Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Tune In: Introducing Mufasa: The Lion King

20 minutes

Find Out: Identifying roles within a group

20 minutes

Take Action: How we influence our group

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

recognise that the members of groups play different informal roles
understand that group members can influence each other.

Success criteria

Students can:

describe some of the different roles in a group they belong to
explain how they are influenced by others in a group and what their own influence on the group might be.

Tune In: Introducing Mufasa: The Lion King

Step 1

Begin by sharing the following video with students:

Mufasa: The Lion King | Official Trailer - (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJwcDX-8Ytc)

Invite students to share what they think this movie is about.

You can use this synopsis to explain the plot of the movie:

“Mufasa: The Lion King” enlists Rafiki to relay the legend of Mufasa to young lion cub Kiara, daughter of Simba and Nala. The story introduces Mufasa as an orphaned cub, lost and alone until he meets a sympathetic lion named Taka - the heir to a royal bloodline. The chance meeting sets in motion an expansive journey of an extraordinary group of misfits searching for their destiny, and their bonds will be tested as they work together to evade a threatening and deadly foe.

Step 2

Explain to students that this movie is the latest in a series of movies about the Lion King:

The Lion King (1994)
The Lion King (2019)
Mufasa: The Lion King (2024)

All these movies tell the story of a male lion who needs to leave his family pride in order to start a new pride and become the Lion King. This is similar to what actually happens with lions in a pride. We call this ‘dispersal’.

Find Out: Identifying roles in a group

Step 1

Explain to students that the term ‘pride’ is the collective noun for a group of lions. This is a core group of related female lions, and 2 or 3 males with 1 dominant male. Prides can have more than 30 lions in them! You also can have a ‘coalition’, which is a group of 2 or 3 males who stick together. If a new coalition takes over a pride, the old coalition will leave together. Young males who leave the pride (disperse) will find other males and form a coalition.

Pose the question:

What do you already know about what life is like for a lion living in a pride?

Invite students to volunteer their answers before sharing the following video:

Why Do Lions Live in Groups? - (youtube.com/watch?v=YSuK5lg_6Cs)

Once complete, ask the question, ‘What does this video tell about what life is like for a lion living in a pride?’ Students might suggest:

everyone in the pride has a different role to play
the lioness’s job is to hunt or to look after the cubs in a ‘creche’ while the other lionesses hunt
the dominant lion sires the cubs, and the other lions help protect and defend the pride.

Step 2

Explain to students that, as we can see in this video, lions living in a pride all have a role to play, and all those roles are important in keeping the pride healthy and stable. This is the same for humans.

Read the following to students, or invite students to take turns to read a sentence each out loud:

We are all members of groups and have important roles to play in these groups.
These groups could be your class, your family, your friendship group, your performing arts group or your sports team.
Within each of these groups, we perform various roles.
Sometimes these roles are given to us, but other times we choose to take on these roles because they suit our values and help us feel like we are important to the group.
There are many different roles within a group.
You don’t always have to play the same role! Today you might take on the role of leader choosing what to do, but tomorrow you might be a carer looking after someone who needs help.
You can take on different roles with different groups. Maybe with your sports team you are the supporter of your captain, but with your friends, you’re the one who makes people laugh.

Step 3

Invite students to suggest group roles that they are aware of and record these on the board. They might suggest:

being an organiser or leader who always wants to make things happen
being a supporter of the organiser or leader and helping them to get stuff done
being someone who relieves tension by making others laugh
being a problem solver for issues that arise within the group
being an advocate for quieter group members by listening to everyone and always making sure that everyone’s voices are being heard
being a carer who is happy to look after the people who are struggling or who need help
being a rememberer who can always recall what happened at past group events
being the scribe who records group events (including by taking photos).

Learning extension: If students have seen Mufasa: The Lion King or the earlier Lion King movies, you can identify the roles played by the different characters. What role does Mufasa take on? What about Rafiki? How does Simba’s role change over time?

Step 4

Explain to your students:

In a lion pride, all group members are influenced by the other lions in their pride and the behaviours and roles that the other lions have adopted. This is particularly true for young lions. For young male lions, the lion ‘kings’ will show them how to behave in the group, and how to protect the pride from predators. The adult females will influence the roles young lionesses take on as adults, including hunting and forming strong bonds with other lionesses in the pride that keeps the group together.
Even as adults, they have roles to play. Females will ‘creche’ their young, where one or two lionesses look after the cubs while the rest of the pride goes hunting. The hunters know their cubs will be safe, and the carers know they will still get their share of the food.
Males in a coalition will stick together. When they join a pride, one will become the ‘king’, and the others will help protect the pride.
Just like lions, humans are influenced by the other members of the groups they belong to. But unlike lions, our roles aren’t determined by our age or gender. We can be influenced by the behaviours and values of anyone in our group, and our roles can change many times throughout our time spent with the group.

Take Action: How we influence our group

Step 1

Provide each student with a Student Worksheet and invite them to work independently to think about a group that they belong to - this could be their class, family, friendship group, performing arts group, sports team or any other group they are a part of.

They should then think about how this group influences them. Encourage students to focus on the whole group for now; they will have the chance to reflect on individuals later in this activity.

Being a part of this group makes me feel…

This group has influenced me by…

Step 2

They should then think about the person or people in this group who have the most influence on them, the roles these people take in the group and how their influence has affected them.

The person in this group who has most influenced me is…

The role they play in this group is…

The way they have influenced me is…

Step 3

Students will now think about the role they play in the group and the influence they have on the others in their group.

The role I play in this group is…

The way I contribute to the group is…

The influence I have had on this group is…

Literacy extension: Invite students to think about the collective nouns we use to describe groups of humans, for example, team, army, community, and group. Now look at some of the collective nouns for groups of animals (see here macquariedictionary.com.au/collective-nouns-for-animals/). The ones for animals are often much more descriptive than the ones for humans. But did you know that anyone can make up a new word? If the new word gets popular, a lexicographer might even add it to a dictionary. Can you make up a new collective noun for the group that you are part of that helps describe the ‘vibe’ of the group? Consider the word ‘pride’ for lions and how it helps explain their perceived character. This information could be added to the final slide or flashcard that students create about their group and the role they play in it.

Reflection

Invite students to discuss the following in pairs or small groups:

A role I would like to try in a group in the future is…
I would like to try this role because…

Taking Pride in Your Pride

Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables

Taking Pride in Your Pride

Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables