Aliens in underpants

This session is best done in two parts. The first session is about 'good/bad people' and 'what is stealing?'. The second, which begins with 'Aliens in Underpants save the world' is about whether bad actions make you a bad person and how we should treat those who do both good and bad things. NB. If you don't have the books, you can still retell the story without the picture book in your own, creative way!

Resources:

• Aliens in Underpants (optional) & Aliens in underpants save the world by Claire Freedman and Ben Gort
• Alien puppet or picture of an alien
• Picture of a prison or a basket/object that can be used as a prison
• Picture of a medal or a real medal

Key controversy: Is stealing wrong? What is stealing?

 

Aliens on Underpants

Read the first story (Aliens in underpants) in which aliens from outerspace came down to earth and take our underpants. Summarise the story with “So the aliens took the underpants…” and ask the following:

Key questions:

• Are the aliens good or bad?
• Is it stealing?
• What is stealing?

Main activity - Aliens in underpants save the world:

Read the second story in which the aliens see a meteorite is about to destroy earth (their pants supply will run out!) They head down to earth once again, take our underpants and this time... they stitch them together to make a huge pair of underpants which they use to bounce the meteorite back out into space .

Task Questions:

• What do you think of them now(the aliens)?
• Are they good or bad?
• Can you be good if you do bad things?
• Can you be bad if you do good things?
• Was it stealing?
• Should the aliens be punished or rewarded?
• If it was stealing should the aliens be punished?
• Is stealing wrong?

Activity

Produce your alien picture/puppet and tell the children that they are the intergalatic police and they have just heard what the alien has done. The alien took our underpants AND the alien saved us. They now have to decided to either put the alien in jail (have a picture of jail on the floor so they can put the alien in there) of give the alien a medal (again a resouce that the children can actually get up and give to the alien will get them engaged more). Whatever they decide to do ensure you ask ‘Why?’

Some children may decide to ‘break’ the lesson by putting the medal on the Alien and put the alien in Jail. Nothing wrong with this. Great example of the children being able to come up with alternatives in seemingly binary choices.

 

Extension for older classes:

Ask 2 children to pretend to be aliens.they both took our underpants and they both made the giant pair of underpants that bounced the meteorite back into space. Get them to pretend to be aliens (put on an alien voice) and say the lines below:

Alien 1:"I was trying to save the underpants."

Alien 2: "I was trying to save the world."

Task Question: Should they get the same punishment/reward?

Alien 1:" I didn't think it was stealing "

Alien 2: "I thought it was stealing"

Task Question: Should they get the same punishment or reward?

 

Download Aliens in underpants