X the Owl Steals Henrietta's Bell
From Mister Rogers' Neighborhood · 1972
10 minPre-KK1st2ndSocial-Emotional LearningSocial Studies
Summary
King Friday XIII won't make a rule against bells, so X the Owl decides to take care of the bell problem himself — by taking Henrietta's. A short, unusually direct Make-Believe story about rules, who gets to make them, and what happens when you go around them.
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All ages
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Discussion
A ten-minute story about rules, authority, and taking things into your own hands.
- What did X the Owl want King Friday to do?
- What did X do instead when the answer was no?
- Was that fair to Henrietta? What could he have done instead?
- Who makes the rules in our classroom, and how could we ask to change one?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: rule, king, fair, permission, apologize.
Try it: Write one classroom rule and one sentence on why we need it.
Try it: Role-play with a partner: ask for something, get a no, and respond kindly.