Bravery
Year 1: We should be brave enough to be ourselves and not follow the crowd.
Core Story
Oliver Button is a Sissy by Tomie de Paula. Oliver Button gets teased by the other boys at school and called a sissy because he would rather dance than play basketball. Despite this Oliver keeps taking dance lessons. Oliver refuses to change and his friends and family begin to accept him.
Drawing out the virtue
What do you think it means when it says Oliver Button didn’t like to do the things that boys are supposed to do?
When the book lists the things Oliver likes to do (playing in the woods, reading books, drawing pictures, dressing up) ask the class whether they know any boys who like doing these things too. Why do you think the older boys were horrible to Oliver? Have you ever been teased for being different?
At this point talk about how the other children’s unkindness might have caused Oliver to stop dancing, and how good it is that he didn’t let the other children stop him from doing something he loved. Ask the children to think of something they love to do and imagine someone teasing them about it.
How do you think Oliver felt when they wrote ‘Oliver Button is a sissy’ on the wall?
On the penultimate page, ask the children what they predict will happen when Oliver goes back into school before revealing the picture on the final page. Why did the bullies change their minds?
Activity 1: Toys and Difference
This activity allows you to challenge stereotypes and encourage pupils to be themselves. Ask pupils to bring in a toy from home – not necessarily their own. Use hoops or large sheets of paper to split them into groups as pupils suggest e.g. large/small toys or toys that move/don’t move. Ask each pupil to come and take a toy and put it into the correct group. Ask them whether it is a toy for girls or boys or all children. Gently challenge stereotypical thinking by saying ‘can anyone think why this might be a toy for all children?’. Conclude the lesson by saying ‘We looked at lots of toys, we found that all toys are for all children, not just boys or girls.’
Activity 2: Class discussion
Ask pupils to sit in a circle on the carpet, to close their eyes and think of what they most fear/don’t like. Then tell them you’re going to need them to be really brave, because they’re going to share what they fear/dislike with the class.
Holding a special object (that denotes the child allowed to speak), ask them to share, beginning with “I am afraid of …..”.
At the end, praise the children by saying “Well done. You have been very brave today because you shared your fears with your classmates. Now we can all help each other to be even braver when we see or experience things we dislike.”
If they struggle for ideas, it might be having a go at something, speaking up in class, doing something new, standing up for yourself or a friend or a type of food/activity/animal.
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Sayings
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Dare to be different!
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Library books:
Jack and the Beanstalk
The Timid Little Tiger by J. Palecek David and Goliath, Bible Story
Brave Irene by William Steig
Red Ted and the Lost Things, Michel Rosen