Middle School (6-8)
Lesson Plans

Facing Personal Feelings (rm01)

Objectives

Students will:

• Identify a range of personal feelings.
• Demonstrate healthy ways to redirect uncomfortable thoughts.
• Identify activities that can be fun.

Purpose

To help students:

• Understand their personal feelings following a tragic event.
• See that a wide range of feelings is normal.

Key Terms and Concepts

• primary
• secondary
• triggers
• mural
• imagery
• Pablo Picasso
• evoke
• uncomfortable thoughts

Activities

• "Coloring Your Feelings"
• "The Tragedy of Guernica"

Home Connection

• When Bad Things Happen

Linking Across the Curriculum

• Art
• Music

Descrption

Following a tragic event, a young person's view of the world as a safe and predictable place is temporarily lost. Students become afraid that similar events will happen again and that they or their family will be injured or killed. The damage, injuries and deaths that can result from an unexpected or uncontrollable event are difficult for most young people to understand.

Positive reactions from parents and other adults following any traumatic event can help young people recover more quickly and more completely. Adults need to remember that middle schoolers express their feelings and reactions in different ways. Some young people will become withdrawn and unable to talk about the event, while some will talk incessantly, providing lots of gory details. Others will feel intensely sad and angry at times and at other times will act as if the disaster never happened. Don't be surprised if some students don't seem to be affected by what they have seen and heard. Not everyonehas immediate reactions; some have delayed reactions that show up days, weeks or even months later, and some may never have a reaction.

Files

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Lesson Plan

Activity Sheet 1

Activity Sheet 2

Activity Sheet 3

This Lesson Plan was contributed by the American Red Cross.