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Doing Right in Public

A 40-minute Grade 2 lesson on civic virtues where a whole town can see, and where the cost is real.

Doing Right in Public is a free 40-minute Kindergarten to Grade 2 social studies lesson plan for Common Core standard D2.Civ.7.K-2 — show fairness, honesty and respect in how you take part at school. It is timed across 5 sections, gives the exact wording to use where the wording carries the mathematics, names 3 misconceptions with the teaching move that addresses each, and ends with an exit ticket and a printable worksheet with its answer key.

Grade:
Kindergarten to Grade 2
Length:
40 minutes
Standard:
D2.Civ.7.K-2

Kindergarten to Grade 2 · Civics

D2.Civ.7.K-2

Apply civic virtues when participating in school settings.

Objective

Students will be able to name the right action in a public situation with a real cost attached.

Students are successful when they can

  • Names the action.
  • Names the virtue.
  • Names what it costs to do it.

What you need

  • Four virtue cards
  • Situation cards set in the market, the museum and the council
  • The printable practice sheet linked at the end of this plan

The lesson

Warm-up — easy and hard

5 min
  1. Give one easy situation and one with a real cost.
  2. Ask which needed a virtue.

Teach — name the cost

13 min
  1. Take breaking a museum case with nobody watching. Name the honest action.
  2. Then name what it costs: embarrassment, perhaps paying for it.
  3. Say the Grade 2 addition: a virtue that costs nothing is barely tested.
  4. Take following the hose ban when your garden is dying.
  5. Say plainly that these are hard, and that saying so is honest.
“It will cost you something. That is what makes it a virtue rather than a habit.”

Guided practice — action, virtue, cost

12 min
  1. Pairs take six situations and fill all three.
  2. They rank two by how hard they would be.
  3. Take feedback on the hardest.

Independent practice

8 min
  1. Students complete the doing-right page.
  2. Read each situation aloud.

Close

2 min
  1. Take one situation, its virtue and its cost.

What goes wrong, and why

Each of these is a reasoning error rather than carelessness. The fix addresses the reasoning.

Says the right action costs nothing.

Why: Admitting a cost feels like an excuse.

Fix: Name the cost honestly. Pretending otherwise makes the lesson unbelievable.

Chooses the easy action and calls it virtuous.

Why: It is also not wrong.

Fix: Ask what it cost. If nothing, the virtue was not tested.

Names the virtue with no action.

Why: The word is on the card.

Fix: A virtue is what you do, not what you name.

If they are not there yet

  • Two virtue cards rather than four.
  • Give the action and name the cost.

If they finish early

  • Find a situation where two virtues conflict.
  • Say what makes a cost worth paying.
  • Say what a town loses when nobody pays it.

Exit ticket

You break a museum case and nobody saw. What do you do, and what does it cost you?

What to look for: Telling the curator, with a named cost. 'It costs nothing' means the honest-cost point needs repeating.

Printable practice for D2.Civ.7.K-2

Free to print and copy, answer key included. Each sheet can generate a fresh set of problems for a retake.

Questions about Doing Right in Public

How long does the Doing Right in Public lesson take?

40 minutes, split across 5 timed sections: warm-up 5 min, teach 13 min, guided practice 12 min, independent practice 8 min, close 2 min. The minutes are stated per section and add up to the stated length, so the plan can be cut or extended at a section boundary rather than abandoned halfway.

Which standard does Doing Right in Public teach?

D2.Civ.7.K-2 — D2.Civ.7.K-2, Civics for Kindergarten to Grade 2: “Apply civic virtues when participating in school settings.” In plain terms, show fairness, honesty and respect in how you take part at school.

What do I need to teach this lesson?

Four virtue cards, situation cards set in the market, the museum and the council and the printable practice sheet linked at the end of this plan. Everything listed is either ordinary classroom equipment or a free printable from this site — there is nothing to buy and nothing to prepare beyond photocopying.

What mistakes should I expect in this lesson?

Three, each a reasoning error rather than carelessness: says the right action costs nothing; chooses the easy action and calls it virtuous and names the virtue with no action. The plan gives the thinking behind each one and the teaching move that addresses the thinking rather than the symptom.

How do I know whether the lesson worked?

The exit ticket asks: “You break a museum case and nobody saw. What do you do, and what does it cost you?.” Telling the curator, with a named cost. 'It costs nothing' means the honest-cost point needs repeating. That tells you whether the class needs a reteach or a thirty-second conversation before you plan tomorrow.

Is there a worksheet to go with Doing Right in Public?

Yes — 1 printable D2.Civ.7.K-2 worksheet, linked at the end of the plan and free like the rest of the site. Each one comes with an answer key and 25 versions, so the practice after the lesson can be a different paper on every desk.

Is Doing Right in Public free to use?

Yes. The plan, its printables and their answer keys are free to read, print and photocopy for your own class, with no account and no email capture. It was last reviewed on 7 September 2026. Please do not resell it or republish it as your own.

Last reviewed 2026-09-07. Aligned to D2.Civ.7.K-2 of the C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards.