What Would You Do?

TOPIC: Choices about feelings and behaviors

CONCEPT: The ability to control one's feelings and manage one's behaviors is essential to social competency and bonding, which are protective factors that offset risks for children.

OBJECTIVE: Students listen to the teacher read aloud simple situations, name the feeling they think they would feel and state what they would do if they were in that situation.

GRADE LEVEL: K - 2nd

ACTIVITY: Print out worksheet (follow this link and print page). Discuss feelings; explain that everyone has lots of different feelings. Name the feelings of happy, sad, lonely, surprised, scared or afraid, disappointed, ashamed and mad or angry. As you name each feeling, ask the students if they like to have that feeling or don't like to have that feeling. Discuss how we all have feelings we don't like to have. Everyone, even adults get happy, sad, lonely, surprised, scared, disappointed, ashamed or angry. We are all responsible for our words and actions, even when we have feelings we don't like to have. Explain that when some people have feelings they don't like, they try to give them to someone else... like when someone says mean things or does mean things when they are angry or mad. Giving away feelings we don't like doesn't make them go away. We still have them, but more people have feelings they don't like. What if everyone did that? Explain that the way to get rid of feelings we don't like is to do something that gets us feelings we like. When we are sad or lonely or mad or afraid or disappointed or ashamed, we can tell someone we trust how we feel and ask them to help us feel better. That way we can get rid of the feelings we don't like to have without giving them to others. Everyone gets feelings they like to have! Discuss who they could tell about their feelings.

POST-TEST: Read the situations (see link above) aloud and for each situation, ask the class:

• What feeling do you think you would be feeling if that happened to you?

• Is it a feeling you like to have? Or, is it one you don't like to have?

• What would you say or do if this happened to you?

DISCUSSION: After the "Post-Test", ask, "Do some feelings look alike?" (Sad, lonely and ashamed often do.) Explain that even when we think we know what a person's body and face are saying, we cannot be sure. We must always ask how the person is feeling to be sure. What might happen if we thought someone was feeling one feeling, but they were feeling another? We might behave in a way we thought was the best way to behave... like leaving a person alone when we thought they were angry, but instead they were lonely. What might they think if they were lonely and we just left them alone? We could hurt someone's feelings.