Methods for Motivating Kids' 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.

Ask, “What is one thing you don’t like to do?” Have kids turn and talk to a partner to share their dislike. Revisit at the end of the lesson to have kids rework this dislike with how they could change their view on this.

How Can Kids Motivate Their Mood?

Three sets of slides give examples of kids turning an “I won’t” mood into an “I will” mood. 

Draw students’ attention to the choices each kid can make: Anna can stay upset or re-energize with dance and music; Liam can stay sad or relax with a book; Gemma can stay bored or play outside.

Teach Kids to Self-Talk

Key points:

• You can motivate your mood with self-talk. Thoughts like “I can’t," or “It’s too hard," or “I don’t want to,” are examples of thoughts that make it hard for you to do things that are good for your body and brain.
• You can take charge of your mood and motivate your "I Won't" to "I Will" and make a fit choice.

Help Kids Turn Their Mood Around

Ask students to share what they will do the next time they need to motivate their mood.What will they talk themselves into doing?

• A move choice?
• A recharge choice?
• A combination of fit choices?

Option: Students record their ideas on the Healthy Choices printable.

Today we learned about using positive self-talk to motivate mood. Next we will learn about the many choices you can make when you decide to motivate your mood.