Helping Kids Make Choices That Result in Positive Moods

Students have learned that feelings and emotions put them in a mood. For example, feeling excited or cheerful puts you in an “I will” mood, while feeling frustrated or grumpy translates to an “I won’t” mood. These lessons create awareness about what it means to “Motivate Your Mood.” Students will learn about using positive self-talk to explore options to motivate their mood, such as recharging their energy, getting active, doing a fun activity, and/or doing something with a friend.

Have kids brainstorm a list of 5 things that they usually don’t want to do. After creating the list, have kids turn and talk to a partner about motivating one of the don’t want to statements into a positive statement. Example, I don’t want to eat broccoli changes to vegetables are healthy food choices.

Motivate Kids to Make Better Choices

Ask students to think about the times you've said, "I don't want to..." What were you feeling when you said you didn't want to do things?

Help Kids Make Healthy Choices

Discuss different feelings and emotions that can put you in an “I Will” or an “I Won’t” mood.

Remind students that by doing a fit-check they can talk themselves into making healthy choices.

Help Kids Regulate Mood

Ask students to think about a time when they said, "I don't want to." or "I Won't." Did they talk themselves into making a healthy choice?

Students recall times when they, or their friends, fell under an "I don't want to" spell.

Today we talked about what to do about an "I don't want to" or  “I won’t” mood. Next we will learn more about how to motivate mood.