Thinking, Feeling, Behaving grades 1-6: An Emotional Education Curriculum for Children

Thinking, Feeling, Behaving is a comprehensive and easy-to-use curriculum based on the principles of Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy. It helps students learn to use positive mental health concepts in overcoming irrational beliefs, negative feelings and attitudes, and the negative consequences that may result.

Designed for use in the classroom or in small-group settings. This revision is packed with 105 creative and easy-to-do activities. The activities include games, stories, role plays, written exercises, brainstorming and art activities. Each activity is identified by grade level and categorised into one of five important topic areas: Self-Acceptance; Feelings; Beliefs and Behaviour; Problem Solving and Decision Making; and Interpersonal Relationships.

Reproducible forms and student handouts which appear in the book are available for download.

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Table of Contents

Grades 1-2

Self-Acceptance

1. People Hunt
2. People Poster
3. Can Do, Can’t Do
4. Changes, Changes
5. Oops!
6. Mistakes Mean…
7. Cool Cat

Feelings

1. Feel Wheel
2. We All Have Feelings
3. Where Do You Hurt?
4. Like ‘Em or Not
5. Express It!
6. I’m Afraid
7. Feeling Finders

Beliefs and Behavior

1. Fact or Fantasy
2. Choosing to Behave
3. Sensible or Not Sensible?
4. I Have to Have My Way
5. Exaggerations
6. Cause and Effect
7. Be a Fact Finder

Problem Solving/Decision Making

1. Decisions and Consequences
2. We Can If We Try
3. Big and Little Choices
4. Multiple Solutions
5. What Now?
6. Talking It Out
7. Be a Problem Solver

Interpersonal Relationships

1. People Sorting
2. What’s Inside?
3. Why Judge?
4. Hand Me Some Happiness
5. It’s OK to Goof Up
6. Plus or Minus Tac-Toe
7. Friendly Facts

Grades 3-4

Self-Acceptance

1. Just Different
2. Nobody Likes Me
3. Put-Downs
4. So They Say
5. I Can Try
6. Perfectly, Perfectly
7. Shapes and Sizes

Feelings

1. Face Your Feelings
2. I Think, I Feel
3. How Strong?
4. Thermometer of Emotions
5. I Feel, I Do
6. How Do You Feel?
7. Feelings-Go-Round

Beliefs and Behavior

1. Facts and Beliefs
2. Beliefs, Feelings, and Behaviors
3. Checking It Out
4. Stop, Go, and Caution
5. Options
6. It’s Awful!
7. Who Did It?

Problem Solving/Decision Making

1. What Happens When…
2. Once Upon a Time
3. For Better or Worse
4. The Ripple Effect
5. React and Respond
6. R and R
7. What’s the Consequence

Interpersonal Relationships

1. Judgment Machine
2. Face the Facts
3. Glad to Be Me
4. It’s Me!
5. One of a Kind
6. True Blue
7. Buddy or Bully

Grades 5-6

Self-Acceptance

1. Who Isn’t What?
2. I Am, I Do
3. Me Power
4. Voicebox
5. Performance Whee
6. Accept or Change
7. I’m Not My Mistakes

Feelings

1. They Made Me Feel
2. Help or Hinder?
3. Healthy/Unhealthy Expression
4. Changing Thoughts, Changing Feelings
5. How Might They Feel?
6. Feelings and Physical Reactions
7. Acting on Feelings

Beliefs and Behavior

1. Rational or Irrational
2. It’s Always
3. Shoulds, Shoulds, Shoulds
4. Rose-Colored Glasses
5. Consequences
6. Erase the Irrational
7. OSA

Problem Solving/Decision Making

1. Approach or Avoid
2. Assess the Decision
3. Yours vs. Mine vs. Ours
4. If I Say So
5. One Step at a Time
6. Goal for It
7. Dubious Decisions – Or Not?

Interpersonal Relationships

1. Choices, Choices Everywhere
2. Guessing Game
3. One Plus One
4. Say What?
5. Solve It
6. Tune It
7. Good Friends Should. . .

"It is critical for school districts to select a program that is empirically-based, cost-effective, and user-friendly. You will be delighted to know that Dr. Ann Vernon’s emotional education curriculum meet all of the above criteria. . . . Dr. Vernon presents a framework of emotional education with a total of 210 experiential activities that are applications of Dr. Albert Ellis’ rational emotive behavioral therapy. . . . I believe these two books are ideal for educators, counselors, and school psychologists who are looking for resources to foster healthy social and emotional development in their students."
- Tony Wu, NCSP, Communiqué, National Association of School Psychologists Newsletter

"Ann Vernon has developed a curriculum that provides school counselors with lessons on all different facets of social and emotional barriers. . . The author provides actual scenarios that students can understand and relate to. . . The curriculum embraces the goal of positive behavior and flexible thinking. Topics presented in the lessons reflect peer perception, cliques, transition issues, and social pressures. . . a great resource for school counselors."
- Deborah Hardy, New York State School Counselors Association Newsletter

"Because the activites were interest-provoking and different from much of the regular classroom curriculum, the students were enthusiastic about the sessions. It was also rewarding to see the ‘light bulb’ go on when students started taking ownership for their own thoughts and feelings and stepping out of the victim role."
- Rebecca Schmitz, School Social Work Journal

"Ann Vernon has done a really marvelous job of providing a solid and challenging basis for primary prevention in emotional education."
- Robert A. Harper, Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy

"This is a fascinating book, filled with creative ideas designed to further children’s mental health."
- Geraldine S. Pearson, Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing