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As part of the education for children under six years of age, it is necessary to teach them to trust others. Children learn from their interrelations with others. The well known scientist S.L.Vigostky believed that the social relations of a child with others (adults and children) were crucial since through them the child receives the influence of the environment and they serve as mediators between the child and the reality he is living in, provide him with the necessary stimulation for his development that, otherwise, would not take place.

Mutual trust is also a basic element in the relations between the different human groups. Therefore, one of the pillars in peace culture is the trust that should exist among countries that allows for dialogue and the solution of any possible contradictions.

The child has to learn to trust his friends, the same way he does with his relatives because friendship is the foundation to trust others. This helps to achieve great tasks in which each participant trusts what the others will be doing to obtain the desired results.

This is why an essential task of early childhood education is to teach the child to maintain relations of mutual trust. This can be done through multiple activities in the early childhood center, taking advantage of the regular activities or in everyday activities at the center, the home or the community.

ACTIVITY No 1
"THE RAVEN AND THE FOX"

Summary of the activity: In the first part of the activity, the educator will read a story about mutual trust and then, he will explain how these relationships should be and finally, in the third part there will be a trust game.

Objectives: To make children aware of the fact that mutual trust is necessary to establish good relations.

Procedures:
• Questions and answers
• Conversation
• Story
• Game

Material Resources: Flashcards with pictures of the story.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator will tell the story using the flashcards.

“The raven and the fox”

Once upon a time there was a strong raven who had managed to get a big piece of cheese. To eat it calmly, it flew to the top of a tree.

A fox that was passing by, smelled the wonderful cheese and quickly made a plan to take the cheese from the raven.

She stood underneath the tree and told the raven:

Good morning, mister raven! What beautiful feathers you have, what strong legs, they totally befit you! And your beak! A king couldn’t have it any better!

The raven began to feel very proud to be so praised.

The fox went on, telling him:

You are truly a splendid animal! And I am certain that such a perfect bird will have, of course, an extraordinary voice! I would love to hear you sing!

The raven was not so sure that his voice was extraordinary but he trusted the fox and though that perhaps she was right. Of course, all those compliments had made him dizzy, so he opened his mouth and started to croak:

“¡ Cra. Cra! ¡Cra. Cra, craaa!”

And then, the piece of cheese fell down, right into the mouth of the fox.

When the fox had eaten the cheese, she told the raven:
“You are the most foolish bird I have ever met!”

“Yes, I see that I have been foolish, said the raven, but you lose more than I do with your actions because that way nobody will want to be your friend, because no one can trust you. You lose more than I did. After all, I only lost a piece of cheese but you lost everyone’s trust”.

2nd part
The educator will ask the children:
Did you like the story?
What was it about?
Why did the raven tell the fox that no one would trust her?
Why did the raven tell the fox that she had lost more than him?

After the children have answered the questions, the educator will explain the meaning of mutual trust.

The fox is a mischievous animal and it lies to make others believe in its tricks and to fool them.

Mutual trust between classmates and friends should be based on honesty and help and not on lies to obtain something. Never act like the fox.

3rd part
This is a trust game in which the children will feel the need to trust each other to obtain a common result.

Trust games are used to foster mutual trust among the members of the group, to achieve a common task of for an action that may entail some risk, or some work that entails creative efforts, for example, when children are selected to represent their school in a tournament, everyone selected will have to help the rest of the team to train very hard and will have to trust the team mates, believing that together they will do their best.

The educator will introduce the game and explain the rules. He can choose any game of this kind that he feels will work well for the children.

After playing the game there will be an evaluation to decide if the children trusted the others while playing and why.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They understood the message of the story.
They needed help to understand the message of the story.
They criticized the attitude of the fox in the story.
They were able to evaluate their performance in the trust game.
They expressed notions of what is mutual trust.

ACTIVITY No 2
"THE BIRD THAT DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO FLY"

Summary of the activity: For this activity the educator will tell another story on the topic of mutual trust and after it, there will be a conversation on the story, to help the children reach their own conclusions.

Objectives: That the children understand how they should act to gain the trust of their classmates.

Procedures:
• Conversation
• Questions and answers

Material Resources: Flashcards on the story, cassette recorder.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator will tell the story: “The bird that did not know how to fly” using his intonation to motivate the children to listen carefully and relate the story to personal situations and experiences.

“Once upon a time, in a land called Cameroo, there were many animals that had never seen a bird.

One day, a beautiful white, round egg dropped from the sky and crash! It broke open. Immediately, a small bird came out of the shell. But when this animal was out of the eggshell, it didn’t find a mother. Then, it did not know what to do, what was its name, nothing. So, it began to feel very sad and lonely.
Jumping, as birds walk, it began to move around. As it moved, it began to meet all the other animals living in Cameroo that was truly a beautiful country.

“Please, do you know what I am and what I have to do?” it asked each one of the animals it met: the horse, the ferret, the turtle, the cricket, the crab and many other animals living there. The bird believed that the other animals were going to help it because it was so small and didn’t know very much. Like other birds, it trusted the others, because birds always trust other birds. Children do not do this until they learn it.

All the animals got together and decided to help the bird. They asked a very old and wise kangaroo that lived in a nearby town. He told them that all the birds knew how to fly right from birth.

So the animals took the little bird to the top of a very high gorge. The poor bird got very scared because it could fall down, and he could not see the bottom!

And then, do you know what happened?

All the other animals told him “spread your wings. They are not for decoration. Use them to fly. That way you will not fall down!

And because the little bird always trusted the others and itself, it closed its eyes, spread its wings and it jumped. And, instead of falling down, it started to fly!

In a short time, it was flying so well that all the animals of Cameroo decided that the bird would represent them in a competition of speed flyers that was going to take place in another town near them. The winning bird would receive a large sack of corn and the animals needed it because it had not rained in Cameroo in a long time and they didn’t have much food.

The little bird trained very hard. Every day it flew for over a kilometer, over and over, without getting tired. All the animals cheered for it as he flew by them and told it that they really trusted it because it was training so hard and so well that they believed that it would win the competition.

And the bird won! And everyone was very happy at Cameroo because they now had some food and a reason to celebrate.

During their celebration, the ferret, that was the oldest animal in the area congratulated the bird and told him: “We trusted you because we saw that you could fly very well and we saw you training very hard. All I can tell you is that you should always trust yourself and your friends”.

2nd part
The educator will hold a conversation with the children on the attitude of the animals in Cameroo. He will let the children express freely their opinions on what happened in the story and how it relates to mutual trust.

He will then focus on the trust the animals showed for each other and will ask the children of they can give examples of mutual trust in their own lives.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They understood why it is necessary to trust others.
They needed help to understand why it is necessary to trust others.
They thought it was necessary to gain the trust of their classmates.
They gave examples of mutual trust from their own lives.

ACTIVITY No 3
"COMPARE AND LEARN"

Summary of the activity: In this activity there will be a conversation in which the children will compare the attitude of the fox in the first story and the animals of Cameroo in the second story. After that, the children will draw the animals of both stories.

Objectives: That the children analyze and compare the positive and negative attitudes of the characters in the stories to reach their own conclusions.

Procedures:
• Analysis
• Synthesis
• Comparison
• Conversation
• Questions and answers

Material Resources: Flashcards of the stories to support the conversation, cassette recorder.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator will show the card of the fox in the first story and will ask the following questions:
Did the raven trust the fox?
What did the fox do about the raven’s trust?
Was that attitude correct? Why?
Was the raven a fool to trust the fox?
Why did the raven suffer?

The educator will show the card of the bird that didn’t know how to fly and will ask the following questions:
Did the little bird trust the other animals in Cameroo?
What did the animals in Cameroo do about the little bird’s trust?
Did the other animals trust the little bird?
Was that attitude correct? Why?
Was the little bird’s attitude correct? Why?
What is the similarity between the attitude of the raven and the attitude of the little bird?
What is the difference between the fox and the animals in Cameroo?
What is the main difference between the two stories?

After the children have expressed their conclusions, the educator will summarize the activity rectifying what the children have not expressed properly or offering additional information. The main goal of this activity is to make the differences between the two stories very clear for the children:
1. There is no mutual trust between the raven and the fox because the deceitful attitude of the fox prevents it.
2. Between the little bird that did not know how to fly and the animals in Cameroo there is mutual trust because the bird trusted them and they, in turn, trusted the little bird.

2nd part
The children will draw the different animals in the stories and they will describe them for the rest of the class. The educator will also ask them to explain why the animals trusted, or not, the other animals in the stories.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They compared the animals and situations in the stories well.
They needed help to do the comparisons.
They reached the right conclusions on the messages of the stories.
They needed help to reach the right conclusions on the messages of the stories.

ACTIVITY No 4
"THE MAIN RACE"

Summary of the activity: This is a team game. During it, we will keep records of what team wins each race. The record should be updated every day in a mural on the wall. Finally, the teams will select the runners in the final race. To complete the activity, we will interview the winning runners.

Objectives: To develop in the children trust in their own abilities and those of their team mates.

Procedures:
• Competition game
• Conversation
• Game
• Interview

Material Resources: Tokens for the winners and materials for the interviews, cassette recorder, microphones, chairs, tables, etc.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator will divide the class in two teams, the blue and the red. They will compete in various races and the educator will keep track of the races won by each team in a mural on the classroom wall.

After several days, he will explain that there is going to be one more, final race and that each team has to select the fastest runners to represent them in this final and decisive race.

Each team will select its runners who will train during the following days.

The educator will work to create in the children a setting of safety and trust and never of rivalry. He will teach the other children how to cheer for their representatives, showing that they trust them.

2nd part
The final race will be held and the educator will ask the children to cheer for the runners and give them signs of encouragement and trust.

3rd part
There will be an interview with the winners of the race so that they can tell the rest of the children how they felt and if the trust showed by their team mates helped or not and made them feel better with that stimulation.

A child will play the interviewer, the winners will be the interviewees and the rest of the class will become the audience.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They felt safe and confident.
They needed a lot of help to feel safe and confident.
The group showed the competitors their trust in them.
The group stimulated the competitors.

ACTIVITY No 5
"A PRIZE FOR THE BEST STORIES"

Summary of the activity: In this activity the educator will ask the children to make up their own stories from a main idea proposed by him and then the children will select the best ones.

Objectives: That the children recognize the value of mutual role in personal relationships.

Procedures:
• Story
• Conversation

Material Resources: Key phrases for the stories, tokens for the best stories and a cassette recorder.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator will invite the children to prepare stories about what happened in the main race and for them they should try to talk about the value of trust among team mates.

For the activity they will record their own stories and they will listen to them afterwards to compare them and talk about them.

2nd part
The children will record their stories and the best ones will be selected by a jury made up by some of the children. The winners will receive a token.

The educator will summarize the activity highlighting the value of mutual trust among team mates and how that trust appears in most of the stories created by the children.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They prepared coherent stories, adjusting to the topic and key phrase provided.
They needed help to prepare a coherent story and to adjust to the topic and key phrase provided.
They understood the importance of mutual trust among team mates.
They were able to create stories with a content related to mutual trust.
They thought of actions of support and mutual trust in their activities in the center.

ACTIVITY No 6
CRITICAL EXPERIENCE FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE BLOCK
"HOW IS OUR GROUP?"

Summary of the activity: We will talk about the relations of trust among the members of the group. This activity will serve as a critical experience to evaluate the block.

Objectives:
• To verify if there are relations of mutual trust among the members of the group.
• To verify how well have the children understood the notion of mutual trust.

Procedures:
• Conversation
• Questions by the educator

Material Resources: Cassette recorder.

Development of the activity:
Under the guidance of the educator, the children will analyze the relationships within the group:
• How do they relate to each other during play and in classroom activities.
• If they help each other.
• If they trust each other in critical situations
• If they support each other when they have a difficult task
• If they can trust the efforts done by others when doing an activity
• If they ask others for help

The educator will guide the children so that no one feels hurt during the discussion.

The important point is that the children become aware of how they have to analyze their relationships so that they become stronger every day and to determine how they can improve them.

In the group discussion each child should reach his own conclusions and the educator will make generalizations to help the children internalize what is mutual trust.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
The children demonstrated some knowledge on how relations of mutual trust among the group should be.
The children had very little knowledge on how relations of mutual trust among the group should be.
They were able to properly analyze their own relationships with the other members of the class.
They thought about assuming these behaviors in their daily lives at the early childhood center.
They were able to describe actions of mutual trust in their relationships with others.