Learning Intention: We are learning to develop self-calming and self-control strategies.

Explain that we are going to play the Melting Tiger game to help us focus on self-control and self-calming. As you tell them a story, the students will act out the movements of the melting tiger.

Organise the class to stand in a free space with room around them. 

Use the following script.

MELTING TIGER

Stand in your own space, not touching anyone. Your feet are stuck tight to the spot. You do not walk around. You are a big angry tiger with your claws out and your feet tight on the ground. Hold your muscles tight and still and strong. This tiger is angry. He wants to pounce and fight,but he can’t move.

4 As the tiger holds tight, the hot sun comes out. This tiger is made of butter. He starts to melt. His muscles feel soft. He slowly melts into a pool on the ground. He lies on the ground, still and quiet. His body is a soft pool of melted butter that is sinking into the ground. As he lies there a soft breeze comes to blow across his skin. It starts to wake him up. He is not a tiger anymore. He is just a sleepy person. Maybe he or she had a dream that they were an angry tiger.

It is time to wake up the sleepy person. Wiggle your toes. Wiggle your fingers. Slowly, slowly sit up, and then stand up tall. Show how calm and peaceful you can be when your angry tiger has gone away. Show how you can walk

silently and in slow motion around the room without touching anyone.

Reflection:

Ask:

• How did that activity make you feel?

• Did you feel more gentle and relaxed after you had melted the angry tiger?

• Sometimes we can feel like an angry tiger.

When does that happen?

• This tiger melted with the sun, all their anger soaked away into the ground. What helps to calm us down when we feel angry?

• What can you do to help keep our classroom peaceful?

Learning Intention: We are learning to understand what the word “stress” means. 

Talk with the students about what they think is meant by the word stress. (feeling uncomfortable, bothered or worried when something is changing or hard to manage). Talk about having butterflies in our tummy when going somewhere new or our hands might shake when we have to do something scary. We might feel disappointed when we can’t do something we have tried really hard to do.

Point out an imaginary line across the floor. It stretches from the ‘deep end’ where things are very stressful, to the shallow end’ where things are easy. In the middle is the place where it is a bit stressful. Explain that you will tell them a situation, and they will go to the place on the line which shows whether they think this is very stressful for them or not.

Stressful Situations

• You are in a place you find too noisy, and you want to put your hands over your ears.

• Changes keep happening, and you are not sure what to do next.

• You left your school jumper at school and you are not sure where.

• Your friend is away sick, and you don’t know who to play with.

• The teacher asks you to put on your sunhat, but you have left it at home.

• You have to sleep over in a room that is very dark, and you are a bit scared.

• You have a sandwich you don’t like, and the teacher has said you must eat before you go

out to play.

• You want a turn on the slide, but some big kids are blocking the slide and you can’t get

through. You can’t find a teacher to help.

• You are in a place you find too noisy, and you can’t settle.

• Changes keep happening, and it makes you feel bothered.

• Your baby sibling gets lots of attention, and if feels like you are not getting any.

• You broke something, and you have to own up that it was you who did it.

• You try and try, but you can’t manage to do something, even though other people can do it already.

As students move, ask some to explain why they went to that part of the line.
Ask:

• What is challenging about that situation?

• What might you be afraid of?

• What can you do to help you cope?

Reflection: Invite students to think about when they are feeling stressed and what they can do

Learning Intention: We are learning to draw pictures of something that can help me cheer up when I feel stress 

Refer back to the previous lesson/ activity on stressful situations. Point out that everyone has things they like to do to help them feel happy or calm when they are tired, or stressed, or grumpy. Now we will talk about some of the games we like to play or things we like to do when we are at home and want to calm themselves down or cheer themselves up.

Ask students to think–pair–share some of the things they like to do to cheer up. Ask the pairs to share some of their ideas, for example, playing with toys, friends or family, cuddling a soft toy, patting a pet, playing with a ball, thinking of something funny, jumping up and down, playing a game, singing a song or listening to music. Explain that sometimes we call these ‘coping strategies’, because not only do we like doing them, but they can also help us to cope when we are stressed, sad or grumpy.

Ask students to identify the activities that they do at school that help them to cheer up when they are inside the classroom, and when they are out at play.

3. Arrange for the children to draw a picture of themselves using one of their cheering up/ coping strategies. Work with them to write on the page: ‘I like to _____ when I need to cheer myself up’. Arrange for students to share their images and build a class display.

Reflection:

What cheering-up strategies do you use when the class or individuals are feeling stressed or overwhelmed?

• What self-cheering strategies do you like to use to lift your own mood?

Learning Intention: We are learning to compare our likes and dislikes 

Invite students to stand or sit in a circle. Explain that you are going to ask students to vote to show their answer to some questions. (Clarify the meaning of ‘vote’ with students as required).

Part 1: The Voting with my Hand Game

Model and explain that to vote, students will put their hand up if they agree, down if they don’t, and in the middle (waist height) if they are not sure. Work through some examples:

• I like ice cream.

• I like creepy crawly insects.

• I like big bouncy dogs.

• My favourite colour is yellow.

• I like playing with water.

• My favourite game is ‘chasey’.

• I like playing in water on a freezing cold day.

• I like eating healthy foods.

• My favourite game is hide-and-seek.

• My favourite food is pasta.

Part 2: The Voting with my Body Game

Ask students to stand for ‘yes’, sit for ‘no’, and crouch halfway if they are not sure. Work through some examples. ‘One day I would like to:

a. climb mountains

b. jump out of a plane

c. crawl through deep mud in the jungle

d. hold a baby chicken

e. own a snake

f. live in a cave all by myself

g. have my photograph taken standing next

to a hungry lion

h. eat a grasshopper

i. jump off the high diving tower

j. cuddle a baby chimpanzee.

4. Ask, ‘What do you notice? Does everyone always like the same things?’ Make the observation that people can be similar is some ways and different in other ways.

Part 3: The Voting with my Feet Game

5. Explain:

‘Voting with my Feet is more complicated. If your favourite is Answer A, you go to one side of the room. If your favourite is Answer B, you go to the other side. If you have a different favourite you stand in the middle. If you are not sure, you also stand in the middle. You will need to move to the place in the room that shows what you agree with.’

Learning Intention: We are learning to describe some hopes or dreams for my future 

Ask students to name different jobs and roles that they know adults have. As you receive their input, introduce and reinforce the idea that people of any gender can perform these roles. You may wish to refer to characters in stories you have read with the class or provide some images of famous people of different genders performing similar roles.

2. Invite students to cover their eyes and think about all the different things they might be able to do when they are an adult. Or they might think about an experience they want to have, something they want to do one day, or about a job they think they might like. Or they might think about some problem in the world they want to solve or something they want to do to make people healthy or happy. You might like to share some of the dreams you had when you were a child. With eyes now uncovered, ask them to share some ideas that came to mind.

3. Point out that when they grow up, they can make choices that are right for them. There are no rules that say some jobs are only for people of one gender and not for people of other genders.

Activity: Students to complete a drawing about ‘A Future Me’ 

Reflection: During a share time, discuss with students that people of any gender might also share this interest and that it is ok for people to share a similar or different wish.

Learning Intention: We are learning what to do if someone tells them that they can’t do something 

Explain that students will play a game to show that the ways people help out at home do not have to be organised according to their gender.

2. Explain how to play the Anyone Can Miming Game. First, create and teach the moves below:

• Shush the baby (arms cradling and rocking)

• Take out the rubbish (one hand holding nose and one with a bag held high)

• Clean the dishes (wiping motion)

• Play with others (a smiling face and welcoming hands)

• Read a story (hold up hands in shape of an open book)

• Control their anger (a frozen statue)

3. Have a practice as a class before starting the game.

4. Play the game. Before each rotation of the game, call out ‘Anyone can (for example, shush the baby)’ and then everyone, including you, mimes the instruction.

5. As the game progresses, you can stop modelling the action. Once students have shown they know all the moves, an option is to invite students to add some new moves that suggest an action that a person of any gender can do.

Learning Intention: We are learning what strong and gentle at the same time means 

Explain that we all need to know how and when to be strong, and how and when to be gentle. We can even be strong and gentle at the same time.

Introduce the Strong and Gentle Game for self-control. In this game the teacher calls out the move and students mime it. Students listen for the bell that tells them to stop. They will switch between strong and gentle scenarios, such as the following:

• Show me a strong mountain-climbing person.

• Show me how you gently stroke a frightened kitten.

• Show me a strong running-on-the-spot-in- a-hurry person.

• Show me how you gently and very, very slowly carry a plate with a big wobbly cake on it across the room.

• Show me how strong you are when you carry a big heavy bag of shopping up some big stairs.

• Show me how gentle you are when you dust the sand off the knees of a toddler who just fell over.

• Show me how you can be strong and gentle at the same time, when you ask someone if they are okay, even though you feel a bit shy.

• Show me how you can be strong and gentle at the same time, when someone lets you hold their brand new baby.

When they are back in their seats, provide positive reinforcement to students about their selfcontrol. Explain, ‘We call it ‘self-control’ when people can stay in charge of their bodies like that. Self-control is a mix of strong and gentle. You must be strong to control your feelings and your body, and gentle in the way you move and speak.’