Bravery 

Reception: I can be brave and use a confident voice.

Core Story

The Owl who was Afraid of the Dark by Jill Tomlinson. A young barn owl called Plop is frightened of the dark. Over seven nights Plop learns something new about the dark: dark is exciting, dark is kind, dark is fun, dark is necessary, dark is fascinating, dark is wonderful and dark is beautiful. Plop is gradually persuaded that the dark isn't so scary and can have its advantages.

Drawing out the virtue

Why is Plot afraid of the dark? What helped Plop be brave in this story? Can you thik of a time when you have been brave? What helped you overcome your fear? Is bravery something you can do on your own or with other people? 

Activity 1: Confident Voice

Ask pupils to stand in a circle and explain that they are going to do some stretches -  they should stretch their arms up above their heads, roll their shoulders forwards and draw circles with their feet to stretch out their legs.  Now explain that the pupils are going to stretch the muscles in their faces, these are the muscles you need to move to sing and talk in a confident voice.  Tell  pupils to stick out their tongues, you could tell them you are checking to see who has the longest tongue in the class! Then ask them to stretch out their tongues towards the ceiling, towards the ground and to each side. Scrunch up your face and tell pupils this is a ‘raisin face’. Ask them to do a ‘raisin face’ too.  Now sing a song as a class, with the teacher singing the line first, and the class copying. The teacher should model moving their mouth and pronouncing all of the words very deliberately for them to copy. A good song to use for this would be The Little Green Frog – where pupils have an opportunity to use their ‘raisin face’ and stick out their tongue during the song. 

The Little Green Frog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjYkG8jDsJU

Mmm Nnn went the little green frog one day,

Mmm Nnn went the little green frog.

Mmm Nnn went the little green frog one day

And they all went Mmm Nnn Ahh. 

We all know frogs go la de da de da

La de dah de dah, la de dah de dah,

We all know frogs go la de dah de dah

They don’t go Mmm Nnn Ahh.

If possible take the children into a large hall to do this activity. Ask pupils to sit in a single row on the floor. In groups of three children will take turns to come to the front. Model for children exactly where and how they should stand so they are clearly visible to the other children.  Set the expectation that the children will stand up straight and tall, and look straight ahead of them.  Ask each of the children to introduce themselves in a full sentence to the rest of the class. Use this as an opportunity to teach the children to use a ‘confident voice’ in order for their peers to hear them clearly, and to remind the children sitting on the floor to show kindness to their friends by listening carefully to them as they show their bravery by standing and speaking in front of the class – which some people find difficult to do. The teacher should read the children a small excerpt of a poem, perhaps three or four lines, one line at a time. After each line, the three children at the front repeat the line back to the class. The teacher models a good posture and confident voice, to establish the expectation that when the children say the line back they are speaking clearly and confidently.  When a group of three has finished they go and sit at the end of the row and three more children go to the front of the room until every child has had an opportunity to practise using their confident voice.