Unit 7 Skills Building: A Flicker of Hope

Skills Building: A Flicker of Hope (PK-5)

Written by Julia Cook

Pre Reading Questions

What does empathy mean to you? How do you show empathy towards others?
Share a story about a time you had to be hopeful when you were feeling sad.
When you think negative thoughts about yourself, how do you feel when someone encourages you?
How can including others positively affect you and others surrounding you?

Pre Reading Questions

What type of feelings did the dim light experience throughout the book?
Why do you believe the author compared feelings to inescapable dark clouds?
How did the Hope Builders brighten the light that was once dim?
When the dim light became brighter, how did others react? How was the light helpful to others?
What did the light do to overcome the negative thoughts and feelings they felt?

Creative Enrichment Activity: Share Your Light and Be a Hope Builder! (Pre-K-2)

Overview: In the book A Flicker of Hope, we learn about how to be a hope builder. Our unique strengths can help brighten the flame of those around us. We all have times when our flame isn’t so bright and the dark clouds above us seem too heavy to manage, but we can always reach out to others to help boost our hope and brighten our flame. And when our flames are strong and bright, we should reach out to others to help them in return!

Materials

● Paper plates cut in half (half a plate per student)
● Glitter
● Jewels
● Beads
● Tissue paper
● Flame template (one flame per student, pre-cut). Download template.
● Printer paper
● Liquid glue
● Scissors
● Markers

Duration: 35 minutes (for staff: 5 pre-activity set up and 15-minute prep)

● 5 minutes: Introduce the activity using the book
● 15 minutes: Decorate their paper plate and flame
● 5 minutes: Clean up activity
● 10 minutes: Reflect

Instructions

Before the activity, the staff should print out the flame templates and cut the templates so that each student has one flame. Cut out flames for younger students (older students can cut it themselves).
Introduce the activity, use the book to remind students of how they have been Hope Builders based on previous Literacy Connection conversation.
Decorate the flame.
Decorate the paper plate on one side using the jewels, beads, glitter, tissue paper, markers, etc.
Clean up
Reflect.

Reflection Questions

What makes you special? Share your plate and one thing that makes you special with the person sitting next to you.
Have you ever been helped out by a “Hope Builder”?
What is one thing you can do this week to help brighten someone’s flame?
Read a list of scenarios. Students give a thumbs up or thumbs down depending on how it would make them feel and if it would make their flame (or someone else’s) brighter or dimmer.
- Getting a D on a math test
- Fighting with friends
- Sitting at lunch with someone who was sitting alone
- Helping to pick up trash on the playground
- Getting made fun of by others
- Helping a teacher with a task
- Getting yelled at by your parents or teacher
- Feeling like you aren’t good enough.
- Doing something nice for your sibling.

Creative Enrichment Activity: Share Your Light and Be a Hope Builder! (3-5)

Materials

● Paper plates (full plate, not cut, one per student)
● Glitter
● Jewels
● Beads
● Tissue paper
● Wide popsicle sticks, one per student
● Flame template (one flame per student, not cut out). Download template.
● Printer paper
● Liquid glue
● Scissors
● Markers

Duration: 40 minutes (for staff: 5 pre-activity set up and 15-minute prep)

● 5 minutes: Introduce the activity using the book
● 20 minutes: Decorate their paper plate and flame, add their popsicle stick flame
● 5 minutes: Clean up activity
● 10 minutes: Reflect

Instructions

Before the activity, the staff should print out the flame templates and cut the templates so that each student has one flame. Give the flame in the square to older students for them to cut out. Only cut out flames for younger students.
Introduce the activity. Use the book to remind students of how they have been Hope Builders based on previous Literacy Connection conversation.
Cut out the flame and decorate the flame.
Glue flame onto popsicle sticks. This needs to be completed before the plate is decorated for drying time.
Fold the paper plate in half.
Cut a slit about two inches long in the folded part of the paper plate to create an opening. This is where the flame will go.
Decorate the paper plate on one side using the jewels, beads, glitter, tissue paper, markers, etc.
Place popsicle stick through the slit in the paper plate. Grab popsicle stick from the inside of the plate to move the flame up and down.
Clean up
Reflect.

Reflection Questions

What makes you unique? Share your plate and one thing that makes you unique with the person sitting next to you.
Have you ever been helped out by a “Hope Builder”?
What is one thing you can do this week to help brighten someone’s flame?
Read a list of scenarios. By moving their popsicle sticks, students should move their flame up higher if it would make their flame (or someone else’s flame) brighter. Students should move their flames down if it would make flames dimmer.
- Getting a D on a math test
- Fighting with friends
- Sitting at lunch with someone who was sitting alone
- Helping to pick up trash on the playground
- Getting made fun of by others
- Helping a teacher with a task
- Getting yelled at by your parents or teacher
- Feeling like you aren’t good enough.
- Doing something nice for your sibling.

Skills Building: A Flicker of Hope (PK-5)

Creative Enrichment Activity: Share Your Light and Be a Hope Builder! (Pre-K-2)

Creative Enrichment Activity: Share Your Light and Be a Hope Builder! (3-5)

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