Monthly Archives: May 2021

Honesty

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People who have the “Honesty” character strength are honest, not only to themselves, but to others as well. Being honest is about taking responsibility for your own actions and not blaming others. People who are honest are down to earth, ethical and act with integrity.

“I always tell the truth and show how I feel” Honesty is not just about telling the truth, it’s about living your life in a genuine and authentic way. It’s about being down to earth and without pretense. Being honest also means being ethical and acting with integrity. 

We all know how important it is to be honest when we are at home and at school. When playing games, honest people play by the rules as this makes it more fun for everyone. “Owning up” to something that you may have done, even if it was a mistake, is something that honest people do too.

At Barwon Heads PS, Honesty lies within the Meaning arm of our Starfish wellbeing model.

Watch “The Anthill” – What lesson did Hercules learn? How did his dishonesty effect others?

“The Emporer’s Seed” – How did the Emporer choose his successor?

(This story is also known as “The Empty Pot”)

This story also has the importance of honesty as its main message, but it is both a fiction and a non-fiction text with some interesting information about medieval times.

Why is it important to be honest?

Can you come up with your own moral? e.g. Being honest will earn you the respect of others OR Honesty is respected.

Make a poster of your moral.

Love

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Love can mean so many different things to different people!

We all have people in our lives who care about us and who we care about in return. These people can be our parents, our family members and even our friends! Some of us love our heroes and those who have been kind to us. We love our pets and our teddy bears! Some of us love unicorns, books, our footy teams and lego.

Parents feel unconditional love towards their children and this is demonstrated by the way in which they give love, warmth and care without expecting anything in return. We love our parents in return.

To me, when you feel love towards others, you care about them.

No matter what, you’re parents will always love you as shown in “Koala Lou”

Problem Solving (Self-Control)

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This week we focus on problem solving while using the character strength – self control.

Using problem solving skills can help us to communicate and cooperate successfully with others. They help us maintain our friendships and solve problems with friends if they occur.

Having a range of problem-solving skills on board can enable us to cope with challenges we may face in the future. The World Health Organisation identifies problem-solving as a key skill for health. Problem solving is about being able to think critically and evaluate the consequences of various actions.

Restorative practices can be used to solve problems with friends (there is a page on this blog that you can refer to). With restorative practices, if a tricky friendship issue occurs, people are encouraged to think about what happened and how it made the people involved feel. They then have a restorative conversation to solve the problem.

With some problems, we might need to think hard about the problem then break the problem up into chunks. After that we can think about different ways that the problem could be solved

For most problems, you will feel proud if you manage to solve it on your own, but, of course, there will be times when you will need an adult to help you solve a problem, so don’t hesitate to ask if you are not sure.

I’m sure you’ll agree that “David” is an example of someone who finds it really hard to use self control to problem solve and make good decisions!

I’m sure that you have shown self control and used problem solving strategies lately.

Can you think of an example? I bet you gave it a go and used some problem solving strategies, unlike the people on the elevator!

Draw your example as a cartoon, and show the steps you used to solve the problem.

Kindness

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There is a saying that “Kindness makes the world go around!” and do you know what? I agree. One of the best things about kindness is that when you do something kind for someone else, it makes you feel really good.

Practicing kindness can be as simple as doing a “Random Act of Kindness” (AKA RAK) for someone else such as pushing in a chair, saying something nice or even simply smiling at someone.

Some other ideas for kindness include:

  1. Send kind thoughts. Kindness can sometimes be as simple as a wish for the well-being of others. …
  2. Share stories of kindness. Choose books and stories with kindness themes. …
  3. Smile more often. …
  4. Play the compliment game. …
  5. Practice random acts of kindness. …
  6. Try empathy charades. …
  7. Volunteer for good.