Honesty
Reception: Being honest means telling the truth and it’s always the right thing to do.
Core Story
The Honest Woodcutter, Aesop’s Fable, see the PowerPoint R Honesty . A poor woodcutter owns only the wooden axe he needs to make his living. One day he drops it in the river. A strange old man dives into the water and finds axes made of gold and silver which he gives to the honest woodcutter thinking they belong to him. The woodcutter does not take them, truthfully saying that the axe that belongs to him is plain and made only of wood. The woodcutter’s honesty is richly rewarded.
Drawing out the virtue
At the points in the story where the Old Man presents the Woodcutter with the golden and silver axes there is a pause icon and a thought bubble. Ask the children to share their ideas about what the woodcutter could be thinking at this time, emphasizing the temptations the Old Man would face to accept the golden axe – he is very poor, so poor he might not be able to buy food to eat, especially now he has lost his axe. Furthermore, the axe doesn’t seem to belong to anyone else and it is much better than he would ever be able to afford. Draw out the moral dilemma the man is facing by asking pupils to think of the side to this story - he knows the axe does not belong to him, it belongs to someone else.
The point in the story where the merchant drops his axe into the river is also followed by a pause icon and a thought bubble. Ask the children to consider what he might be thinking – he is thinking about getting even richer!
The final slide poses the question ‘why didn’t the merchant get a golden axe like the woodcutter?’ This is an opportunity for pupils to compare the motives of the two characters and to explore the fact the woodcutter’s honesty when no one was looking resulted in him being much better off than the greedy merchant.
Activity 1: Taking or borrowing?
This activity is designed to help pupils to identify the difference between borrowing and taking something without asking. Ask your class to imagine the following scenario: Your friend has got a toy, and you really like it. You really want to play with it at your house, so you put it in your rucksack. Have a class discussion about whether this was the right thing to do and consider the reasons why it was wrong to do it – it doesn’t belong to you, it is stealing, you didn’t ask first. In your discussion raise the following questions:
Is it ok if you are going to give it back the next morning?
Is it ok if you are going to look after it?
Is it ok if it is something really small, like a marble?
How do you think your friend would feel when they realised their toy was missing?
Ask pupils to work in Perfect Partners to discuss what a better thing to do in that situation would be. Choose some children to share their answers with the class. Take this opportunity to teach pupils that instead of just taking something they like, they should always ask first if they can borrow it for a short while, before giving it back. Help pupils to practise what they might say, for example ‘please may I borrow your toy?’.
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Classroom language
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Sayings
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Thank you for telling me the truth.
How could you use honesty next time this happens?
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Honesty is the best policy.
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Library Books
Ruthie and the (Not So) Teeny Tiny Lie by Laura Rankin
The Wolf’s Story by Toby Forward
On the Way Home by Jill Murphy