The Frog and the Cream

The value of perseverance

by Alan M. Barker (revised, originally published in 2012)

Suitable for Whole School (Sec)

Aims

To demonstrate the importance of perseverance.

Preparation and materials

• You will need a transparent plastic container that has a secure clip-on lid, a tub of double cream (at room temperature) and a block of butter.

Assembly

1. Ask the students whether they know how butter is made.
   
   Show the cream and butter to the students.
   
   Explain that butter is made by churning, or steadily shaking, cream. Nowadays, this is a factory process, but traditionally, butter was made by hand in the cool surroundings of a farm dairy. Churning the butter could take a long time and required much perseverance.
   
   
2. Pour the cream into the container up to one-quarter full, and firmly attach the lid.
   
   Invite a couple of students to shake the container steadily in an attempt to make butter. Will they succeed?
   
   Ask them to move to the side of the room and continue shaking the cream while everyone listens to a story.
   
   
3. A young frog lived in a muddy pond together with his frog sisters, his frog brothers and his frog parents. He liked his home and he loved his family. He had learned to swim in that small, muddy pond.
   ‘Keep trying,’ his family had croaked. ‘Kick hard!’
   Frog had kicked his legs harder. He hadn’t given in. However, often, when he was swimming, he longed to explore the world beyond his pond.
   
   So, one day, Frog hopped out of the water and headed towards a nearby farm. He hopped past the sheep pens and the newborn lambs, past the stables that were watched by the patient horse, quickly past the yard where the hens clucked and scratched, past the shed where the cows were milked and into the cool, damp shade of the dairy.
   
   All frogs like cool, damp places, so Frog stayed in the dairy for a fair while. Finally, he decided that it was time to head back to his muddy pond. He kicked his legs and, with a huge leap, fell straight into a jug of cream! He kicked his legs again, but the sides of the jug were slippery. Frog kicked his legs, and kicked again (and again), but there was no escape. He began to grow tired and feared that he would sink to the bottom of the jug and drown.
   
   He thought of his family, safe at home in the muddy pond. He remembered how they had told him to keep trying when he had been learning to swim. ‘I will keep trying,’ Frog said to himself as he kicked his legs, again and again. But what was the use? He grew more and more tired. He thought that he would drown. However, he kept on kicking hard and and managed to stay afloat, until something odd happened.
   
   Suddenly, he felt some lumps between his toes. Frog kept on kicking his legs and eventually found himself sitting on something that looked like yellow mud. The cream had turned to butter! He gave one last tremendous leap, and he was free.
   
   Back at the muddy pond, Frog was welcomed by his worried family. ‘I almost drowned,’ he said, ‘but I kicked hard. I kept trying!’
   
   
4. Refer back to the students who have been set the challenge of butter-making. Have they succeeded? If not, how much longer will they need to persevere? Eventually, the cream will separate into butter and buttermilk.
   
   
5. Conclude by inviting the students to consider the significance of the story. Observe that it illustrates the need to persevere, to keep trying.

Time for reflection

Reflect that there will be moments during the coming school year when this story about the frog who fell into the cream might be worth remembering. Problem-solving can be difficult, but if we keep trying, solutions often emerge. Perseverance helps us to move on at times when we say, ‘Help! I’m stuck.’

Ask the students to think of a time when they faced a difficult situation or challenge, a time when they felt stuck. Ask them, ‘What advice did you remember?’

Encourage the students to listen to good advice when they are in difficulty. Encourage them to listen to people who will encourage them to keep going and not to give up.

Prayer
Dear God,
Whatever challenges lie ahead today,
Help us to be strong and not to give in.
Thank you for the people who encourage us when we feel like giving up.
Please help us to be encouragers to others.
Amen.

Song/music

‘That’s what friends are for’ by Dionne Warwick, available at: https://youtu.be/HyTpu6BmE88 (4.31 minutes long)

‘You’ve got a friend in me’ from the film Toy Story 4, available at: https://youtu.be/DNZUKm0ApEM (2.08 minutes long)