Supplies
- Bubbles
- Jenga blocks
- Music
Skill Builder
Lesson
- Recite the line from Words to Live By: “Life’s full of surprises that make feel different ways.” Ask students to think about this line and what it means. Allow a few students to share.
- Explain many times in life, little things happen that we don’t expect and lots of times these things cause us to feel negative emotions.
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- For example, you are planning to go to an amusement park, but you wake up and find out it’s raining so you can’t go.
- Ask students to share a time they had something unexpected happen, how they felt at that moment, and how they reacted.
- Explain sometimes when unexpected, negative surprises pop up it’s easy to lose control of your emotions. Discuss how losing control of your emotions can lead to negative consequences.
- Share that it is okay to feel negative emotions, but it’s not okay to lose control and act out in a way that could hurt others or damage things.
- Talk with students about the things that could happen if someone loses control of their emotions.
- Explain the Skill Builder, Reset & Relax. You’ve had a surprise happen, your emotions are all mixed up, and you’re upset—try some R & R.
Reset -> and determine what is really bothering you
Relax-> your mind and body to try to calm down
- Let students know using R & R will help them gain control of emotions and avoid any negative consequences that might happen.
Activity-Tumbling Towers
- Divide students into two teams.
- Let them know they will be working together to try and build the tallest tower. Tell them that there will be a variety of surprises that are going to occur during this challenge. Students must remember to utilize R & R during this activity.
- Evenly divide up the blocks amongst the two teams and tell the students how much time they will have for this activity.
- Throughout the activity provide different surprises like:
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- Blowing bubbles at the teams to make them distracted
- Removing blocks from their towers
- Playing loud music to make it more difficult to hear their teammates
- Making one team stop building for 30 seconds
- Instructing students to only use one hand to build for one minute
- At the end of time, announce the winning team, who has the highest tower.
- Ask the groups these follow-up questions:
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- What emotions did you feel during this challenge?
- Did anyone forget to R & R during this challenge?
- Was anyone able to use R & R to stay in control during this challenge?
