Monthly Archives: June 2022

Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence

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People who are strong in the character strength “appreciation of beauty and excellence”  notice and enjoy the beauty, skill and excellence involved in things around them including nature, art and architecture.

These people notice and enjoy beauty in many places and they notice and enjoy watching people who are talented or very skilled in what they do. An example of this is when you admire a classmate who is awesome at drawing or writing.

Hope you enjoy this clip which we recorded last year!

An inspirational person who I would say posesses this strength is David Attenborough. He shares his love of the natural environment through his films. I love this quote by David Attenborough:

“People must feel that the natural world is important and valuable and beautiful and wonderful and an amazement and a pleasure”.

A message of hope and celebration of nature from David Attenborough

The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

The Dot by Peter Reynolds

Henri Matisse was a famous French artist who painted and made collages. Maybe you will feel inspired to make your own colour block collage after watching this!

The beauty of nature

Draw, or describe a time when you were in nature and felt a sense of wonder because of your surroundings.

Modesty

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Modesty is about not showing off and knowing your strengths and weaknesses.

Modesty is like humility and people who show humility do not seek the spotlight, preferring to let their accomplishments speak for themselves. They do not regard themselves as special, and others recognise their modesty.

It is good to be confident in yourself and to always strive to be the best you can be. Yet, truly successful people strive not only to be their best, but to be great in how they treat others and celebrate their talents.

Modesty comes within the Positive Emotions arm of our PERMA model.

Humility is not just for the ball field, it is something to apply to every aspect of your life.  It is about being courteous and saying “please” and “thank you” all the time, not occasionally.  It is about being able to apologise to others even if you are just slightly in the wrong.  It is also about listening and open to learning from others.  Being humble is recognizing that everyone has different strengths and paying complements to other people.

“The Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister – How did Rainbow Fish’s lack of modesty effect the way others thought of him?

“King Pig”  by Nick Bland – did King Pig show modesty? How did his behaviour impact on those around him?

Can you make connections between humility and modesty?

Can you think of someone who you look up to who shows modesty? It might be a leader, someone you know or a sports star.

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?

Thanks Mr P for sharing this one with us!

“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.