Supplies
- No supplies needed
Skill Builder
Lesson
- Ask if anyone knows what self-control is. Allow a few students to answer.
- Explain self-control as being able to stop yourself from acting on your impulses or what your emotions are telling you to do.
- Talk about how being in control can be hard sometimes. Discuss how sometimes we just get the urge to do something without thinking about it.
- Allow students to share a time they did something without thinking and what the result was.
- Tell the group we have an easy way to remember to stay in control. Review the Control Check Skill Builder.
Control what I think
My mind is clear and focused
Control what I say
My words are gentle and kind
Control what I do
My actions are calm and kind.
- Remind students there are many times we do things without thinking. Allow them to share some examples.
- Examples: hitting or teasing someone back, taking something that doesn’t belong to you — like candy or money, talking back to an adult, etc.
- Have students think about the list of examples and then discuss how a Control Check could help in those situations. Be prepared to guide the conversation a bit, to keep students on track.
- Remind students even though it’s easy to just do what you want to do without thinking, it’s important you stop and do a Control Check before just reacting to certain situations so you can control yourself to have a much better day.
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- What were some of Melvin’s initial reactions when he didn’t get the same cookie as his sister, win a game, or get a dinosaur backpack? What are some examples of what his reactions should have been if he were doing a control check?
- What was Melvin’s sister’s reaction when he chose the movie? What did she think, say, and do?
- What did Melvin want to think, say, and do when his parents wanted to enforce the same rule at home as his teacher?
Activity-Blank Stare
- Have students stand or sit in two lines facing each other.
- On “Go,” have each pair stare at one another until one student blinks, laughs, or looks away.
- Remind the students throughout this game, that they need to practice being in control, and review the Control Check Skill Builder.
- After each round, have the last student on one side move to the opposite end of the line and the others on that same side slide down one person so students get new partners and play again.
- This continues until any student spells the word C-O-N-T-R-O-L.
- You can make this more challenging by:
- Having pairs do a beat while they stare
- Playing loud music as a distraction to sing or dance
- Telling jokes to the students
- Playing a funny video
- Announcing different body movements they must do
- Having them balance on one foot throughout
