Elementary
School Guidance Lesson
Purpose:
Students will learn the dynamics of decision making and practice making
positive decisions.
1.
a.
Say to the students, “Today we are going to talk about making
decisions. Some decisions are big
and others are small. Sometimes
adults make the decisions for us and other times we need help from adults, like
when we need to buy a shirt, if we are going over to a friend’s house, etc.”
“We are going to start today by making a decision.
I am going to give you two choices.
If you decide on one choice you need to go to one corner and if you
decide the opposite you need to go to the opposite corner.”
[Or ask the students to stand up or sit down to choose the situation so
there is less movement in the class]. Ask
the students to stand up. State the
following scenarios…
“You have a choice…”McDonalds or Pizza Hut for
lunch. If you want McDonalds go by
the window & if you want Pizza Hut go to the other side of the room”.
Eating lunch from home or school
Staying inside to play or going outside
Jumping rope vs. kickball
Valleyfair or Camp Snoopy
Do you like to do things alone or in a group
Helping Dad inside the house or outside the house
b. Process
the activity: What decisions were
easy? Did you need help making the
decisions? Who can help? What made you choose jumping rope over kickball?
When your friend went to one side did that make you want to go over
there, too?
Summarize!
2.
The next
lesson is thinking about choices. Tell
the students it is important to think about our choices so we can make decisions
that are best for us.
Cut strips of paper in two different colors.
Pass out one piece of paper in one row.
In the next row pass out the other color.
Tell the “reds” that they are the “think students”.
And the “greens” are the “choose students”.
For a visual of the instructions make signs on larger pieces of
appropriate colored paper.
Read the following situations and provide time for
the “think and choose” partners to tell each other their answers.
Role model at the beginning. Share
responses at the end of some of the situations.
a.
One
evening after dinner Andy’s mother had to go to the grocery store.
She asked andy if he wanted to come with her or to stay home with
Grandma.
THINK students:
What are Andy’s choices?
CHOOSE students:
Which one would you choose?
b.
When it
was time for lunch at school, Ana saw that the cook had make a choice of fish
sticks or hamburgers.
THINK students:
What are Ana’s choices?
CHOOSE students: Which one would you choose?
c.
On
Saturday Dad asked Michelle to help out. He
said she could watch her baby brother or fold the laundry.
THINK students: What are Michelle’s choices?
CHOOSE students: Which one would you choose?
d.
Katie’s
aunt offered to read her a story. She
asked if Katie wanted to hear a story about dinosaurs, whales, or elephants.
THINK students:
What are Katie’s choices?
CHOOSE students:
Which one would you choose?
e.
Jerome
had to finish a worksheet for homework. Hid
dad said he could do it after school or after dinner.
THINK students:
What are Jerome’s choices?
CHOOSE students:
Which one would you choose?
3.
a.
Today we will look at helpful and harmful choices or when to “say
no”. Brainstorm a list of
“helpful and harmful choices” on the board.
If you have puppets/stuffed animals role play a
situation out, such as, a stranger at their door, sister asking you to ride your
bus on the highway, going to a friend’s house without asking your parents,
etc. Discuss different ways to say
“no”, such as “nope, no way. No,
I don’t want to because it’s not good to do.
No, because my parents don’t let me do that.
No, that would make me feel bad. No,
that will get us in trouble.”
Have the students make a puppet of themselves with
paper bags, constructions paper, markers, and paints. Or faster/more simple: make a copy of their faces from their
class pictures. Use popsicle sticks
for the students to glue their face on the end of the popsicle stick.
Provide the following scenarios on slips of paper.
Have the students work with a partner to role play what to do/how to say
No. The student can either role
play the scenarios or use the puppets to role play.
Discuss the activity, by asking different ways to say No.
What would happen if…”you would not take without asking”, etc.?
Scenarios:
Close
by reading the following scenarios and asking the students to say as a class
either “yes” or “no”. Use
your own puppets or the student’s new puppets.
“Let’s ride our bikes on the highway”
“I want you to take a bath after dinner.”
“Hey, kid, I have a new puppy at my house.
Would you like to some in and play with him?”
“Let’s leave school at recess and walk to my
house. Nobody’s home and we
4.
Play a
game called “What would you do if…” Have
the students sit in a circle. Toss
a small ball to each student…saying “what would you do if…”
with the scenarios from above.
5.
Read the
following story. Ask the students
to put their thumbs up if it is a HELPFUL decision or thumbs down if it is a
HARMFUL decision.
Marisa accidentally breaks a glass at home and cuts
her hand. She doesn’t want her
mom to know she broke the glass, so she decides not to tell anyone about the
cut.
Patty’s big sister usually takes care of her after
school, but today she isn’t there when Patty got home.
Patty waits for a few minutes and then decides to call her father at work
and tell him she is home alone.
When Ray and Jason are at the store, Ray slips a
candy bar in his pocket and motions for Jason to take one.
No one seems to notice and the store has lots of candy bars, so Jason
decides to take one, too.
On the way home from school Leroy and Ray pass an
old, empty house. It already had
one broken window, so Leroy wants to break some more. He tells Raymond it’s okay since no one lives there.
Ray decides to go on home.
Quest International, (1990).
Lions-Quest, Skills for Growing 537 Jone Rd. P.O. Box 566 Granville, OH
43023-0566. 1-800-446-2700.
For Further Information
Marilou Grundman
Professional School Counseling Program
Minnesota State University, Mankato