ACTIVITY 10: That’s Me!
ACTIVITY 10: That’s Me!
How I Am (Intrapersonal Skills)
This section has students look at how they act, feel, and think. Topics covered include self-esteem, social image, decision-making skills, and personal values (what is important to each student). The activities are designed to provide students with a chance to practice decision making and to empower them to make healthy choices.
SKILLS: Building Self-Esteem / Understanding Personal Values
Suggested Time Consideration: 30 mins
RATIONALE
As children mature, their image becomes more important to them. They become more concerned with how they appear to others, and what they like in others. This is an exercise in helping students assess their own views about themselves.
GETTING STARTED
When you introduce this exercise, you may want to choose a well-known celebrity and ask students to come up with adjectives to describe that celebrity. Remind students that although all adjectives are descriptive, they don’t all carry judgments. For instance, a celebrity could be labelled “cool” or “handsome,” but could also be described as “blue-eyed,” “brown-haired,” or “left-handed.
This activity contains 30 adjectives. Some are fairly neutral (short-haired, right-handed) and others are value-laden(athletic, stubborn). Share the digital activity link in the “Materials” section with your students. Ask them to select adjectives that best describe them and drag them into the “You!” category. You can also let them add other adjectives to the page.
Then, students should select adjectives they think friends would use to describe them and drag them to the “How You Think Your Friends Would Describe You” category. They may also add adjectives to the category. Explain to the students that these may or may not already be on the list of 30, and they may or may not be adjectives that they have used to describe themselves. What you want them to do is come up with the 10 most important characteristics their friends would choose to describe them.
Finally, in the “Write About It!” section, students should write a few sentences about a decision that made them feel good about themselves and why. For example, maybe they chose to join a team, help a friend with homework, or study for a big test.
TALKING ABOUT IT
Students may be sensitive to sharing the adjectives that they used to describe themselves. However, ask for volunteers to share some of the words on their list and highlight the positive words. Next, to conclude the lesson, have volunteers discuss the decisions that made them feel good about themselves. Encourage students to see how everyone is different and that we can be proud of different things.
WRAPPING UP
Ask students what types of decisions they think they’ll be making in the next few months that will make them proud. End by telling them that you will be proud to see them make the decision to be tobacco and nicotine free.