Win or Lose – Activities

Activities Coloring Pages Word Puzzles Word Treasures Return to the Story

Get ready to discuss, share, play, create, and read your way to developing and empowering a strong character.

Imagine

You and a friend are in danger and your friend is hurt. Should you stay with him and wait for help? Should you leave him and go for help? Should you work with him and try to get out of danger?

Story Focus, Virtues, and Life Lessons

Story Focus:

A loyal friend is someone who always looks out for you and helps you when you are in trouble or danger.

Virtues:

Loyalty – Friendship

Life Lessons:

“George came every day to visit Bobby. George had a way of telling stories that made Bobby laugh and forget about his hurt paw. From that day on, Bobby was a loyal friend to George, win or lose.”

Loyalty in a friendship is one of the greatest gifts of all. Loyalty is one very important virtue that determines the strength of true friendship.

Magical Moments

Interactive Discussion and Activities

Reading Story Techniques

First, pre-read the story before reading it aloud with your learner. Use expressive language, gestures, motions, and sounds to make the story come alive:

• Begin the story with an excited loud voice for Bobby cheering for George in the race.
• When reading the following descriptive part of the story, sound bewildered and full of wonder why Bobby would always pick George for his team. Use a facial expression of uncertainty to illustrate the point.
• Have a reflective tone of voice when reading Bobby’s thoughts about what happened years ago when they were young bunnies.
• Yell with excitement when reading George’s warning before the accident and his lines afterwards.
• Sound as if you are in pain when reading Bobby’s lines about his paw.
• Have a concerned and anxious tone for George’s dialogue with Ben about getting out of the open meadow.
• Change your voice to sound brave and cautious with George’s response to Bobby telling him to run if an eagle comes.
• Imitate a few cries of pain when Bobby had to limp home.
• Sound like a concerned mother when reading her lines.
• Sound upset and mad when reading Bobby’s response to his mother telling him he has to stay off his paw for four weeks.
• Change your tone of voice to sound stern and annoyed for mother bunny’s response to George.
• Imitate a sad facial expression when reading how Bobby had to stay inside while all his friends were playing outside.
• Change your facial expression to a surprised and happy look when George comes to visit.
• End the story with a grateful and appreciative tone to illustrate loyalty in the friendship.

While Reading

Interject these questions to involve the learner:

• Where did Bobby get hurt?
• Who stayed behind to help Bobby?
• When did his mother find out that Bobby was hurt?
• What did George do while Bobby was getting better?
• Why did Bobby always pick George for his team?

After Reading

Use the answers to these questions to recall points in the story.

• Who did Bobby think about when he realized they were in danger?
  Bobby said, “Okay, let’s head for home. George, if the eagles come, I want you to run and leave me behind.”
• Why did Bobby’s friends leave him in the meadow?
  Bobby looked around and saw that he and George were alone in the meadow. He asked, “Where is everybody?” “They ran for the woods. You can’t blame them, Bobby. It’s not safe out here,” said George.
• When Bobby got hurt, “Everything went dark.” What does this mean?
  Bobby lost consciousness when he landed hard and went rolling in the grass. He woke when George yelled, “Bobby, wake up!”
• When did Bobby have to face his mother?
  “Bobby began limping slowly. He cried out in pain with every hop. George tried to clear a path while he kept an eye on the sky for eagles. At last, they made it to the warren. Now, Bobby had to face his mother.”
• Where did the young rabbits like to go play? Why?
  “Every mother told her young kits to remain in the safety of cover that Fire Fall Woods provided. Some, like Bobby, did not listen. They thought it was exciting to sneak out in the meadow.”
• Note: Close with a discussion on the importance of establishing safe play areas.

Behavior/Social Development (All Ages):

• Define friendship with your learner by having them finish the statement, “A true friend is someone you can __________ (depend on, talk to, ask anything, etc).”
• Share your experience by identifying the name of your friend and the reasons why that person is a true friend. Have your learner do the same.
• Define the word “loyalty” (loyalty implies support, service, contribution) and list action words your learner associates with loyalty.
• “Loyalty” comes in many forms, including loyalty to country, school, church, organizations, family, friends, and even self. Have your learner identify the things they feel they have loyalty toward. Make a list. Extend the discussion by listing specific actions they do to show their loyalty in each area.
• List specific actions that would be considered loyal to a friend in the following scenarios:
  • You already made plans with a friend when another friend invites you to go the movies.
  • You were part of a discussion in which other people were gossiping about a friend of yours.

Language Development (Younger Learners):

• Antonyms: can – can’t, dangerous – safe, fast – slow, first – last, he – she, in – out, win – lose
• Identify word patterns: Long A Sounds “– ame”
  Bolded words, among the following, were used in Win or Lose — blame, came, fame, flame, frame, game, lame, name, same, tame
• Identify and describe words that may not be familiar to your learner, such as “warren,” “scooped,” “talons,” and “burrow.”
• Have your learner Identify the feeling words that they associate with the friendships they have. Ask the question, “How do you feel when you are with your friend, _________?” (Happy, proud, lucky, glad, fortunate, OR sad, frustrated, mad, angry, etc.) Extend the discussion to include reasons why they feel that way.
• Ask your learner what is involved in being a good friend — (sharing, caring, kindness).

Language Development (Older Learners):

• Discuss what loyalty teaches –commitment and perseverance, to value other people and to develop genuine care and feelings for their well-being. Loyalty teaches us to focus on others and forget about ourselves for a moment.
• Being popular and having real friends are not always the same thing. Discuss the differences and how to identify what a real friend would be.
• Discuss with your learner that it’s good to have a best friend and other friends who share in their different interests. Make a list of all the friends they have at school, neighborhood, sport clubs, social groups, church, etc. Extend the discussion by listing the friends on their Facebook page, if applicable.
• Ask your learner what friends give us (loyalty, trust, help in times of need, uplift, support, guidance).
• Discuss how your learner makes friends, i.e., by being a friend, showing interest in others, etc.
• Discuss what popularity means. Ask your learner: What is popularity? How important is it to you? Should friendships be based on popularity?
• End discussion with the question. What makes you a good friend? List the qualities they describe about themselves and write their responses on a sheet of paper to be used for a friendship poster in the arts & crafts activity.

Making Memories

Discover the values covered in this story through guided activities and fun projects that ensure learner involvement. Arts and Crafts ideas for Creatively Understanding the Virtues

Arts & Crafts Activities (Younger Learners):

Friendship Wreath Trace and cut your learner’s hand-print a minimum of eight times. Have your learner write and finish the sentence “I like friends who______.” Do the writing for your learner if they are to young.

• When your learner has finished writing and completing the sentence, glue the hand-prints in a circular pattern to make a wreath.
• Decorate with glitter, yarn, or whatever your learner wants to use to make the wreath decorative for hanging.
• Consider extending the writing portion of the activity to include a friend’s name that corresponds with a description the learner has written.

Arts & Crafts Activities (Older Learners):

• •Create a marquee sign for the word “FRIEND.” Write the word FRIEND vertically on a poster board. Brainstorm words that begin with each letter of the word, FRIEND and that would describe the qualities that they want in a good friend. Examples are FRIEND:
  • F – Forgiveness
  • R – Respect
  • I – Intelligent
  • E – Enthusiastic
  • N – Nice
  • D – Dependable
  • Add final touches by decorating the poster and hang in a place where it can be viewed easily.
• Extend the activity by creating a HOW TO BE A GOOD FRIEND Poster. To have good friends you must be a good friend. List the ways good friends treat each other. Examples of things that good friends do are:
• Listen to each other, don’t put each other down or hurt each other’s feeling.
  • Try to understand each other’s feelings and moods.
  • Help each other solve problems.
  • Give each other compliments.
  • Disagree without hurting each other.
  • Be dependable, respect each other.
  • Always be trustworthy and loyal.

Involvement Tips (All Ages):

• In order to teach loyalty you have to show loyalty. Discuss the ways you show loyalty with the common things you do – like shopping at the same grocery store every week, fulfilling promises made, refraining from gossiping about others, and helping out in school or church, etc.
• Share your experiences in teaching your learner that loyalty helps them value family, stand up for those in need, and make friendships that last a lifetime.

Bobby said, “Okay, let’s head for home. George, if the eagles come, I want you to run and leave me behind.”

Lasting Impressions

Continue with learning experiences to extend your stay.

Follow-up Activities (All Ages):

• Identify television shows that deal with people and friendship.
• Identify the behaviors that someone in the show did to make them a “good friend” or a “bad friend.”

Real-Life Activities (All Ages):

• Identify ways in which your learner could defuse an angry/fight situation with their friends. Create scenarios and give your learner words and phrases that they could say to help clear the air. Examples:
  • “I am sorry you feel that way, but…” “Let’s start over.”
  • “Can we look at this a different way?”

From that day on, Bobby was a loyal friend to George, win or lose.

Activities Coloring Pages Word Puzzles Word Treasures Return to the Story

You are lucky that George stayed with you and helped you get back home.