Tuesday: Transition from last week's theme (no bullying) to this week's theme. My group LOVES videos. They are the most attentive when I break the iPad out and show them something on YouTube. This short from Pixar has some bird bullying and then their reaction to anger is one that does not produce a desired result. Adorable and open-ended. I give very little guidance at the beginning of processing projects and activities as I like to see where the kids take it first.
We will then define anger and discuss the importance of learning conflict resolution skills. We will connect skills that we often use that can be used as conflict resolution skills, like iContact and iMessage. We will connect different levels of frustration tolerance to filling up different sized buckets. Our goal this week will be to make our bucket a little bigger and to chose how we empty our water.
Wednesday: Anger Map and Triggers. What makes us mad? What fills up our bucket? Complete and share an anger map to gain insight and to practice communication skills.
Thursday: Reaction Mapping. The kids love this exercise. I roll out the butcher paper and draw the outline of a huge PlayStation controller. They then decide how to direct a character to react to anger. Every button = a reaction. I usually to groups of 3-4 so they can share their creations with the group. I enjoy displaying the end result so that I can refer to them... just in case conflict occurs. I can empower them to choose which reaction from their controller that they want to use at that time. Some of the reactions are positive and some are negative. All have a consequence.
Click for link to example via Pinterest (This is a test taking strategy poster, but it is where I originally got the idea for the activity. I just free hand the outline and leave the rest up to the kids!)
Friday: Apologies and making it right! I created an adaptation of the below apology form for my group this summer and it was a huge hit (I obviously deleted the "I was drunk" portion). What I like about it is that it gets to kids to think about their behavior, reaction, and another's response in a sequential way.
When kids are ready to "say sorry" I say... Well, thats a good start. This helps really mend and add some humor to the art of apologizing. It walks kids through who was involved, when it happened, what they did, how it was portrayed (behavior, words, action, inaction... this may be my favorite part!!), WHY it happened, and at the bottom it states; "this note represents my awareness that my words or actions in some way upset, hurt, or otherwise alienated you. In light of this understanding, I __ WILL ___ WILL NOT do it again." We have used these in group since July. I encourage clients to use them with kids, grown ups, siblings, teachers, staff, bus drivers, anyone who they want to express themselves to. Many of my families use these in their homes as well. Most importantly, it builds empathy. Beautiful.
I feel like I wrote a lot, but these are my notes for leading group this week. Things can get pretty hectic around children so I like to have my curriculum pretty well laid out. However, some of the best groups are when I throw the plan out the window and go where the kids need to go that day :)
"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."
Philippians 2, 3-4
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