Lesson 2 of 4. Love Thinks. (Love requires thinking of what is best for others while avoiding bobblehead love.)

Transcription

1 Copyright 2011 by Elizabeth L. Hamilton All Rights Reserved. Love Lesson 2 of 4 Love Thinks (Love requires thinking of what is best for others while avoiding bobblehead love.) Affirmation: I show love when I think about what is best for others. Preparation Print on cardstock one copy each of pages 4, 5, and 6. Print one copy of the age-appropriate activity sheet for each child. If possible, have one or more bobblehead dolls available to display during lesson. Review Begin by showing the character wall. Say: Let s get back to work on your character wall. (Saying YOUR helps children feel ownership.) This month we are working on love, aren t we? Hold up the pictures from Lesson #1, reading the repeated caption: Love Feels. Say: Last week, we learned that love feels. You show love when you have right feelings for people good feelings that come from deep inside you. You feel in a way that wants to do good for others. Introducing New Lesson Say: Today we re going to learn something funny. We re going to learn about bobblehead love! That s right. We re going to talk about bobblehead love. Ask: Do you know what a bobblehead doll is? (Show a real bobblehead, if possible. Otherwise, use the picture on page 4.) Bobblehead dolls often remind us of famous people. They might look like famous football players. Maybe they look like cartoon characters. You can even have a bobblehead doll made to look a lot like you. Say: Our story today is about bobblehead love. Tell this story in your own words, changing it to fit your listeners culture and ages. Bobbleheads! Everyone clapped as Miss Janet set the dolls on a long table. Katherine stretched her neck to see. I like that baseball bobblehead, she said. He s on the best team ever! Vance pointed to the bobblehead in a red uniform. I like that football player! he said. As Miss Janet placed more and more bobbleheads on the table, each person chose a favorite. Walter liked one in a green soccer uniform. Bea liked a ballerina bobblehead in pink tutu and slippers. Kadeem chose one in a white martial arts uniform. Wei chose the bobblehead wearing a black gown, and holding a shiny violin.

2 As Miss Janet placed the last colorful doll on the table, she smiled. What s a bobblehead? she asked. Wei raised her hand quickly. A bobblehead is a doll with a head that bobs around a lot, she said. Miss Janet nodded, looking a little like a bobblehead herself. Kadeem waved his hand frantically. Bobbleheads always have really big heads, he added. Miss Janet nodded again. I brought these bobbleheads today to help us learn about love, she told them. I know we studied love before, but some of you are showing bobblehead love. None of them had ever heard of bobblehead love. Everyone got quiet. We learned, said Miss Janet, that love uses your heart. It feels for others. Love doesn t use only your heart, though. Love uses your head, too. It thinks about others. It thinks about what is best for others. Miss Janet pointed at Kadeem. I m not Kadeem s mother, she said, but suppose I were. I would show love from my heart by feeling for my son, Kadeem but I wouldn t stop with feelings. I d think, too. Love thinks. So I d think, What can I do that would be best for Kadeem? She smiled as she asked. If he came home from school with a high test score, what might be best for him? That s right! she said quickly as everyone began talking. I d think to love him by giving him a reward. If he came home from school with a note from the principal saying that he had started a fight what might be best for him? I d think to love him by punishing him for fighting. Walter s hand shot into the air. That wouldn t be love, he objected. Love doesn t punish. Love thinks of happy, likable things to do for people, not unhappy, unlikable things. Miss Janet looked serious. How many agree with Walter? she asked. Raise your hand if you believe love just thinks of doing things people will like and never thinks of doing what people won t like. Some boys and girls raised their hands right away. A few more put up their hands halfway. All right, said Miss Janet. Now let me see the hands of those who disagree with Walter. Raise your hand if you believe love sometimes thinks of things you wouldn t like such as punishment. Wei raised her hand. So did Vance, but most of the boys and girls just looked around and shrugged. Miss Janet called Wei to the front of the room. Suppose Wei was very sick, she said. Would love think of making her swallow terrible-tasting medicine or would love think of giving her a chocolate candy bar? Love would think about what is best for her, said a small voice in the corner. It would think of making her swallow the medicine even if she cried and didn t want it. Miss Janet smiled. I see Katherine brought her little sister today. She s only two years old. Bring her here, Katherine, where we all can see her. Suppose, said Miss Janet, Katherine was babysitting this little sister at the park. Little sister wanted to run into the busy street after a ball. Would love think of letting little sister run into the street or would love think of making her stay back, even if she screamed and had a temper tantrum? It would be best for her, said Walter, to make her stay back. I guess love does think of doing things that might not make someone happy. I wouldn t feel like it, though. You taught us that love feels.

3 Wei spoke up. Love does feel, but it s also important to think to think about what s best. Others began to speak. Some thought love should mostly feel for others like a warm, fuzzy teddy bear. Others thought love should mostly think about what was best for others, whether they liked it or not. Some said the heart was more important. Others said the head was more important. Miss Janet let them talk, and while they talked, she walked along the table, tapping the bobbleheads. One by one, the funny heads began to bob up and down, up and down, up and down. (Nod your own head to help listeners visualize.) When all of the dolls were bobbing, she raised her hand for silence. Bobblehead love, she said. Bobbleheads don t look like real people, do they? Their heads are too big for their bodies. The heads look like the most important part of bobbleheads. They have bodies, but the bodies don t look important. The bodies are skinny and too small. They are the wrong size for the heads. She smiled. Some of us are like bobbleheads in the way we show love. We decide that it s most important for love to think about what is best for others. Oh, we agree that love feels, but we say love thinks more than feels. In fact, some say love doesn t have to feel at all just think about doing what is best for others. Some make their thinker bigger than their feeler. Their heads are too big for their hearts. They show bobblehead love. Bobblehead love is not real love. Miss Janet reached into a drawer and pulled out one more doll. This doll isn t a bobblehead, she said as she placed it on the table. Look at its head. Look at its body. They go together Each is the right size for the other. That s true love. It has the right amounts of feeler and thinker of heart and mind. It was time to go home, but they all talked about bobblehead love as they left. They told their parents about bobblehead love, and they remembered not to be bobbleheads. Apply the story in age appropriate words. Hold up the page 5 picture. We show love when we think about what is best for others. Love thinks. It is very important to spend time thinking about what is best for others. Love wants to do things that will make others feel happy, but it also wants to do what is best for others so it thinks about that. Suppose a friend wants you to give her your homework answers. At first, you feel like making her happy by giving her the answers. Then you think! You think that it s best for her to do the work so you show her love by not giving her the answers. That s true love. Suppose a friend wants you to help him bully someone. At first, you feel like making him happy by helping him bully others. Then you think! You think that it s best for him not to bully others so you show him love by not helping him bully. That s true love. Hold up the page 6 picture. We can show true love when our hearts and our heads are both the right size. We feel and we think. True love feels for others and thinks what is best for others. Close by handing out assignment sheets.

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7 First and Last Name: I show love when I think about what is best for others. Character-Trait-of-the-Month Program Love #2 Ages 3 to 7 Copyright 2011 by Elizabeth L Hamilton For more information, visit

8 First and Last Name: 1. Fill in the blank in the sentence below. 2. Then draw a picture that shows bobblehead love beside true love. I show love when I for others. 3. On the next page, write about a time someone showed you true love. Tell what two things that love needed. What two things did they have to do to make it true love? Did you like it? Character-Trait-of-the-Month Program Copyright 2011 by Elizabeth L Hamilton Love #2 Ages 7 and Up For more information, visit

9 First and Last Name: Character-Trait-of-the-Month Program Copyright 2011 by Elizabeth L Hamilton Love #2 Ages 7 and Up For more information, visit