Third graders wrapped up their first developmental guidance unit by working in teams to either make superhero or villain choices, and see how these decisions affected their ability to be responsible students. Using their knowledge of favorite characters, students agreed that superheroes solve problems, work towards good, and help their communities. Villains, on the other hand, create problems, make unsafe choices, and hurt their communities. We talked about how a change in our emotion zone, like feeling frustrated with a new topic in math, can be a problem for us as learners. Hero teams worked together to use coping skills to be in charge of their emotion zones and make decisions they felt proud of. Villain teams worked together to make choices that showed they were not in control of their emotions, and often created problems for the people around them. We reflected on how making villain choices can eventually affect us in other areas - losing privileges, causing friends to feel frustrated, and even making a trip to see the principal! Everyone did a great job thinking about why we need to be aware of our emotions, and use our skills to be in charge of them so we can be great learners and friends.
I will be back to visit our third graders again in the second half of the year, after our holiday break! Seems like a ways away, but time will fly! Until then, I will continue to work with third grade students during lunch bunch and through other group support when needed.