Perseverance
Reception: If I find something difficult I can tell myself to keep on going.
Core Story
The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper. In this story a long train must be pulled over a high mountain. The large trains are asked to help to pull, but won't. The smallest engine agrees to try and suceeds in pulling the train over the mountain repeating the motto "I-think-I-can".
Drawing out the virtue
Did the blue engine think it would be hard or easy to push the other train up the hill?
What did the blue engine say to herself to help her persevere/keep going?
What could we say to help other people to persevere?
Activity 1: Scenarios
Project some of the slides from the PowerPoint R Perseverance on the board and ask the children to explain in a full sentence, using the word persevering, what they can see? With each new slide, ask pupils to work in Perfect Partners before one child shares their full sentence with the class.
Activity 2: Sharing our experiences
Ask pupils to sit in a circle on the carpet, and think about a time they found something difficult but persevered.
Holding a special object (that denotes the child allowed to speak), ask them to share, beginning with “I persevered when I….”.
Follow-up questions to some children might include: Why was it difficult? What helped you persevere and not give up?
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Classroom language |
Sayings |
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You perservered with that, even though it was difficult at first.
Even though it is difficult, you need to persevere to finish it.
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"I think I can. I think I can!" from The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper.
"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming" from Finding Nemo.
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Library books
The Fox and the Grapes, Aesop's Fable
The Velveteen Rabbit by Marjorie Williams