TEACHER: Morning everyone.
CLASS: Morning.
TEACHER: Right! Everyone OK? OK, this morning I was having breakfast and I was listening to a radio programme, and they were talking about what kids used to believe when they were little. It was really interesting! And I started to think about when I was a kid, and I remembered that when I was a little girl, every night I used to plug something in to all the electrical sockets in my bedroom. I thought that if I didn't, the electricity would come out of the holes during the night, and I'd get ill. I used to plug in different things all around the room so that I didn't get sick!
GIRL: Really, Miss? Did you really use to do that?
TEACHER: Yes, it's true – honestly! So, I thought it might be fun today to start our lesson, just a few minutes, talking about the things we used to believe when we were kids.
ALEX: We still are kids, Miss.
TEACHER: Come on, Alex, you know what I mean! I mean when you were little kids. Did you use to believe strange things? Anyone? Yes, Sarah!
SARAH: Well, when I was a kid, about five I guess, I thought the moon was really beautiful, and I used to look at it for hours. And, you know how the moon looks white sometimes, well, for some reason I thought it was white because it was afraid of me! So I used to laugh at it and call it names!
TEACHER: You thought the moon was scared of you?
SARAH: That's right. I guess I remembered cartoons where people go white in the face when they're scared, maybe that's why.
TEACHER: OK, Sarah, thank you. That's a really nice story. Who's next? Yes, come on, Alex.
ALEX: Well, Miss, this is actually about my grandfather, not me.
TEACHER: OK. That's fine. Tell us.
ALEX: I remember my grandfather said that when he was a kid, he noticed how when you stand on a water hose, the water stops coming out of it. And so he used to be scared of standing on a wire or cable, because he thought that the electricity would stop!
TEACHER: Oh, nice one. So, if you stand on a wire, there's no more electricity?
ALEX: Yes.
TEACHER: OK, thanks, Alex, that's a good one. Anyone else? Hands up! Yes, Martin, off you go.
MARTIN: Well, my family used to have an apple tree in the garden, so we didn't use to buy apples, we always had apples from our tree, you know?
TEACHER: Right.
MARTIN: And we ate lots of apples. But I got this idea, I don't know where from, I really don't, anyway, I used to think that I mustn't eat the pips, the apple seeds.
TEACHER: Really? Why not eat the apple seeds?
MARTIN: Yeah, well, I used to think that if I got an apple seed in my stomach, then an apple was going to grow inside me!
TEACHER: Goodness! But now you know that's not true, right?
MARTIN: Of course!
TEACHER: Excellent. Great stories! So today we're going to think about ideas that people used to have in the past, ideas that we now know aren't true. OK?
GIRL: Like, people used to think that the Earth was flat, Miss?
TEACHER: Exactly. Now, can anyone think of more examples? Anyone? …
