Martch 2nd - 6th

This week, we continued examining our emotions and how they affect our lives by identifying unhelpful thinking styles, which is a concept I borrowed from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques. If you'd like to see the list, as well as useful descriptions, click here.

I created several games and activities that allowed the students to reflect on their own thinking and name which ones they use. The first activity was a simple matching game. The students found it rather difficult, but it led to insightful conversations about how the same thoughts could fall into several different thinking style categories.

 
The next activity built on the matching game and is based on an idea presented at one of SCMS's professional development days. I created three posters, each with one statement. The students were instructed to walk to each poster and guess which thinking style was being used.

I also created a quiz game so the students could strengthen their understanding of the thinking styles. The kids really enjoyed playing. Moreover, they loved discussing why some thoughts were categorized as one thinking style as opposed to another and we had fabulous debates.

This was an extremely productive week for the YESS participants. Now that the students know how to identify their unhelpful thinking styles, I'm looking forward to guiding the kids through ways to challenge their unhelpful thoughts.