Lesson Overview

Developmental Learning Target

• Students will be able to recognize and name their own basic emotions and how they are linked to behavior.
• Students will be able to identify sources of stress (e.g., losing a game, being left out, etc.)

Lesson Topic(s)

Identifying and naming simple emotions that people experience.

Predict possible stressors that influence emotions and behavior. (cause/effect)

Students will compare and classify behaviors.

Relevance of Lesson

Understanding and managing emotions is part of a key set of skills that involves knowing your emotions, how to manage them, and ways to express them constructively.  This enables one to control impulses, handle stress, and motivate oneself to persevere in overcoming obstacles to achieve goals.

Learning Intention

1. I can identify simple emotions and link them to behaviors they may produce within myself.
2. I can predict possible stressors and how they influence behaviors.

Success Criteria

I will know I am successful when…

• I can identify simple emotions
• I connect which simple emotions may incite possible expected and unexpected behaviors.
• I can identify sources of stress and which simple emotions they may cause.

UT Portrait of a Graduate Purpose Competency

• Lifelong Learning and Personal Growth
• Hard Work and Resilience
• Wellness

CSD Strategic Initiative Tie-In

Human-Centered Supports: CSD will implement tiered systems to support the social, emotional, and mental well-being of students, and that foster honesty, integrity, responsibility, hard work, resilience, lifelong learning, personal growth, service and respect.

Essential Vocabulary

Simple emotions, happy/glad, mad, sad, afraid, disgusted, surprised, excited, stubborn, positive, negative, predict, cause and effect.

Mad - when you feel upset or angry

Sad - when you feel unhappy

Happy/Glad - when you feel joy

Afraid - when you feel fear

Disgust - when you feel a strong dislike

Surprise - when you feel caught off-guard

Excited - when you feel really happy about something

Stubborn - not willing to accept change or help

Positive - something that is good or helpful

Negative - not helpful

Predict - think or tell something will happen

Cause and Effect - something that makes something else happen

Materials

Projector for showing website

Teaching Notes

This lesson involves predicting emotional influence on behaviors. The goal is to have students recognize that current thoughts lead to emotions that lead to specific behaviors; positive or negative.

Lesson

Greeting

2

minutes

Elbow Rock Greeting (p. 75 of the Morning Meeting Book by Roxann Kriete)

1. Teacher models: Turn to student on his/her left. “Good morning, _______!”
2. Student responds: “Good Morning, Mrs. Gonzalez!”
3. Teacher links elbows with student to do an “elbow shake” – like shaking hands, but with elbows.
4. Student turns to the person on his/her left to continue greeting.

Sharing

5

minutes

Ask your students to name simple feelings, and write them on the board (somewhere they will be visible while projecting video).

You should end up with at least: Happy/Glad, Sad, Mad, Afraid

Explain that depending on the situation and expectations, your thoughts can make these feelings happen, and in turn, those feelings influence your behavior.

Remind them of Riya and Ollie from lesson 2.

“Their feelings affected their behaviors, in both positive and negative ways. It was their choice of how to behave with their feelings that matters, in the end. Having feelings is natural and normal, but what we do with them is crucial for our good health, good decisions, and the best interactions with others.”

“When an action or an event makes something else happen, it is called “Cause and Effect”. An example is “the cause is I bring a snowball into the house, what will the effect be?” (melting).

Now, what effect might the snow melting cause? Will it be a problem? Will the outcome be a positive one, meaning good, or a negative one, meaning bad? (wet floor, upset parent, negative.)

“Would it be safe to say that making the parent upset about a wet floor could have been avoided by not bringing the snow in the house? “

“Why would someone take a snowball inside the house? (take responses) What feeling do you think they had when they decided to take it inside? (happy/glad/excited). Yes! I do not think that someone took it inside because they were mad, sad or afraid. I think they were happy/glad, and with their excitement, they didn't think about the positive or negative effect that the snowball would cause”.

“What if you brought in a snowball, to place in a plant in your house? The cause would be the snow melting into water, and the effect would be it watering the plant. That would have a positive effect.”

Now we are going to look at 2 different student situations, and how their thinking changed their behavior and how they dealt with their problem, in a positive or negative way.

(You can read the text on these photos directly, link is to the higher resolution version. When finishing each situation's solution, inquire if their behavior is positive or negative.

Situation 1 (Reference: frontiersin.org)

Situation 2 (Reference: frontiersin.org)

“You can see that each student had simple feelings, but they decided how to behave with those feelings.

Learning Activity

12

minutes

Tell the students they are going to be “Emotion Scientists”.

“We are going to analyze someone’s feelings, by observing their facial expressions and their actions.  We will infer why they may be feeling that way, and talk about the possible ways it may affect their behavior. “

Start the video: Get to Know Your Feelings (2:42)

Here are the feelings and possible discussion points for each:

1. Content

1. Positive effect on behavior: they have low energy so paying attention is easy.
2. Negative effect on behavior: they have low energy so trying something difficult or that takes extreme focus may not be easy. (comfort zone)

1. Surprised

1. Positive effect on behavior: they have high energy so they may need to settle down to pay attention.
2. Negative effect on behavior: they have high energy so they may not be able to settle down and pay attention.

2. Happy

1. Positive effect on behavior: they have high energy levels, so paying attention is easy.
2. Negative effect on behavior: they have high energy so trying something difficult may not be easy.

3. Sad

1. Positive effect on behavior: very low energy so being quiet is easy.
2. Negative effect on behavior: very low energy so paying attention is difficult.

4. Mad

1. Positive effect on behavior: very high energy so being active is easy.
2. Negative effect on behavior: very high energy so listening, communicating with others, and being quiet may be difficult.

5. Disgusted

1. Positive effect on behavior: medium energy so listening and active may be easy.
2. Negative effect on behavior: medium energy and a bit mad, so focusing may not be easy.
3. “What other simple emotions do you think combine to make disgusted? (mad + surprised)

6. Stubborn

1. Positive effect on behavior: low energy so easy to keep to yourself, focus.
2. Negative effect on behavior: low energy so being engaged may be difficult.
3. “What other simple emotions do you think combine to make stubborn? (Mad + sad)

7. Afraid

1. Positive effect on behavior: high energy so movement and engagement is easy.
2. Negative effect on behavior: high energy so focusing may not be easy.
3. “What other simple emotions do you think combine to make you afraid? (Sad + Surprised)

Message

1

minute

Final message:

Feelings are a natural part of having a brain. Many living things have feelings, many feelings, every single day. Our behavior is when we mix our feelings with our thinking. The cause is our feelings and thinking, and the effect is our positive or negative behavior.

It is important to remember that feelings are not positive or negative, it is their effect that matters to us, and how we use them, that matters for us and those around us at home, in school, and even while we play.

Daily Connection

Practice & Reinforce

Think A Louds:

Present and talk through explicit examples of choices of behavior that happen daily for students, that stem from simple feelings. Highlight both the possible positive choice and negative choice outcomes.

Application

Think A Louds for behavior will model the process of identifying feelings, analyzing possible outcomes, and initiating the choice.

These can be done with almost any situation throughout the day.

Reflection

You can model processing the result of your choice, after it is completed, focusing on the behavior outcome of choice.

This reflection allows students to see the whole process and reflect on the impact of their choices.