3 Conscience Activities for Kids

Looking for a way to explain conscience to children? Try one of these three conscience activities that offer an interactive way to see how a conscience works like a super computer. Huh? Read on... it's a simple way to break down a big concept about conscience into simpler ideas kids can grasp.

How a conscience works

A conscience is kind of like a super computer where you input information, the computer analyzes that info, and then outputs an answer. It works like this:

1. We think about the action we want to take.
2. Our conscience compares what we want to do to our core values like honesty, respect, and caring. (Analyzing...)
3. Based on the results, our conscience sends our heart and mind signals that let us know if something is right or wrong.

Here's a simple example of how we put information into our conscience and get an answer back about whether it's a good, moral choice:

1. Input: "I want to play more on my computer but my timer is up. I could sneak and add 20 minutes to the timer."
2. Processing: The conscience compares the input to core values-- is the action honest, respectful, responsible, caring, or fair? (Whrrrr, Beep, Beep) No-- it's not honest, responsible, or respectful.
3. Output: Your conscience sends tightness in your heart and worries in your mind to let you know it's a wrong choice.

It's a little old-fashioned, but this comparison helps children understand how they think about whether a choice will be moral, and how their body helps them to feel the difference between right and wrong.

3 Conscience Activities

Help children understand what a conscience is with these three activities built around the idea of how a conscience is like a super computer. From a simple worksheet to an interactive 3-D model, these activities help kids make the connection about listening to their hearts and minds to make choices with good values. Choose from:

1. a worksheet
2. an activity in which children cut and paste to match inputs and outputs
3. go all out and build a full-size Conscience 3000-S (using a box and some printable PDFs-- no computer programming needed.)

Conscience Lesson Plan- Need help putting it all together? Try the Conscience Lesson Plan with step-by-step instructions that can be used for a full social emotional learning or character education lesson on conscience.