The School of Play Curriculum
Primary School Grade 5 & 6
Week Twenty Five celebrates the powerful life skill of confidence, inspired by the bold and brilliant energy of Jupiter. Throughout the week, students are invited to recognise and express their strengths, practise bravery, and share their light with others. Each activity is designed to help students step into their own greatness, whether they are performing, creating, posing proudly, or reflecting on a moment that made them feel truly proud. This week encourages students to understand that confidence grows when we take small risks, speak kindly to ourselves, and celebrate what makes us unique.
Through activities that blend creativity, self-belief, and joyful expression, students explore what confidence feels like from the inside out. Star Performer gives each child a chance to shine, while My Super Self-Shield turns their inner strengths into colourful symbols of pride. Power Pose Challenge shows students how body language and affirmations can boost their inner courage, and Confidence Hearts gives them a simple, heartfelt way to share their achievements with someone they love. Together, these experiences reinforce a core message: when we shine our light bravely, we inspire others to do the same.
Courses
Star Performer
Star Performer gives every student a special moment to shine, helping them explore confidence in a fun and supportive way. One at a time, students step onto a simple “stage” to share something they’re proud of, a dance move, a funny joke, a cool skill, a big smile, or simply the courage to stand in front of their peers. This gentle spotlight encourages children to recognise their strengths and celebrate what makes them unique. With a warm countdown and plenty of encouragement, the activity turns bravery into a joyful experience, reminding students that having a go is what truly matters.
As each performer finishes, the room erupts with cheers and claps, reinforcing a culture where every student feels valued and celebrated. This collective support helps children understand the power of lifting others up, creating a classroom community where confidence grows through kindness. Reflecting together afterwards helps students recognise that being brave often inspires others to be brave too, just like the glowing lesson from Jupiter in The Playful Astronauts journey. Star Performer leaves students feeling proud, connected, and ready to keep shining brightly, both for themselves and for one another.
Respectful Relationships
1. Emotional Literacy
- Students recognise feelings such as excitement, pride, nervousness, and joy when performing.
- They learn to identify emotions that arise when being watched and supported by others.
- Sharing reflections helps students understand what bravery feels like and how confidence grows.
2. Personal Strengths
- Students acknowledge their own strengths by choosing something they’re proud to show.
- Performing highlights strengths such as creativity, humour, talent, or courage.
- Encouraging peers helps students recognise strengths in others and celebrate them openly.
3. Positive Coping
- Students practise managing nerves by stepping into the spotlight in a safe, supportive environment.
- They learn that doing something brave, even if it feels uncomfortable at first, can build confidence.
- Receiving enthusiastic peer support reinforces positive self-talk and resilience.
4. Problem-Solving
- Students learn to plan what they will share with others, making independent decisions.
- They practise navigating performance anxiety with strategies like deep breathing, starting small, or performing with a partner.
- Reflecting on what helped them be brave teaches them how to handle similar challenges in the future.
5. Stress Management
- Taking turns and being cheered for helps reduce fear of judgment and builds classroom safety.
- Students practise regulating emotions before and during their turn in the spotlight.
- The group celebration creates a positive emotional experience that replaces stress with pride.
6. Gender and Identity
- Students choose how they want to express themselves, quietly, loudly, silly, serious, without stereotypes or expectations.
- The activity honours individuality and personal identity, allowing every child to shine authentically.
- Inclusive cheering reinforces that everyone’s unique style of confidence is valued.
7. Positive Relationships
- Students strengthen connections by clapping, cheering, and supporting one another.
- The shared experience creates a culture of encouragement, safety, and joy.
- Celebrating each performer builds empathy, trust, and mutual respect within the class.
8. Help-Seeking
- Students learn that it’s okay to feel nervous and to ask for support, such as pairing with a friend or performing in a small group.
- The kind audience response normalises reaching out for reassurance or encouragement.
- Discussing “what helped you feel brave” teaches students that seeking help is a natural part of being confident.
My Super Self-Shield
My Super Self-Shield gives students the chance to explore what makes them strong, unique, and proud. By designing their own hero-style shield, each child reflects on the qualities that help them shine, kindness, bravery, creativity, determination, or anything else that feels special to them. Using colours, shapes, and symbols, students turn their strengths into a visual masterpiece that represents their inner power. This creative process encourages self-belief and helps children recognise that confidence doesn’t come from being perfect, it comes from knowing who they are and valuing their own story.
Sharing their shields with classmates creates a moment of celebration, where students cheer one another on and appreciate the diversity of strengths in the room. Whether displayed, worn like an astronaut badge, or proudly held up during a sharing circle, each shield becomes a reminder that everyone has qualities worth honouring. This activity beautifully reflects Jupiter’s message in The Playful Astronauts journey: when we show our strengths boldly, we inspire others to do the same. My Super Self-Shield leaves students feeling brave, proud, and ready to carry their confidence into new adventures.
Respectful Relationships
1. Emotional Literacy
- Students reflect on the emotions connected to feeling proud, brave, strong, or special.
- They learn to recognise how positive emotions arise from acknowledging their strengths.
- Explaining their shield helps students articulate their internal experiences and emotional identity.
2. Personal Strengths
- Students identify their own strengths, kindness, bravery, creativity, perseverance, leadership, humour, etc.
- Creating visual symbols for these strengths helps them internalise and celebrate their capabilities.
- Sharing their shields encourages students to recognise and value personal strengths in themselves and others.
3. Positive Coping
- Reflecting on strengths provides a resilience-building tool students can return to during difficult moments.
- The shield becomes a symbolic reminder of what helps them feel confident, capable, and anchored.
- Understanding their own strengths supports emotional recovery and boosts self-esteem.
4. Problem-Solving
- Students make thoughtful decisions about how to represent themselves, choosing symbols, colours, and sections.
- They practise explaining the meaning behind their choices, strengthening communication and reasoning skills.
- Recognising personal strengths equips students to choose effective strategies when facing challenges.
5. Stress Management
- Focusing on strengths promotes a positive mindset that counteracts stress and self-doubt.
- Creative expression through drawing and colouring provides a calming, mindful experience.
- Naming strengths helps students ground themselves emotionally during high-pressure or overwhelming moments.
6. Gender and Identity
- Students express their identity freely through personalised symbols, colours, and meanings, without stereotypes.
- Every shield looks different, reinforcing individuality, uniqueness, and self-acceptance.
- The activity celebrates the idea that strength comes in many forms, validating diverse ways of being.
7. Positive Relationships
- Sharing shields fosters empathy and curiosity about others’ strengths.
- Students listen respectfully and celebrate classmates’ achievements and qualities.
- The collective environment builds connection and reinforces a supportive classroom culture.
8. Help-Seeking
- Recognising personal strengths helps students understand when and how to draw on these strengths during challenges.
- Sharing shields encourages students to speak about their needs and abilities confidently, an important foundation for seeking support.
- Positive peer affirmation increases trust and makes seeking help feel safer and more natural.
Power Pose Challenge
Power Pose Challenge invites students to discover how strong and confident their bodies can make them feel. With big, bold poses, like stretching wide like a star, standing tall like a mountain, or lifting arms high like a rocket, students learn to use movement to express courage, balance, and inner power. Saying short, positive phrases while holding each pose helps children connect their bodies with their emotions, teaching them that confidence can be built from the inside out. This playful combination of movement and affirmation encourages students to celebrate their strengths and recognise the powerful light they carry within.
As the class moves through each pose together, a sense of unity and encouragement forms, with students cheering themselves on while supporting their peers. Finishing in a shared pose helps them feel proud, steady, and connected, reflecting the glowing lesson from Jupiter in The Playful Astronauts story: when we stand tall and believe in ourselves, we inspire others to do the same. Power Pose Challenge leaves students feeling uplifted, energised, and ready to take on new challenges with confidence and joy.
Respectful Relationships
1. Emotional Literacy
- Students connect body language with inner feelings, noticing how standing tall can influence emotion.
- They identify feelings of bravery, pride, or calm that arise during different poses.
- Reflection questions help students articulate how physical posture affects emotional experience.
2. Personal Strengths
- Students explore inner strengths such as bravery, determination, resilience, and self-belief.
- Creating and choosing poses allows students to express personal identity and confidence.
- Saying affirmations highlights strengths they already have and want to build.
3. Positive Coping
- Students learn that power poses and positive self-talk can help regulate emotions during stress or difficult moments.
- The practice teaches them to pause, breathe, and shift their mindset through intentional posture.
- Affirmations like “I can do hard things” reinforce healthy coping strategies and optimism.
4. Problem-Solving
- Students practise choosing strategies (pose + affirmation) to help them feel confident in challenging situations.
- They reflect on when these poses could be helpful (before tests, during conflict, when nervous), linking physical coping to real-life problem-solving.
- The activity fosters initiative by encouraging students to select the pose that works best for them.
5. Stress Management
- Power poses activate calm, grounded body positions that reduce stress and increase focus.
- Purposeful breathing during poses supports emotional regulation.
- Students experience the calming and empowering impact of intentional movement.
6. Gender and Identity
- All poses are inclusive and allow students to express strength in whatever way feels authentic to them.
- The activity challenges stereotypes by showing that bravery and confidence belong to everyone.
- Students can choose poses that reflect their personal identity, style, and comfort.
7. Positive Relationships
- Students practise posing and speaking confidently as a group, building shared courage and connection.
- Encouraging others and celebrating classmates’ bravery fosters a supportive classroom environment.
- Collective reflection builds empathy as students hear what helped their peers feel strong.
8. Help-Seeking
- Students learn that confidence-building tools are available when they need them, asking for a reminder or needing reassurance is normalised.
- Discussing when poses might be useful encourages students to seek support during stressful or overwhelming moments.
- Group repetition of affirmations reinforces that asking for help is an act of strength, not weakness.
Confidence Hearts
Confidence Hearts gives students a gentle moment to recognise something they feel proud of, whether it’s a new skill, a brave action, or a kind choice they made during the week. By drawing or writing their proud moment on a bright heart-shaped card, children explore their strengths in a creative, personal way. Decorating the heart with colours, patterns, or symbols helps them celebrate their confidence visually, turning a simple idea into a keepsake that reflects their unique identity. This activity supports self-belief and reminds students that recognising their own achievements is an important part of growing.
Sharing their hearts with peers or taking them home to someone special extends the celebration beyond the classroom, strengthening both connection and confidence. When students speak proudly about what they’ve accomplished, and listen to what others are proud of too, the whole group begins to appreciate how many different ways courage and growth can look. This links beautifully to the lessons from Jupiter in The Playful Astronauts journey, where shining brightly helps others shine as well. Confidence Hearts leaves every child feeling valued, capable, and proud of the light they carry within.
Respectful Relationships
1. Emotional Literacy
- Students identify emotions connected to pride, confidence, bravery, and achievement.
- Reflecting on a moment they felt proud helps them recognise emotional triggers and internal responses.
- Sharing their hearts supports emotional expression through both language and visual representation.
2. Personal Strengths
- Students acknowledge strengths such as perseverance, kindness, bravery, creativity, teamwork, or effort.
- Naming something they are proud of deepens self-awareness and validates their unique capabilities.
- Seeing classmates’ hearts reinforces that everyone has strengths worth celebrating.
3. Positive Coping
- Remembering proud moments boosts resilience and helps students recall times when they overcame challenges.
- The process teaches students to draw on their strengths during stressful moments.
- Keeping or sharing the heart creates a tangible reminder of their inner confidence.
4. Problem-Solving
- Students reflect on actions or experiences where they used effort, strategies, or courage to succeed.
- Thinking about what they did to feel proud helps them understand how to approach future challenges.
- Explaining why their chosen moment shows confidence enhances communication and reasoning skills.
5. Stress Management
- Focusing on positive achievements helps reduce anxiety and builds a growth mindset.
- Creative drawing and colouring provide a calming, mindful experience.
- Revisiting proud moments strengthens emotional regulation and self-assurance.
6. Gender and Identity
- Students freely choose what they are proud of, expressing identity without stereotypes or expectations.
- Hearts showcase diverse talents, interests, and personal journeys, reinforcing individuality.
- The activity fosters a sense of belonging by honouring differences in strengths and experiences.
7. Positive Relationships
- Sharing hearts (optional) builds empathy, trust, and joy within the classroom.
- Students practise respectful listening and learn to appreciate others’ achievements.
- Taking the heart home strengthens the school–family connection, inviting meaningful conversations.
8. Help-Seeking
- Recognising times they felt proud may include moments when they sought help or support from others.
- The activity normalises acknowledging effort, guidance, and shared achievements.
- Students become more comfortable expressing needs and reaching out for assistance in future challenges.
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