Old Dog and Elly fear goannas, Ms Chen fears geckos, and Big Cuz fears the dentist. Little J boasts he isn’t scared of anything, but this may not be true. When Mick, Ally, Little J and Old Dog go to the beach, Little J discovers that his hero, Mick, is scared of Hermit crabs. Together, on the cliff, Mick and Little J overcome their shame of being afraid and help each other to be brave.

Explain - Identify personal strengths

Theme - VALUES

After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 11 ‘Nothing Scares Me’, engage students with the following learning activities to support their understanding about phobias, and how to overcome them.

As a class, revisit Little J’s story within the Episode 11, ‘Nothing Scares Me’, and ask students to recall the events of his day. The outcome for the day was that each character overcame their fear by being brave. As a class, determine the meaning of the term ‘being brave’ and/or ‘bravery’. List other words that students suggest that mean similar things, such as courage, heroic, bold, daring, facing, fearless, etc.

As a class, view a selection of Aboriginal Dreaming stories and/or Torres Strait islander Bipo Bipo Taim (Before Before Time) stories. These stories were told to children to warn them of danger, and ways to keep children safe in the bush, such as:

• Girawu The Goanna 
• Mirram the Kangaroo and Warreen the Wombat 
• Wayambeh The Turtle 
• Tiddalick The Frog 
• Ancient Stories, new voices, Dust Echoes (ABC Education) 

Have students identify and describe:

1. the ‘hero’ in the story
2. the danger the hero faced
3. the bravery that the hero showed in the face of danger
4. how the hero overcame danger
5. the meaning/message of the story for young children.

Revisit Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 11 ‘Nothing Scares Me’, and have students answer the same questions (as above).

The hero is Little J - ask students to define his ‘personal strengths’. Provide a list of character strengths and have the class vote on them. Poll students using ‘hands-up’ or a Kahoot poll rank the order of personal strengths according to the vote.

Creativity Curiosity Open-mindedness Love of learning Bravery Persistence Vitality Love Kindness

Citizenship Fairness Leadership Forgiveness Humility Self-regulation Gratitude Hope Humour

                            Based on Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification, Peterson and Seligman

Provide the students with their own list of personal strengths and have each student rank the attributes from ‘most like them’ to ‘least like them’. (If students find difficulty with reading, replace the words with stylised images/emojis for students to identify meaning.) Ask students to add any other personal strengths they feel should be on the list.

Draw students’ attention to the fact that the list is all ‘positive’ attributes. Invite students to propose some negative attributes, such as bully, boastful, not sharing, hits, bites, spits, rude, abusive, etc. The message for students is to avoid these negative behaviours.

As a class, listen to the song ‘Mary Poppins - A spoon full of sugar’ from the movie “Mary Poppins” (lyrics) and discuss its message in respect to curbing fears.

Have students imagine that they are a doctor in the future. Medical science invents a ‘happiness’ pill/vaccination and/or a ‘bravery’ pill/vaccination. Ask students to list the ingredients (attributes and values) they would use for either of the pills/vaccinations, e.g. a pinch of gratitude, a lump of kindness, etc.

Invite students to share with the class their design ideas and explanation for the use of specific ingredients.