Dr Jonathan Frost

Resilience

🌱 Resilience

Rationale

Resilience is not toughness — it is the capacity to face difficulty with the support of trusted relationships, to persist through challenge, and to recover from setbacks. Finland’s concept of sisu, Norway’s outdoor resilience-building through friluftsliv, and Denmark’s deliberate removal of grades and competition all point to the same understanding: resilience grows in environments of safety, trust, and appropriate challenge — not pressure and fear.

Learning Outcomes

  • The child can identify and name their feelings when something is difficult or frustrating.
  • The child demonstrates persistence when a task is challenging, rather than giving up immediately.
  • The child can seek help from a trusted adult or peer when needed.
  • The child understands that making mistakes is a normal and valuable part of learning.
  • The child shows growing confidence in their ability to manage new or unfamiliar situations.

Lesson Plans

3.1 The Wobble Board

Duration: 45 minutes

Inspiration: Finnish sisu concept; Norwegian outdoor resilience tradition

Learning Intentions

  • Children will understand that everyone wobbles — and that wobbling is not failing.
  • Children will identify a personal challenge they have faced and how they responded.
  • Children will begin to develop a language for resilience.

Materials

A physical balance board or wobble board (if available) OR a simple drawn circle on the floor; a ‘Resilience Wall’ display; strips of paper; markers.

Lesson Sequence

Opening (10 min): If a balance board is available, invite children to try standing on it. Notice together: ‘Everyone wobbles. Some people wobble a lot. Some people fall off. But what happens after the wobble?’ (They try again, they adjust, they get better.)

Story (10 min): Share a personal story about a time when something was really hard and you wanted to give up — but you didn’t. Describe the wobble and what helped. Ask: ‘Has anyone had a wobble like that?’

Activity (15 min): Give each child a strip of paper. Ask them to complete the sentence: ‘I wobbled when _______, and then I _______.’ Younger children dictate to the educator. Display all strips on the Resilience Wall.

Closing (10 min): Read some of the strips aloud (with permission). ‘Look at this wall. Every single person in this room has wobbled and kept going. That is what resilience looks like.’

Discussion Prompts

  • What is the difference between giving up and taking a break?
  • Is it resilient to ask for help? Or does resilience mean doing it alone?
  • What does it feel like in your body when you’re about to wobble?

Extension Activity

Children create a personal ‘Resilience Shield’ — a drawing divided into four sections: a challenge I faced, what I did, who helped me, and what I learned.

Assessment Note

Note children who struggle to identify any personal challenge — this may indicate difficulty with self-reflection or a very protected environment.

3.2 The Mistake Museum

Duration: 50 minutes

Inspiration: Danish no-grades-before-14 philosophy; Finnish trust-based learning culture

Learning Intentions

  • Children will understand that mistakes are a normal, valuable, and necessary part of learning.
  • Children will develop a positive relationship with error rather than a fearful one.
  • Children will celebrate a mistake they made and what they learned from it.

Materials

A display area labelled ‘The Mistake Museum’; index cards; art supplies; stories about famous mistakes that led to discoveries (Post-it Notes, penicillin, chocolate chip cookies).

Lesson Sequence

Opening (10 min): Share two or three stories of famous mistakes that became great discoveries. ‘Did you know that Post-it Notes were invented because someone made a glue that wasn’t sticky enough? That penicillin was discovered because a scientist forgot to clean his petri dish?’

Discussion (10 min): ‘What do you usually feel when you make a mistake? What if we treated mistakes like scientists do — as interesting data? As clues?’

Activity (20 min): Each child creates a ‘Museum Exhibit’ for a mistake they made. The exhibit card includes: what they were trying to do, what went wrong, what they felt, and what they discovered or learned because of the mistake.

Gallery Walk & Closing (10 min): Children walk through the museum and leave a small sticky note on one exhibit that resonates with them. ‘From today, our classroom is a place where mistakes are welcome. They are exhibits in our learning museum.’

Discussion Prompts

  • Is there such a thing as a mistake that teaches you nothing?
  • What’s the difference between making a mistake and not trying?
  • How do you feel when a teacher makes a mistake?

Extension Activity

The Mistake Museum grows throughout the year. Children add new exhibits as they encounter significant learning moments.

Assessment Note

Observe children’s emotional tone when discussing their mistakes — shame, humour, curiosity, pride. This reveals their current relationship with error and informs how to support a growth mindset.

3.3 The Storm and the Shelter

Duration: 60 minutes

Inspiration: Norwegian friluftsliv outdoor resilience; Finnish outdoor learning in all seasons

Learning Intentions

  • Children will experience mild physical challenge in an outdoor environment and develop confidence through it.
  • Children will understand that discomfort is temporary and manageable.
  • Children will identify their own strategies for managing difficult feelings.

Materials

Outdoor space (ideally with some natural features); weather-appropriate clothing; building materials (sticks, leaves, large stones, rope if available); a simple reflection sheet.

Lesson Sequence

Introduction (5 min): ‘Today we’re going outside to build a shelter — something that can protect you from the wind and rain. When things get hard — and they will — I want you to notice what happens in your body and what you do next.’

Outdoor Building Activity (35 min): Teams of 3–4 children work together to build a shelter using only natural materials. The educator introduces deliberate challenges: ‘Your team has just lost one builder. Can you still finish?’ or ‘A storm has knocked down part of your shelter. What now?’

Reflection (15 min): Gather in a circle. ‘What happened when things got hard? What did you feel? What did you do? What helped your team keep going?’

Closing (5 min): ‘You just built something real, outside, in the wind, with your team. And when it got hard, you kept going. That is exactly what resilience looks like.’

Discussion Prompts

  • What was the hardest moment? What did you do?
  • Did anyone in your team do something that really helped? What was it?
  • How is building a shelter like facing a hard problem in life?

Extension Activity

Children draw their shelter and write (or dictate) a ‘resilience story’ about building it — including the hardest moment and how they got through it.

Assessment Note

Observe team dynamics during the outdoor activity — who leads, who supports, who withdraws under pressure, who finds creative solutions.

3.4 The Inner Voice

Duration: 40 minutes

Inspiration: Finnish sisu and tunteiden säätely; Swedish active citizenship and self-regulation

Learning Intentions

  • Children will understand that they have an ‘inner voice’ — an internal dialogue that can either support or undermine them.
  • Children will practise replacing unhelpful inner voice messages with supportive ones.
  • Children will develop a personal ‘resilience phrase’ to use when things are hard.

Materials

Two simple puppet characters — one representing a ‘helpful voice’ and one representing an ‘unhelpful voice’; speech bubble cards; markers.

Lesson Sequence

Opening (5 min): Introduce the two puppet characters. ‘This is the Helpful Voice — it says things like I can try, It’s okay to make mistakes, I can ask for help. And this is the Unhelpful Voice — it says things like I can’t do this, I give up.’

Puppet Scenario (10 min): Act out a scenario: a child is trying to learn to ride a bike and keeps falling off. The Unhelpful Voice says: ‘You’ll never learn. Just stop.’ Ask: ‘What could the Helpful Voice say instead?’

Activity (15 min): Give each child two speech bubble cards. On one, they write or draw an unhelpful thing their inner voice sometimes says. On the other, they write or draw what the Helpful Voice could say instead.

Resilience Phrase & Closing (10 min): Each child chooses or creates their own personal resilience phrase — something they can say to themselves when things are hard. Examples: ‘I haven’t got it yet.’ ‘Wobbling means I’m learning.’ ‘I am brave enough to try.’

Discussion Prompts

  • Where do you think the Unhelpful Voice comes from?
  • Can you change your inner voice? How?
  • What would you say to a friend whose Unhelpful Voice was very loud?

Extension Activity

Children illustrate their Helpful Voice as a character — giving it a name, a face, and a personality. These characters can be revisited throughout the year.

Assessment Note

The content of children’s ‘unhelpful voice’ cards can reveal significant information about their self-concept and any messages they may be receiving at home or in social settings.

3.5 The Long Game

Duration: Ongoing project over 4 weeks

Inspiration: Finnish play-based persistence; Danish child-initiated learning

Learning Intentions

  • Children will experience the satisfaction of sustained effort toward a long-term goal.
  • Children will develop patience, planning, and persistence.
  • Children will understand that some of the most rewarding things take time.

Materials

Seeds (fast-growing varieties such as cress, sunflowers, or beans); small pots; soil; watering cans; a ‘Growth Journal’ for each child; a class chart tracking growth over four weeks.

Lesson Sequence

Launch Lesson (30 min): ‘For the next four weeks, you are going to grow something from a seed. You will water it, observe it, and record what you notice. Some days nothing will seem to be happening. That is the hardest part — waiting and trusting.’ Plant seeds together.

Weekly Routine (10 min per week): Each week, children water their plant, observe any changes, and make a journal entry — drawing what they see and dictating or writing one observation. The class chart is updated together.

Closing Celebration (Week 4, 20 min): Children share their Growth Journals and reflect: ‘What was the hardest week? Was there a moment you wanted to give up? What kept you going? What does your plant look like now compared to week one?’

Discussion Prompts

  • What does it feel like to wait for something to grow?
  • What would have happened if you’d given up after week one?
  • What else in life is like growing a plant — something that takes time and care?

Extension Activity

Children write a letter to their plant at the end of the four weeks, thanking it for what it taught them about patience and persistence.

Assessment Note

The Growth Journals are powerful longitudinal assessment artefacts. Observe the quality of observation over time — does it deepen? Do children begin to notice more subtle changes?