Caring for Ourselves and our Friends

We began by asking ourselves, ‘How can I be caring?’  What kinds of things have I done, or could I do at school to care for someone else?

Daniel immediately told us what he could do.  ‘If someone hasn’t got anyone to play with, I could ask them to play with me,’ he said.

‘Yes,’ added Leo.  ‘If someone is lonely, I could ask them if they want to play.’

Enakshi suggested this: ‘If someone gets hurt, I might need to take them to the nurse.’

And Alex added, ‘If someone is sad, I can cheer them up.’

Finally Delfine.  ‘If it’s a big mess and only one person is trying to tidy it up, someone else can help them.’

Quite.  So what has your sister been telling you, might I ask!

But this talk of big messes brings me on to what we did next.  We read Helpful Henry by Shen Roddie.

Henry’s mum woke with a horrid headache. ‘You stay in bed,’ said Henry. ‘I’ll make you better.....'

What a caring hippo he was - or at least he tried to be.  He tried to make his mum a cup of tea, but when he was unable to find where she kept the teabags, instead he stirred a spoonful of jam into a cup of milk and slip-slopped it all the way across the kitchen floor.  Oh dear!  He tried to bake some cupcakes for her, but when that proved impossible, he dipped a slice of bread into some honey and dripped sticky honey all the way up the stairs.  Oh Oh!   He tried to choose his favourite story* to read to her, but when he was looking for it, somehow all his books ended up in a muddle on the floor.  Oh my!  And when he felt her poor thumpity thump head and found it hot, he tried to cool it down with a very melty, drippy ice lolly.  Oh my goodness!

In fact, by the end of the story, although we all agreed that Henry had made a BIG MESS, we weren't really quite sure whether he had succeeded in making his mum feel better - but we all knew that he had done his best to care for her.