Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

20 minutes

Part A: Emotions Check-in

20 minutes

Part B: Consequences Of Our Actions

20 minutes

Part C: Mindful Activities For Mental Stability

5 minutes

Reflection

Introduction

Step 1

Explain to students that this lesson is focused on Healthy Mindset. If your students are collecting Volkswagen Footy Fit Challenge Tokens, inform them that they can collect Healthy Mindset tokens by completing the activities in this lesson. Refer to the Volkswagen Footy Fit Challenge Scoring Framework for details. There will also be some extension activities they can complete for extra tokens. They can refer to the Volkswagen Footy Fit Challenge Game Plan for more information.

Part A: Emotions Check-in

Step 1

Emotion charades: Ask a volunteer to stand before the class and silently act out an emotion. Ask the rest of the class to observe their body language and facial expression. Ask the rest of the class to guess the emotion, and provide evidence for their guess. For example, “I think she’s angry because she’s stomping her feet, her fists are clenched and she’s grinding her teeth.” Keep guessing until the class finds the right answer.

It might be helpful to display this emotions table to inspire the actors:

Hurt	Disappointed	Amazed	Bored	Determined	Anxious
Loved	Surprised	Hopeful	Thankful	Lonely	Calm
Furious	Jealous	Miserable	Uncomfortable	Afraid	Frustrated
Rejected	Joyful	Embarrassed	Thrilled	Confused	Relieved
Scared	Ashamed	Proud	Worried	Shy	Betrayed
Excited	Unloved	Tense	Powerless	Ignored	Guilty

(Emotions list adapted from https://fusecontent.education.vic.gov.au/e4137fa2-f7fc-4f67-bdb0-80fb2624c64c/RRRR9and10.pdf)

Encourage discussion around the subtleties of emotion. How is angry different from frustrated?

Step 2

Ask students to imagine a time they were extremely angry. What were their internal sensations? Ask students to volunteer. Did they feel a tightness in their stomach? A heaviness in their chest? A heat in their cheeks?

Safety first: Make it clear to students that they don’t need to disclose anything about the situation they were in when they felt angry. This is simply an exercise in understanding the impact of emotions on our mind and body. If some students find any of these activities distressing, allow them to take some time out with a friend.

Step 3

Facilitate a class discussion about emotional responses. Our body often gives us these warning signs when we are becoming upset. It is important to notice these sensations early to avoid becoming too upset. Can students suggest ways to cope with these overwhelming emotions, such as going for a walk or practising breathing?

Step 4

Independently, students draw and label an emotional person, noting their body posture, actions, facial expression and things they might say. Encourage students to choose an upset emotion such as angry or sad, as we are trying to identify people who are in emotional distress. You might like to show them this Emotional Signals Man.

Safety first: Review the scenarios on the Emotional Speccy Worksheet before distributing to students. You might find it more appropriate for the class (or yourself) to create their own scenarios so as to avoid triggering students who are going through a tough time. Make sure that support is available for students who need it, or who consistently rank scenarios as likely to create an extremely intense emotional response. Child psychologists can be helpful in addressing anger and frustration at an early age, hopefully preventing the progression of these feelings into adulthood.

Step 5

Independently, students rank the emotional intensity of some scenarios by cutting and pasting the scenarios on the Emotional Speccy Worksheet. For example, “Dropping my food in the dirt” would be upsetting, but not require a very strong emotional response, whereas “A student hits me during recess” would be further up the intensity scale. Encourage students towards the understanding that not everything is the worst thing that has ever happened to them; there can be varying degrees of being upset.

Award one Healthy Mindset token upon completion.

Part B: Consequences Of Our Actions

Step 1

Facilitate a class discussion around really strong emotional reactions. Reassure students that it is totally understandable to feel really upset at times and that we might not always be in control of ourselves during these moments. However, remind students that there are always consequences to our actions and that their parents, the school and their friends all hold them accountable to a standard of behaviour. So whilst they may feel things strongly, it's important that they learn to monitor their actions.

Step 2

Work through the following example as a whole class, building an emotional vocabulary on the board as you go.

Describe this situation to the group:

“You are playing footy with your friends at recess. You think you’ve touched the ball before it’s gone through for a goal, but no one believes you and are stating the goal counts. You scream, cry and end up hitting your friend.”

Lead a discussion using the following prompts:

How are you feeling during the incident?
How are you feeling after the incident?
What impact do your actions have on your parents? How are they feeling?
What impact do your actions have on your friends? How are they feeling?
What impact do your actions have on your teachers? How are they feeling?

Encourage students to empathise with others and understand that their actions, whilst understandable, often have far-reaching consequences for them and how they are perceived by society.

Step 3

Ask students for suggestions on how they could have handled the situation better, or ways they can remain in control during highly emotional and stressful situations.

Step 4

Work through the example again, this time with a positive and in control response:

“You are playing footy with your friends at recess. You think you’ve touched the ball before it’s gone through for a goal, but no one believes you and are stating the goal counts. Whilst upset, you decide to take a walk. You’re upset for a while, but eventually you forget about the game and play on the playground instead.”

Lead a discussion using the following prompts:

How are you feeling during the incident? (This may be the same as before.)
How are you feeling after the incident?
What impact do your actions have on your parents? How are they feeling?
What impact do your actions have on your friends? How are they feeling?
What impact do your actions have on your teachers? How are they feeling?

Encourage students to empathise with others and understand that having a positive impact on other people is something to be celebrated and proud of. Not only will it improve their relationships with others, but they will feel better about themselves as well.

Step 5

Hand out the Student Worksheet, directing students to the Consequences of My Actions activity. Invite students to work through the following scenarios independently, imagining the reactions of various groups to both the negative and positive responses to the situation and drawing them like a comic strip:

“During class, you are sharpening your pencils. You decide the bin is too far away and you want to keep talking with your friends, so you brush the sharpenings onto the floor. Later, the teacher keeps the whole class in at recess to clean the classroom.”

“During class, you are sharpening your pencils. You decide the bin is too far away and you want to keep talking with your friends, so you brush the sharpenings onto the floor. Later, the teacher keeps the whole class in at recess to clean the classroom. However, you tell the teacher it was you who made the mess so only you should have to clean it up.”

Students may use the blank template to create their own scenario and explore the consequences.

Award one Healthy Mindset token upon completion.

Part C: Mindful Activities For Mental Stability

Step 1

Play this video:

Yoga for Wellbeing (https://vimeo.com/674276262)

Invite students to reflect on what the yoga teacher said about high expectations and stress. You might like to use the following questions as prompts:

How does stress affect the body?
How does stress affect the mind?
Do you ever feel stressed because you can’t meet certain expectations?
What do you do to cope with your stress?

Step 2

Arrange the room so that students have enough space to stretch their arms and legs out wide without touching anyone else.

Make sure they are able to see and hear a screen. Play this video and invite students to follow along:

Be Positive: Shine Yoga with Hiro Landazuri - Free Kids Yoga (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOKKn7NERLo)

Step 3

Invite students to sit down where they are and chat with a partner about how they found the yoga moves and how they feel now.

Step 4

Play this video:

What is mindfulness? (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaRDbLWeSXE)

Extension opportunity: If your students are already familiar with mindfulness, play this video:
Brett Kirk on meditation and mental toughness in sport (for Smiling Mind) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yryv1r-xyps)

Step 5

Invite students to stand. Explain that they should remain quiet, and not touch or distract anyone else. They are going to practise moving mindfulness. Play this video or another Smiling Mind meditation using the app:

Anchor your mind with movement (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buPuB4Sa0zU)

Invite students to raise their hands and share their thoughts with the class. Lead a short discussion about how students feel about mindfulness and meditation practices.

Ensure students understand that yoga, meditation and mindfulness are all strategies that help the body and mind deal better with stress. This means that when they are practised over time, out of bounds reactions are far less likely to occur and healthy responses will be easier.

Step 6

Have students work independently to create a 30-second mindfulness practice that they could use to help calm them down.

Sit students in a circle and have them demonstrate their practice with the class. This is a great way for students to get inspired by new ideas.

Learning support: If this is too confronting for some students, they can show you privately or record a video or audio recording instead.

Award one Healthy Mindset token upon demonstration of their own mindfulness practice.

Reflection

Invite students to respond to the following using the Student Worksheet:

What are three actions I can take to cool off when my emotions are starting to get out of control?
- Take three deep breaths
- Walk away or go for a walk
- Tell someone (friends, teacher) that you’re starting to feel upset

Differentiated Learning

Extension

Using a digital device, students could turn their sliding doors comic into a short film.
Watch this video: How to Apologize (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3H_GgtE3Tc). Write a script, apologising for a time when you hurt someone else. Award one Healthy Mindset token upon completion.
Create a mindfulness routine to help you stay in control. You might decide to do meditation or yoga daily with your class! Create regular time for mindfulness activities and turn it into a routine. Earn one Healthy Habits token AND one Healthy Mindset token.

Provisions for Learning Support

Some students find it challenging to talk about their feelings and are easily triggered or shut down. You might consider using toys or ‘emotional dolls’ to help students express themselves. Creating a private den in the classroom with emotion cards they can leave at the entry, allows students to take much needed time out to calm down and work on their feelings.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching practice today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Footy Fit - Stay In Control

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