Citizenship: Developing confidence and responsibility and making the most of their abilities (KS1)
Use the poem from the 'Pencil people' assembly: www.assemblies.org.uk/2001/feb_pencil.html
- Read the poem with the class and discuss whether they think they are like the pencil in the poem. What different things can a pencil do? Can they do lots of different things? What are they especially good at?
- Create a class collage together in two halves; one half shows a large pencil with words and/or pictures/examples of all the things a pencil can do. The other half shows pictures of children with examples of all that they can do. The centrepiece of the latter could take the form of a boy and girl silhouette or individual pictures of each child in the class.
Use the action poem from the 'We can do this' assembly: www.assemblies.org.uk/2002/jun02_wecando.html
- Allow the children to enjoy the poem and actions by running through them a few times.
- Use this to focus on how we can do many things together in the same way: singing, lining up, saying 'Good morning'; and there are other things that we do differently: we might play different games, run at different speeds, like different books.
- Make two lists on the board of children's suggestions that go into each category, focusing on the idea that it is good to do some things together in the same way and it is good to do other things in our own way.
Use 'The wiggly waggly song' and the reflection from the 'Wiggly waggly happy me' assembly: www.assemblies.org.uk/2004/may04_wiggly.php
- Through discussion, reinforce the idea that everyone is unique and that this makes them 'special'.
- Each child could produce an outline of themselves, life-size if possible, which they then fill in with words and/or pictures of why they're 'happy to be me'. Examples might be: 'good at football' (or picture of football), 'love my family' (or picture of family), 'like to dance' (or picture of dancing child).
Use the story and questions in the 'Why can't I play?' assembly: www.assemblies.org.uk/2006/r_bully1.php
- Talk about the feelings in the story: how did the bears feel while they were playing? How did the rabbit feel while the bears were playing? What did the bears say about Rabbit? (too big, too pink, etc.). How do you think Rabbit felt then? How did Rabbit feel when Baby Bear said he could play?
- Ask if we can sometimes be like the bears - and what can we do about it?
In Citizenship:-
Developing Confidence and Responsibility KS1
Preparing to play an active role as citizens KS1
Developing a healthy safer lifestyle KS1
Developing good relationships respecting differences KS1
In the media - what's the news? KS2
Children's rights - human rights KS2
Citizenship material for Secondary
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