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Understanding Needs and Feelings

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Subjects

  • Health
  • Language Arts

Grade

  • 3-5

Brief Description

Students learn about needs and feelings, then write an ending to a story showing how a child deals with his or her needs and feelings.

Objectives

Students learn to understand their own needs and feelings and the needs and feelings of others.

Keywords

conflict resolution, writing, needs, feelings

Materials Needed

Several copies of "The Shy Girl" and "The Coward", pencils or pens

Lesson Plan

  • Discuss needs and feelings with students. Encourage them to share their own feelings in a variety of situations. You might ask, for example,
  • How do you feel when you're about to get on a roller coaster?
  • How do you feel just before you take a test?
  • How do you feel during a bad storm?
  • How do you feel when you eat ice cream?

and so on.
  • Arrange students into small groups, and provide each group with a copy of either "The Shy Girl" or "The Coward."
  • Have each group of students read the story together, discuss it, and complete the worksheet.
  • Bring the entire class together, and ask a volunteer from each group to read his or her group's ending to the assigned story.
  • Have students vote on the best ending for each story and talk about why they chose those endings.

Assessment

Students will be evaluated on correctly identifying needs and feelings, on the story endings they write, and on their ability to work together in a group.

Lesson Plan Source

Adapted from a lesson at Opening the Door to Nonviolence. The site, from the Electronic Resource Center, includes a number of lessons on cooperation, communication, and conflict resolution.

Submitted By

Linda Starr

National Standards

Physical Education and Health:
NPH-H.K-4.5

Language Arts:
NL-ENG.K-12.12