Pre-kindergartners love to use their active and vivid imaginations for creative play and storytelling. But sometimes, their imaginations get the best of them, and they start spinning tales instead of telling the truth! This is what Mai does in this lesson’s story, "Unraveling the Truth."
In the story, Mai learns the importance of knowing what is real and telling the truth. She makes a mistake and instead of telling her father the truth, she makes up a story. Her father quickly realizes that she’s being dishonest because of her unfamiliarity with reality. This story provides pre-kindergartners an example of how knowing and not knowing what is real can impact real life situations.
"Although imagination fuels pre-kindergartners’ creative thinking, they need to learn not to let it control reality. In doing so, they can learn to embrace their truth, accept their mistakes, and become more self-aware."
After the story, the teacher displays the "Sing Your Truth" poster and explains the illustration in it, titled “Know What Is Real.” This helps the students understand how to know what is real, and why knowing it is important.
Pre-kindergartners then participate in an SEL activity that helps them differentiate reality from a made-up story. They realize that their imagination can feel real but knowing and telling the truth makes them feel good about themselves.
To reinforce the lesson, the class reads the ICU messages from the ICU box. The lesson ends with the class promising to tell themselves and others the truth by knowing what is real!
Pre-kindergartners sometimes stretch the truth with their imagination to create a more exciting version of their lives or escape punishment. This happens due to their limited ability to differentiate reality from imagination. Although imagination fuels pre-kindergartners’ creative thinking, they need to learn not to let it control reality. In doing so, they can learn to embrace their truth, accept their mistakes, and become more self-aware.
To help pre-kindergartners distinguish between imagination and reality, this lesson helps them draw the line between the truth and lies created with imagination. It uses an illustrative short story, mental exercises, and an elaborate class discussion to provide an effective learning experience.
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