Chester's Way Lesson Plan

Chester’s Way
Discussion point (taken from VSB list): Valuable friendships can be found in people who are different from us

Summary – Chester and Wilson are the very best of friends. They do everything together and are like two peas in a pod. When Lily comes along with her very different way of doing things they are unwilling to be friends until she scares away some older bullies. As the friendship blossoms, Chester and Wilson teach some of their practical skills while Lily teaches the pair to be more imaginative. Then Victor moves into the neighborhood….

Key idea:
My Way + Your Way = Our Way
Explore how all of us have different characteristics but it is so fun to learn from each other

Activities:
- Read Chester’s Way
- Get the students to recap the main events of the story.
Chester and Wilson are good friends
They are very alike
Lilly moves in.
She is different.
She tries to make friends but they ignore her.
When Chester and Wilson are bullied, Lilly saves them.
Chester and Wilson get to know Lilly
They find that they have things in common
They change some of the things they do and make it better with their different ideas
Victor moves in…

- Talk about how the friendship grew from not being friends and what changed. We talk a bit of what they learnt from the book about making friends

- As a class read the play (modified version of the story)
Choose the different characters
Help the main characters by highlighting their parts

- In pairs or threes, practice some actions to go with what the kids will read or make a prop. We read the play again with the actions and props

Follow Up possibilities:
- Write 3 lines of what is YOUR way of doing things?
- Pretend you are Victor, how will you become friends with Chester, Wilson and Lilly?
- If the kids really take to this story, then we can try to write a play with them for Victor as well.

Another Lesson:

Lesson Objective: Learning to appreciate similarities and differences
Making friends for the first time

Game: Human Bingo: They all gather and try to find people who can sign in the boxes.

- This means they will find some people who are have the same interests and those who opposite interests
- Good for getting to know their classmates better and learning to appreciate differences
- My Way + Your Way = Our WayBrainstorm ways that even though 2 people have different interests they can do activities together

Do Chester’s Way play: Role Play making friends with a new person in school or the neighborhood/Victor

Simulation:
Step 1: Be Open, don’t judge,
Step 2: Ask about their hobbies, likes, dislikes
(My Way and Your Way)
Step 3: Our Ways

They do their own plays on how to make friends

- Ask what were the key features

- Format, Smile, Eye Contact, Listen , Your Ways, My Way
Our Way

- key: Smile, Eye, Hear, U, Me, We