Overcoming Obstacles
Cooperation and Teamwork
One of Aesop's fables begins with a activity about cooperation and teamwork. Scholars listen carefully, taking note of the moral of the story. The class discusses their findings and why working with others makes work easier. Learners...
Overcoming Obstacles
Resolving Conflicts
Assist scholars in resolving conflicts with a lesson that starts with defining the terms, conflicts, and resolutions. Learners take their newfound knowledge to identify a conflict and list strategies to resolve it. Partners work together...
Overcoming Obstacles
Handling Peer Pressure
Class members participate in a discussion to identify all types of positive and negative peer pressure and brainstorm strategies to not give in to negative peer pressure. Scholars create a T-chart to record their observations. Pupils...
Overcoming Obstacles
Becoming a Good Friend
A lesson puts a spotlight on becoming a good friend. After pointing out TV friendships, scholars listen to several scenarios and discuss whether the characters exhibit good or bad friendly behaviors. Learners reflect on the friendships...
Overcoming Obstacles
Good Citizenship
An individual's background and experiences affect their worldview and interaction. In this lesson, scholars draw a pair of glasses with pictures of experiences they've been through, relate the responsibility to social media and the...
Overcoming Obstacles
Being Responsible
Responsible-decision making is the focus of the social-emotional learning lessons. After reading, The Ant and the Grasshopper: An Aesop Fable, scholars come up with six steps to take responsibility for their actions and then practice the...
Overcoming Obstacles
Becoming a Good Friend
A lesson focuses on the qualities of a good friend. Scholars discuss how to be a good friend and decorate a hand cutout to represent a high five of friendship. Small groups offer encouragement and give compliments to each other.
Overcoming Obstacles
Being Responsible
A lesson all about responsibility details the importance of building trust. Scholars discuss and create posters about responsibility and explore strategies to become more responsible. Peers work collaboratively to craft a rainbow of...
Overcoming Obstacles
Having a Positive Attitude
Through discussion and reflection, scholars discover what it means to have a positive attitude, that an individual can choose to stay positive, and discuss the benefits of a positive attitude. Learners listen to negative scenarios to...
Overcoming Obstacles
Integrity
A lesson plan showcases the character trait of integrity. Scholars define the term, discuss how having integrity means being trustworthy, that one can choose to have integrity, and the significance of looking at situations from other...
Overcoming Obstacles
Respect
A social-emotional lesson focuses on respect. Scholars define the term and puzzle out the word. Pupils give examples of respect they observe at home, at school, and in the community. Cards showcase scenarios in that participants identify...
Overcoming Obstacles
Resolving Conflicts
A activity about resolving conflicts guides young scholars through the process of identifying emotions and reflecting on the situation, all before taking action. The activity encourages class members to stay open-minded and listen to the...
Overcoming Obstacles
Cooperation
Young scholars practice cooperation by working together for a common cause. After a short demonstration, learners fill in a T-Chart describing how cooperation looks and sounds. Small groups work together to pick up tiny beads and put...
Overcoming Obstacles
Kindness
Encourage kindness with a lesson plan that defines kindness, asks scholars how to show kindness, and share how others have shown them kindness. Multiple activities prove that kindness is easy to give through coloring, storytelling, a...
Overcoming Obstacles
Self-Control
A lesson uses a stop light to assist young scholars in using self-control. After the class defines self-control and how it boosts responsibility and independence, they practice a breathing exercise to reflect on their behavior. Learners...
Overcoming Obstacles
Coping Skills
A lesson brings awareness to a variety of emotions. After discussing the many types of emotions, scholars create a list sorting emotions as easy and hard and then brainstorm coping skills. Pupils draw a picture depicting a scenario that...
Overcoming Obstacles
Fairness
Fairness is the subject of a lesson designed to boost relationship skills and social awareness. Class members discuss that fairness is getting what you need when needed, differences are okay, and review classroom rules to identify their...
Overcoming Obstacles
Listening
Young scholars boost communication skills with a instructional activity that explores what it looks like to listen with the whole body. Through modeling and practice, pupils observe what it looks like and then practice. A friendly game...
Scholastic
Stressed Out?
Provide tweens and teens with information they need to know about stress with an article that details how stress affects various organs in the body. The article also offers tips for healthy ways to cope with stress.
Cultures of Dignity
Equity and Equality Lesson
Equality does not equal equity and this lesson explains why. Class members compare two images--one labeled "Equality" and the other "Equity." Using the provided discussion questions, they then develop definitions that distinguish between...
Purdue University
Exploring Whirligigs
What's that silly thing spinning in the wind? It's a whirligig! Explore wonderful windy whirligigs with a STEM-based unit that teaches the science and concepts behind these gigs. Scholars discover how gravity and air resistance...
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art
Can Girls Do That?
Why be limited by stereotypes? Young scholars examine a series of works of art, list the different ways boys and girls are represented, and then discuss the common stereotypes found in the works. They then search for art that does not...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: "When Fannie Lou Hamer Said" by Mahogany L. Browne
After watching an excerpt from a video of Fannie Lou Hamer's testimony before Congress, pupils do a close reading of Mahogany L. Browne's poem "When Fannie Lou Hamer Said," annotate words and phrases that draw their attention and list...
Academy of American Poets
Teach This Poem: "Alice Paul" by Katharine Rolston Fisher
Powerful women need not look like Wonder Woman. After writing a paragraph about a strong woman they know, young scholars examine images of Alice Paul and then do a close reading of Katharine Rolston Fisher's poem "Alice Paul." Finally,...