This is a short story for teaching empathy to small children, helping them to recognise what to do when they might be feeling sad, or how to help others.
Blue was blue. Really blue. He was the youngest bluest blueberry in his whole family. The other kids often left him behind because he was small and couldn't keep up. It made him feel sad. He felt different from other blueberries and dreamed about running away to be all by himself.
Blue was blue about being the smallest.
But it wasn't just that. None of the other blueberries in his class were blue, they were purple. His mum and dad were both purple. His brothers and sisters were purple. He wondered why blueberries were called blueberries if they were purple. It didn't make any sense.
Blue was blue about being the bluest.
“I don’t want to be different” he cried. “I want to be the same as everybody else. It’s not fair.” Blue slumped into his hiding place and didn’t want to come out.
“Awwww Blue,” said his mother softly. "I know you feel sad. Everybody is different in their special ways. You are blue and blue is beautiful”.
“But I don’t want to be blue,” said Blue as a big blue tear rolled down his little face and he lay down on his bed. “And I don’t want to be small either” he cried.
She wondered what she could do to cheer him up and help him see how wonderful it was to be blue. “Come on, I have an idea!” she said to Blue's brothers and sisters. "We need to cheer up Blue, get outside and have some fun together".
“Blue, Blue, come quickly we’re going on an adventure”.
It was a beautiful day without a cloud to be seen. The sun shone brightly in the vibrant blue sky as far as they could see.
“Look at the sky!" said one of the children, "It's the perfect blue for going to the beach“, and off they went.
The beach was decorated with blue and white sunshades, some striped and others patterned. Families sat on the blue and white deckchairs under the shades looking out to the sparkling blue ocean. It looked like a majestic carpet in the finest palace with the deepest blues weaving into green blues and then to clear light blues.
By the water’s edge, Blue saw his school friends peering into the ocean laughing.
“Hi Blue, come and see the fish with us”.
Blue laughed when he saw hundreds of tiny blue playful fish darting in all different directions as the children paddled. They were so funny.
“Race you to the boats” yelled one of the children sprinting off with all the others following, racing across the sand to the rock pools. One by one crossing the little bridge to where the fishing boats sat waiting for their turn to go into the water. There was a yellow boat the colour of the sun, a bright red boat the colour of the juiciest apple and a bold blue boat that gleamed brightly with a fresh coat of paint.
“I like the blue one the best”. “Me too.” “And me!” The children chimed.
They looked at the boats wishing they could take them out on the water as the bluest prettiest butterfly settled on the blue boat.
“Wow! Don’t scare it, let’s just watch”. The butterfly opened and closed its wings a few times and the children could see one side was vivid blue with black edges and one side was camouflage brown with big brown eye-like spots.
“That’s not something you see every day. It's a Blue Morpho butterfly”.
“What else is blue mummy?”
“Forget me nots are blue. Did you know, that forget-me-nots are so small, that they’re also called ‘mouse's ear’? There are also blue sapphires. A sapphire is a precious stone used to make jewellery. They’re small, beautiful and valuable.
“Whoa, so forget me nots and sapphires are blue AND small. Just like me.”
“There are some really cool things that are blue and some really cool things that are small. I like being blue and small too”, said Blue, smiling. Today had been a good day.
Can you remember all the things that Blue saw on his adventure? What else can you think of that’s blue?
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Sometimes when we feel down, we need a little help from our friends and family. They can help us see all the good things about us that sometimes we can't. When we see that our friends are sad, we can try to help them too, have fun together and remind them of all the things we like about them.
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