils to add actions to the rules and also gets them to add different voices, pitches and speeds to the recital. This can help them interact with the rules and make it more fun (see her teaching video in the References).
Children can better understand the idea of rules and laws by making up their own. Split the kindergarten into five groups and instruct each one make a list of three rules that have to be obeyed for the day. Give the students some friendly and doable examples--for instance, always standing up before the teacher enters or always asking to get out of the chair--so they can get an idea of what to write. Go over the rules with each group and explain why any might be harmful or impossible for the class to do. Once all the rules have been approved, enforce each group's rules for one day of the week. You might even ask the class if they enjoyed certain rules or if they thought some rules were unfair; discussion with and amongst the pupils will also help them grow and learn.
Respect is also an important part of learning about authority because if you can respect those with authority, for instance, teachers, then you understand authority and learn to obey it. At a child's level this could be as simple as obeying the teacher's commands, but it can also be introduced amongst the students themselves. USC College gives an example of a respect activity that can be taught to almost any age. It involves sitting the class down and having them complete a series of sentences about respect and authority, for instance, "The person I respect most is..." Ask to the children complete the sentence by saying it aloud one by one and let the kids talk to each other about what they think about each other's answers. The USC College Respect Lesson Plan PDF contains a full list of respect and authority questions to complete with the class (see References).