Courage: A Specialist's Resource

This is Part Two of my COURAGE lesson post.  You can find Part One here.   I teach Kindergarten lessons every day and also have a rotation of lessons in upper and lower grades so I am ALWAYS looking for creative and fun ways to teach character traits, bullying prevention, social skills, and academic habits. I really strive to make my time with students memorable and meaningful while incorporating cooperative learning, art, literacy, and interactive discussion....whew!

For these courage lessons, I focused more on choices --- like doing the right thing even when others are not and trying new things--- rather than showing courage in the face of failure and making mistakes.  I used the video clip A Bug's Life for both the K-2 and 3-5 lessons, which many school counselors use.

Third- Fifth

My upper grades lesson starts out with a brief  A Bug's Life clip  as the hook. I ask the students to brainstorm what character trait they think was shown in the video clip. Then, I move on to the courage definition slide for pre and post data. Most of the time, older students have the definition down pat, but I like that it shows growth from my previous years' lessons focusing on that character trait.

Then, I introduce the Robert Frost quote:

We discuss what "taking the road less traveled" really means for students and then we talk about historical and current figures who would fit into that category.

Next is the fun part.  I put the students in teams and give them character dilemmas that could happen in elementary or middle school.  Each team has to come up with 3 or 4 possible choices for their assigned dilemma.  After we have finished, I show them an OPTIONAL video clip from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Indiana Jones has to take a leap of faith and walk on a bridge that is invisible....if you are a child of the 70s or 80s, you will know what I am referencing! I happen to have this clip on a character education DVD that I have had for years, but you can also skip this part.

I made this pathway out of bulletin board paper and cut out feet so the class can share the different choices and pathways for each character dilemma previously discussed in their teams.  The person who makes the choice for each dilemma that is most courageous gets to wear the Indiana Jones hat. Gotta use props!!!

Finally, the students write specific ways they can show courage on "the road less traveled" at school and home on these footprints:

Kindergarten- Second

My primary grades lesson starts with the courage definition, as always, for my pre and post data. Then, we discuss historical, pop culture, and current figures who show courage. The discussion helps give students some context clues about what the definition could mean.

Next, we cut to the Bug's Life clip. I show it for less than three minutes so that I am following the Fair Use Copyright Law. After some discussion about Flick, Hopper, and the Princess, we apply courage to behavior at school (and a little at home) with pictures on the Smartboard.  I really emphasize trying new things such as food, sports, and games as a courageous behavior in this part of the lesson.  The kids come up to the board and interact with the Smartboard throughout our discussion.

Finally, the students create a work product comparing how Flick show's courage in the movie with how they show courage in their lives.  I included artwork and a descriptive sentence so it can be differentiated for different grade levels and students.

If you teach any specials at your school (like me!) or go into classrooms once a month (like me!), it's nice to have lots of different choices for character trait lessons.  I have added these resources to the Life on the Fly Store here in case they will be helpful to you.  All K-2/3-5 lesson plans, work products, and two Smartboard lessons are included with the Bug's Life Activity Packet.    Happy Counseling!  ~  Angela