The Champions will talk about “Courage” and that “It takes Courage to have Character”. Helping them to understand that knowing the value and the power of their courage is important for developing their character. Enlisting students to be courageous is a key component in creating a classroom community where students feel safe to fail, safe to share fears or ask questions, and safe to be themselves. It is important that we encourage students to stand up for what is right and have the courage to act with strong values when needed and in the face of fearful experiences.
4 TYPES OF COURAGE
Moral Courage
- Stand up for what’s right when someone is being treated poorly or unfairly
- Openly stating your values and beliefs
Disciplined Courage (Willpower)
- Remain focused when mistakes happen
- Be true to yourself
Intellectual Courage
- Recognize our limits
- Be open to new ideas
- Understanding other points of view
- Always be open to learn
Empathetic Courage
- Listen to others with an open mind
- Care for others
- Learn from other people
Acting courageously is challenging, but by bringing conversations about courage to the forefront of our character discussions, we can support our students as they step into being the most courageous person they are capable of being. As we focus on courage and character, we can inspire them to have confidence to be the best version of themselves!
Below are 7 easy object lessons to help further meaningful discussions with your students about courage. They include lessons about:
- Identify meaningful goals
- Make good choices to reach goals
- Taking risks for what is right
- Standing up for their convictions
- Ability to see what is right and wrong
- Being prepared to face adversity
- Having self-control
OBJECTIVE: The goal of this activity is to show the students how filling their lives with the right kind of values and goals in life can make us stronger. Not having a good set of strong values not only leaves us weak, but can crush us. As a part of the activity, you do a science experiment to show how exposing a soda can to certain elements can crush it using very little pressure.
OBJECTIVE: This object lesson takes an ordinary sponge and uses it to teach a lesson on how we can respond to pressures of others, and making decisions that may involve a choice between right and wrong. What comes out of us when the “squeeze” is on!
OBJECTIVE: The goal of this activity is to show the students that choices are important in life. There are lots of choices that we have to make in life. Some choices are easy. Some choices, however, are VERY important. We want to make sure we are using the right choices.
OBJECTIVE: This object lesson is about adversity. Facing problems or difficulties and the ability to show courage in the face of adversity.
OBJECTIVE: Taking a risk to achieve a goal requires courage to face the fear of uncertainty. No matter the outcome, we grow through the process and become more resilient and confident. Better yet, building those skills helps us in taking more risks and improves the chances of achieving future goals
OBJECTIVE: This object lesson deals with the importance of self-control and how we must think before we act to keep ourselves and our friends safe. It will help students learn how to exercise self-control when they are confronted with negative influences, or when they are experiencing feelings of frustration or anger. They will discover the benefits of self-control and how they can apply it to their daily lives.
OBJECTIVE: Sometimes we can find ourselves on the wrong side of conviction, standing up for something or someone that in the end isn’t worth the effort and figuring out how to stand up for what’s right can be tricky. Someday our kids will be out on their own and have to make decisions about what to support. This lesson helps to influence students to stand up for what’s right, even when others don’t. This world needs a generation of superheroes-kids who grow up knowing how to stand for what is right, in the right way.
LESSONS MADE POSSIBLE
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