Good manners shape how our students treat each other, build friendships, and create a positive classroom culture. But let’s be real — simply reminding kids to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ isn’t enough. They need repeated practice and meaningful activities to make kindness and respect second nature.
Why Manners Matter in the Classroom
Our students spend most of their day with us, which makes the classroom the perfect place to model, practice, and reinforce manners. Whether students have strong support at home or not, we can provide a safe space for them to practice kindness and respectful interactions.
There are lots of simple, accessible, and developmentally appropriate ways to help teach manners in our primary classrooms. You’ll find a few ideas below to help inspire you to integrate them in your own unique way and encourage teammates and parents to do the same.
Great Books that Teach Children Manners
We LOVE a great read-aloud, and there are tons of children’s books out there that can help teach the value of manners, AND you can find creative ways to integrate them into your curriculum as well. Get students writing and practicing critical reading readiness skills like making predictions, connections, building prior understanding, and more.
Teaching about why manners are important and showing kids tangible positive and negative examples of manners, kindness, and other social skills through stories will help students connect the concepts back to themselves and teach children to manage their thoughts, words, and actions.
Whether you’re teaching manners and social skills to primary students in a private or public school setting or you want to make recommendations to a family looking to practice better manners at home, there is something out there for every environment. Here are just a handful of beloved titles that teach about manners and politeness:
It’s Hard to be 5 by Jamie Lee Curtis
Interrupting Chicken by Ezra Stein
What If Everybody Did That? By Ellen Javernick
May I Please Have a Cookie? by Jennifer E Morris
My Mouth is a Volcano by Julia Cook
Kindness is my Superpower by Alicia Ortego
After reading, I like to follow up with a hands-on activity so students can connect what they heard in the story to real-life behavior. That’s where ‘Manners Toothy’ comes in!
Manners Toothy Activity
Manners Toothy is a partner or whole-group activity where students answer scenario cards about manners. Each time they get one right, they add a tooth to Toothy’s big smile! It’s interactive, engaging, and gives kids the chance to role-play situations where manners really matter.
Instead of just hearing about manners, kids are practicing them through play — which helps the values stick long-term.
Want to give your students fun, meaningful practice with manners?
Grab our Manners Toothy game + all of our manners teaching resources for just $1! You’ll have read-alouds, activities, and printables ready to go — perfect for building classroom community all year long.
