As a teacher, you get all of the opportunities to help your students learn and grow in their character development. Helping them grow in these areas can help give them confidence in themselves and also contribute to a healthy classroom community.
Self-awareness is the ability to recognize your own thoughts, values, emotions, and how these factors can influence behaviors. Students who build their self-awareness can recognize their own strengths, have an accurate self-perception, identify emotions in themselves and others, and have a strong sense of self-confidence. Those are some amazing qualities to have in young children! I have noticed the sooner they start strengthening these skills, the fewer negative behaviors I see in my classroom!
Here are a few Social Emotional Learning lessons you can apply in your classroom for this specific character development. All of these lessons come in a week long unit with 5 15-minute lessons with a mentor text of the week, drawing/writing prompts, video clips, activities, detailed lesson plans, and a home connection page to include parents in the teaching.
In this lesson, your students will learn that it is okay to be different! Their personalities reflect who they are and it is important to celebrate those unique qualities. Children grow up slowly hearing that their differences may be weird or less than acceptable. NOW is the perfect time to teach them to embrace those qualities and gain self-confidence as well as celebrate their peer’s uniqueness. You can also add in important lessons like treating others with kindness while you are discussing this subject.
The perfect tag along for talking about differences is how each person has their own special talents. Your students will learn how they can use their special abilities to help others. This unit encourages your students to stay true to themselves and to follow their own paths. You can help your students to see their abilities as useful and purposeful.
In my opinion, one of the most important self-awareness traits you can teach a child is to be positive. It sounds so simple, but it affects everything around them. If a student is having trouble with their work, remind them to have a positive mindset towards learning even when it’s hard. When they get frustrated because nothing seems to be going right, you can help them understand what they can and can’t control. This lesson is vital to every classroom to show children how their attitude influences their behavior and their environment.
Everyone, even young children can struggle with feeling the pressure of being “perfect” or at least pressured to meet certain standards. This can have negative impacts on a child’s self-esteem. In this lesson, your students will learn that their imperfections are not only okay but are what make them who they are. They will learn that they don’t have to fit into a certain box to succeed. This is a great reminder to students as they navigate the world of education that includes tests and important benchmarks.
At any point throughout the school year, you may, unfortunately, encounter a student that has been labeled a “bad seed.” This SEL unit is great for each student, but can really hit home for a few children who may have had a difficult run. This lesson includes a story that represents a “bad seed” and how they found that even though they come from bad circumstances they can still make better decisions and be good. They will also learn how to find goodness in all situations.
As you work with young children, I’m sure you’ve heard your fair share of complaining that they want what the other person has or something isn’t fair. It is a timeless re-enactment every year to have at least one argument between students to start off with, “Hey! That’s not fair!” One thing you can do to reduce this is to share this lesson on what is fair and what is equal. Your students will focus on how they can be thankful for what they are given.
Here is the GOAT! Have you ever thought of yourself as a broken record? Students now probably don’t know where this phrase originally came from, but they at least know we are frustrated when we say it! We don’t want to feel like we are repeating ourselves ten times in one minute! This unit talks about how your students can be good listeners as well as great talkers. It teaches them the 6 aspects of being a good listener and WHY it is important to be an effective listener at home and at school.
Yes! Every single lesson here is in a bundle of joy with a perfectly tied bow on top waiting for you to pick it up! You can get all of these in one unit of 7 weeks worth of self-awareness. Each lesson comes with a detailed lesson plan to make planning period easier for you and the short sessions flawless. This bundle is designed to help you launch your class to success with their Character Education Skills!
Pick up this bundle and more at my shop, here!
