Students will identify strong emotions and explore these deeper with their Feelings Wheels. Building off of the Feelings Wheel, this lesson allows students to personalize their emotional development by hearing from one another and reflecting on how each of them may experience some common strong emotions. The lesson wraps up discussing mindfulness as a tool for managing strong emotions in a healthy way and the importance of seeking help when strong emotions become overwhelming.
This lesson will serve as the foundation for the emotional awareness and self regulation work that makes the You Belong Here curriculum unique. This lesson is most effective when students contribute their own ideas and are engaged at a high level.
Students will reference their Feelings Wheel Handouts throughout the lesson and should have them available at the start of the lesson. Be sure to collect them at the end of the lesson or have students put them in a safe place for future use.
On Slide 9, students will participate in a group activity. The lesson plan suggests groups of four. Consider what group size will work best for your classroom dynamics. Each group needs one copy of the What Makes Us Feel… Handout. There are six Strong Emotion Cards and can be doubled to accommodate class size. Alternatively, you can verbally assign groups a strong emotion rather than handing out a card.
Students will create another strip for their placemats. Distribute one Blank Sentence Starter to each student. Students will write in an example of positive self-talk on their strip. Have students write their names on the back and hand back in. Students will not weave these strips during this lesson.
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