Honesty

Year 2: Being honest helps people to trust me. 

Core Story

The Boy Who Cried Wolf - Aesop’s Fable. A boy dishonestly raised the alarm that a wolf was approaching so many times, that people did not believe him. When there really was a wolf and the boy raised the alarm, none of the villagers believed him. 

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Drawing out the virtue

Stop the audio at 4:08 when the boy is ringing the bell to call for help. This time he really has seen a wolf. Ask the children to predict what will happen next – will the villagers come running again? Why /why not? What will happen if he doesn’t get help?

Activity 1:  Reflection alley

Ask the children to imagine they are at the point in the story where the boy is sitting on the hill and is feeling very bored. He has two options: He could continue looking after the sheep all by himself, or he could shout ‘wolf’ and lots of people would come running. Write ‘look after the sheep’ and ‘cry “Wolf!”’ on two pieces of paper and hang them at opposite ends of the room. Divide the class into these two groups.  The groups each need to work out what they would say to the boy to persuade him to take that course of action eg. someone on the first team might say ‘you promised the old man you would look after his sheep’ or ‘the people in the village will be frightened’ while someone on the opposite team would say ‘there’s no-one to talk to on the hill’ ‘do you want to watch sheep eating grass all day?’ 

Once they have had time to prepare, ask the children to form a line with their group and stand opposite each other so there is an ‘alley’ down the middle. Choose a child to be the shepherd boy and ask them to walk very slowly through the middle.  Tell the children that when the shepherd boy passes them, they should tell him their advice. 

The groups should alternate to enable the children to hear each other clearly and better contrast the different arguments.

When the shepherd boy emerges at the end, he will have heard lots of different arguments about what he should do next. Ask the class to comment on what they really think the boy should do, and what the consequences might be? You could also then have a conversation about what children can do in school so that, when they leave and get a job, they can choose between jobs, and find one that they enjoy. 

Library books

Ruthie and the (Not So) Teeny Tiny Lie by Laura Rankin

The Whopper by Rebecca Ashdown

On the Way Home by Jill Murphy

The Wolf’s Story by Toby Forward 

Pinocchio

The Pied Piper of Hamelin

Not me by Nicola Killen

The Worry Monster by Caroline Uff