Activity: Interview a person who is courageous. Students brainstorm a list of people whose jobs require them to face scary situations daily. Teachers can prompt students with a couple of suggestions if needed. Here’s a short list: soldiers, firefighters, police, EMT (emergency medical technicians), and other first responders. Once they choose someone (or it could be several people), they create a list of interview questions. Teachers prep the speakers to share an age-appropriate story about an experience they had that required an ounce of courage.
Materials needed: a chart of the interview questions selected by the students; a camera (to take a picture of the person interviewed and the class); paper and art materials for making thank you cards
Directions: Prepare students in advance of inviting a guest speaker. Explain: “We’ve been talking about courage - can you think of people who have jobs that require them to face scary situations every day? Maybe you even know someone like that [wait for responses]. We will make a list of your ideas, choose someone on the list, ask them to visit our classroom, make a list of interview questions to use when they come, and write a thank you letter afterwards. Let’s get started making that list of jobs that require a lot of courage.” Make a posted list of their suggestions, and ask students to explain why they want to add each job to the list. After it’s decided which job will be represented, arrange for someone who does that kind of work to visit, and prep them. On the day of the visit, students interview the guest. After the visit, students write thank you letters to the guest. Invite more speakers if possible, and follow the same procedure.
Wrap it up: Explain: “We’ve learned that some jobs require a lot of courage every single day. The people that do these jobs are trained to have the skills they need in order to be confident they can handle all kinds of situations. They started out like you, going to school and learning what you’re learning. Then later on, as grownups, they received more training. It’s a lot of hard work, but we need people like this in our community to keep us safe! That’s why we’re making thank you cards for our guest!”
Related resource: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BMDHkWR2oyBZM32E0a821SmY_XZVI74ieMlerU7von4/edit?tab=t.0
Activity: Interview a person who is courageous. Students brainstorm a list of people whose jobs require them to face scary situations daily. Teachers can prompt students with a couple of suggestions if needed. Here’s a short list: soldiers, firefighters, police, EMT (emergency medical technicians), and other first responders. Once they choose someone (or it could be several people), they create a list of interview questions. Teachers prep the speakers to share an age-appropriate story about an experience they had that required an ounce of courage.
Materials needed: a chart of the interview questions selected by the students; a camera (to take a picture of the person interviewed and the class); paper and art materials for making thank you cards
Directions: Prepare students in advance of inviting a guest speaker. Explain: “We’ve been talking about courage - can you think of people who have jobs that require them to face scary situations every day? Maybe you even know someone like that [wait for responses]. We will make a list of your ideas, choose someone on the list, ask them to visit our classroom, make a list of interview questions to use when they come, and write a thank you letter afterwards. Let’s get started making that list of jobs that require a lot of courage.” Make a posted list of their suggestions, and ask students to explain why they want to add each job to the list. After it’s decided which job will be represented, arrange for someone who does that kind of work to visit, and prep them. On the day of the visit, students interview the guest. After the visit, students write thank you letters to the guest. Invite more speakers if possible, and follow the same procedure.
Wrap it up: Explain: “We’ve learned that some jobs require a lot of courage every single day. The people that do these jobs are trained to have the skills they need in order to be confident they can handle all kinds of situations. They started out like you, going to school and learning what you’re learning. Then later on, as grownups, they received more training. It’s a lot of hard work, but we need people like this in our community to keep us safe! That’s why we’re making thank you cards for our guest!”
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