Whole Earth Curriculum WEC

Lesson 07 — My Trusted Adults at Home and School

Learners identify trusted adults at home and at school — grown-ups who listen and help — and fill a "help hand" with five of their own. They learn that they get to choose who they trust, that asking for help is a strength, and that a trusted adult makes them feel safe.

D03 P2: Physical & Somatic Awareness D03.S4 45 minutes Draft

Objectives

Essential question

Who are my trusted adults at home and at school, and how do I know I can ask them for help?

trusted adulthomeschoolhelpsafelistenchoose

Materials

Standard materials

Low-tech / no-cost

Enriched / lab & device

Works in different contexts

Two panels — a home panel with a grandparent using a cane and a caregiver, and a school panel with a teacher, nurse, and coach — with a hand labeled five trusted adults between them.
Two panels — a home panel with a grandparent using a cane and a caregiver, and a school panel with a teacher, nurse, and coach — with a hand labeled five trusted adults between them.

Lesson 7 — My Trusted Adults at Home and School

Summary

Learners identify trusted adults at home and at school — grown-ups who listen and help — and fill a “help hand” with five of their own. They learn that they get to choose who they trust, that asking for help is a strength, and that a trusted adult makes them feel safe. The help hand becomes a portfolio artifact.

Objectives

  • Identify trusted adults at home and at school to ask for help in different situations. (D03.S4.02.02)

Connection

When you fall and scrape your knee, you tell a grown-up. When you feel sick, lost, scared, or unsafe, you tell a grown-up too. Some grown-ups are trusted adults: people who listen to you and help you. You have trusted adults at home and at school. Today you will name yours.

Materials

  • A “help hand” template (a hand outline with five fingers)
  • Crayons
  • Picture cards of adults (caregiver, grandparent, teacher, nurse, coach, neighbor)

Preparation

  • Prepare a “help hand” template for each learner.
  • Prepare picture cards of adults to sort into “home” and “school.”
  • Read the facilitator note fully, including the safeguarding guidance, before teaching.

Facilitator note

This lesson is written to the learner (“you”). Read this note fully before teaching.

  • Keep the tone warm and reassuring. Asking for help is a strength, never a weakness, and telling is never wrong.
  • Help each learner name trusted adults who are realistically available to them. If a learner names no one at home, gently guide them toward a teacher, nurse, school helper, or neighbor — without pressure and without implying anything about their family.
  • A trusted adult is someone the learner feels safe with; the learner chooses. Adults vary across families and cultures — caregivers, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors, teachers, nurses, coaches, and religious or community helpers can all be trusted adults.
  • Honor every way of naming and asking: speaking, signing, pointing, drawing, or tapping a shoulder all work. A learner who is deaf or hard of hearing practices in their sign language and points to the picture cards; face the learner for every demonstration. A learner who is blind or has low vision names trusted adults aloud and traces the help hand in the air or by feel, naming one trusted adult per finger.
  • If a child discloses abuse or an unsafe situation: stay calm; believe them; thank them for telling you; do not promise secrecy; do not press for details or ask leading questions; tell your designated safeguarding lead and follow your local child-protection procedure immediately.
  • The help hand is a unit portfolio artifact; keep learners’ drawings. This lesson builds on Grade 1’s “Trusted Adults and Asking for Help” (U.01.008) and leads into the unit’s capstone on asking for help in different situations.

Procedure

  1. Gather (5 min). Remember last year: your body belongs to you, and if something feels wrong you tell a trusted adult. This year we learn who your trusted adults are at home and at school.
  2. Who is a trusted adult? (10 min). A trusted adult is a grown-up who listens to you and helps you. At home, that might be a caregiver, a grandparent, an aunt, or an uncle. At school, a teacher, a nurse, a coach, or a school helper. Sort the picture cards: which adults are at home, and which are at school?
  3. You choose who you trust (10 min). You get to decide who feels safe to you. A trusted adult is someone who listens, believes you, and helps you when you ask. Tell a partner one thing a trusted adult does (listens, helps, keeps you safe).
  4. Fill your help hand (10 min). Trace your hand. On each finger, draw or write one trusted adult — some from home, some from school. This is your help hand. Aim for five, and it is okay if you start with two or three and add more later.
  5. Close (5 min). Say it together: “I have trusted adults at home and at school. Asking for help is a strength.”

Differentiation

  • Support: Sort just two or three cards first; fill the hand with drawn faces rather than words.
  • Support (non-speaking): Point to picture cards and draw faces on the hand; practice asking with a sign or a tap.
  • Support (blind/low-vision): Name trusted adults aloud and trace the help hand in the air or by feel, saying one trusted adult per finger.
  • Extension: Name a third trusted adult and tell which situations each one could help with — a bridge to the capstone lesson.

Assessment

  • Formative (observation): Can the learner name at least two trusted adults (home and school) and say what a trusted adult does, in their own way?
  • Portfolio: The “my trusted adults” help-hand drawing becomes a unit portfolio artifact.

Home connection

With a grown-up, name the trusted adults at your home and school, and practice saying “I need help” in a clear, calm voice. Keep your help hand where you can see it.

Resources