4th Grade Guidance Class- Reframing

I always start this lesson off by saying how excited I am to be able to teach my 4th graders a very "fancy" counseling word that I learned in my Master's program.  Kids think that this is pretty cool and get excited to learn a college word!

We then get started with learning about "reframing".  Being able to give a negative experience or conversation a positive spin, is a wonderful skill to have.  Students can begin to see the bigger picture in things that they are going through, and look at things through different lenses.

I read one of my very favorite stories, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst.  We then go through the book and work at reframing Alex's negative experiences from his day into something more positive.

Lastly, students work together in small groups to create a skit to perform to the class that displays reframing.  Examples that they have to choose from are: "My brother won't stay out of my room", "My parents won't let me go see the new scary movie", "I got an F on my test", "I didn't get what I wanted for my birthday", "I didn't get invited to the bowling party" or, "My friends wouldn't play with me at recess".  You can probably only imagine how much fun they have with this task!