Unit 3: Thoughts, Emotions & Decisions

January 18 - March 8

Lesson 14: Emotions Matter

In this lesson, students will learn how their brain handles strong emotions and brainstorm positive and negative decisions they might make when they feel a strong emotion.

You Can Try This at Home

Ask your child about a negative decision they recently made because they were feeling a strong emotion. Help them think about how they can turn that negative decision into a positive one if they feel that emotion again.

Lesson 15: Feel, Think, Do

In this lesson, students will distinguish thoughts from emotions. They will also analyze how emotions affect their thoughts, and how their thoughts can influence the decisions they make.

You Can Try This at Home

Ask your child to explain the difference between an emotion and a thought. Take turns expressing sentiments aloud and having the other person identify if the sentiments are thoughts or emotions. (For example, Emotion: “I’m so mad at the coach for not putting me in the game.” Thought: “That’s it—I quit!”)

Lesson 16: Unhelpful Thoughts

In this lesson, students will distinguish between helpful thoughts, which are thoughts that can help them make good decisions, and unhelpful thoughts, which are thoughts that can lead to negative decisions.

You Can Try This at Home

Tell your child about a helpful thought you recently had and the decision you made because of it. Ask them to share a helpful thought they had as well. If they can’t think of anything, point out something positive they did recently and help them identify the thought that went along with it.

Lesson 17: Reframe the Situation

In this lesson, students will learn ways to reframe a situation by turning unhelpful thoughts into helpful thoughts.

You Can Try This at Home

Ask your child to explain the difference between helpful and unhelpful thoughts. Tell your child about an unhelpful thought you had today and how you were able to change it to a helpful thought. Ask your child if they had an unhelpful thought and how you can support them in changing it to a helpful thought.

Lesson 18: Practicing Positive Self-Talk

In this lesson, students will practice a strategy called positive self-talk to help them reframe challenging situations.

You Can Try This at Home

Ask your child to explain what “negativity bias” is. Share with each other one or more good things that happened today.

Lesson 19: Making Better Decisions

In this lesson, students will share strategies for how to interrupt unhelpful thoughts and manage strong emotions with their peers by creating a comic strip.

You Can Try This at Home

Ask to see your child’s comic strip. If they don’t have the comic strip, ask them to explain it to you.

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Phone 402-238-3044| Fax

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