Community and Fairness What Would You Do? Cards — Think, Choose, Act

About this resource

The rule is one cracker pack per student, and the snack helper just slid you two. These community and fairness what would you do scenarios give Grades 2–5 students 40 moments about fair rules, fair turns and shared places, each with three action cards to weigh. The set builds Social Awareness, like noticing the little kids lined up by the tire swing or the far lunch tables that never go out first.

What students practice

• Following the same rules as everyone else
• Sharing turns and equipment fairly
• Caring for shared spaces like parks and libraries
• Helping out at school and in the neighborhood
• Speaking up calmly when a rule is unfair to a group

What’s inside

• 40 scenario cards in five subtopics: rules that apply to everyone, sharing turns and equipment, caring for shared community spaces, helping the school or neighborhood, and speaking up when something is unfair
• 120 action cards, with a best, a partial and an impulsive choice for each scenario
• 40 reflection sheets
• Teacher guide; 77 pages

A look inside

• The Extra Cracker Pack: two kids at your table stare at your two packs. Action cards: Hand One Back, Share Them Around, Eat Them Both.
• The Little Free Library: the box in your yard is stuffed with soggy flyers and down to two books, and you have a stack you’ve outgrown.
• Fifth Graders Only: older kids claim the big soccer field. The best card says, “Calmly tell the fifth graders the rule isn’t fair and suggest taking turns by grade.”

How to use these community and fairness what would you do scenarios

• Poll the class on The Quiet Table Race before revealing Talk to the Aide, Wave Them Over and Enjoy Going First
• Let small groups debate The Tire Swing Crowd and present their pick
• Act out Wrappers on the Bench, then swap roles so students see it from Hamid’s side
• Assign reflection sheets for independent writing
• Run SEL learning stations, with a final one for writing a new fairness scenario

Grade fit

School and community share 15 scenes each, with 10 at home, from an apartment courtyard to a block picnic. Turn-taking and shared rules are daily life in Grades 2–5, and older students can take on the speaking-up cards, which makes these fairness scenarios easy to fit into any week.

Digital version

The interactive digital version shares as one link: students answer the think questions (or just read them in the quick format), choose an action card and say why, on any device with no student logins. At the end they download an answer sheet to hand in.

Pairs well with

For more classroom community building activities, try Fairness and Inclusion Stop Think Act Cards, or Community and Fairness Scenario Cards for open-ended answers.