A 'What If' Monster

A 'What If' Monster  by Ruth Kenward & Richard Neil - 5 to 9 yrs  (1m 54s)

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Theme  -  Sharing problems
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Story  -  by John & Ruth Kenward  (approx 6 mins)

Extract:  
Shazia was a happy girl who never worried about a thing, until one Sunday her mum got a phone call.  ‘That was your Auntie Parveen,’ Shazia’s mum said. ‘She’s broken her leg and she can’t walk!’  ‘Poor Auntie Parveen!’ said Shazia. ‘How will she look after her children with a broken leg?’  ‘I’ll have to go and stay with them to help for a while,’ answered her mum.  ‘But what about me?’ asked Shazia. ‘You’ll be fine,’ said her mum. ‘Dad will look after you.‘

After breakfast on Monday, it was odd not having mum to walk her to school, but she went with her friend’s mum, and that was ok. Everything felt fine, until the teacher told the class that the school dentist was coming next Monday! The teacher reminded the children to clean their teeth twice every day.  ‘We don’t want to have any nasty fillings, do we?’ she said.  Shazia began to worry. ‘What if I forget to clean my teeth?’ she thought to herself. ‘I don’t want fillings!’  For the rest of the day, she worried about getting holes in her teeth.

On Tuesday, the teacher gave the children a spelling list to learn for homework. ‘Next week,’ she said, ‘you’ll be having a test to see how many of these words you can spell.’  The words looked difficult and Shazia began to worry. ‘What if I can’t learn them?’ she thought to herself. ‘Mum isn’t here to help me!’ For the rest of the day, she worried…

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Song  -  by Ruth Kenward & Richard Neil

In the song, anxiety is imagined as a ‘what if’ monster, and confidence as a ‘what if’ buddy. The ‘what if’ monster puts doubt in our minds, and needs to be replaced with the ‘what if’ buddy of confidence - which can take the form of a good, kind friend.  This unusual, quirky song is a brilliant tool to help young children understand anxiety – and they love shouting at the ‘what if’ monster to go away!  (Sample on the audio player above.)

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Reflection Points  -  samples

1. Can you remember all the things Shazia worried about?

2. Why do you think Shazia was worrying more than usual?

3. Why had her mum gone away?

4. Who were Shazia’s ‘what if’ buddies?

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This assembly is from 'Assemblies Alive KS1'. There is a parallel assembly for KS2 'Don't Open The Box' with the same theme in 'Assemblies Alive KS2'.