This is the best story/lesson/sharing time I have found that teaches kindness, acceptance of differences, and self-love. It is entertaining and silly enough to keep children’s attention and tender enough to teach a lesson. I give this lesson at the beginning of each year to my Primary children:
“I am looking around at all of you, and I see that each of you is a little the same and a little different. Not one of you is exactly the same as anyone else and you take up your own space in a special way. I am so glad each one of you is alive.
I am going to tell you a story about kindness, it’s a story about a zoo.
(Zelmgid/New Animal Story – attached below. Print, color, laminate, and attach magnets to each part of the animal. Hide the pieces until the parts in the story directly mention that part of the animal. Place them on the magnet board as the story progresses.)
Don’t you think we are all a little like the Zelmgid?
Who is silly? Who is serious? Who is hungry? Who is bendy? Who is loud? Who is quiet? See, just like our new friend Zelmgid, we are all a little bit the same AND we are all a little bit different. Our differences are beautiful and our similarities are connections we can make with each other.
Sometimes, like at the zoo when The New animal arrived, differences can make us nervous. Sometimes we are so nervous about differences in ourselves or other people that we hide, sometimes we might even hurt people who are different. But in our primary, I want us to remember that we are all zelmgids – we are all a little bit different and if we look close enough, a little bit the same – and everyone needs love.
Flannel board story originally found here:
