Positive vibes
Resilient individuals are more likely to experience more positive emotional responses, including such things as happiness, serenity, optimism and joy, than negative emotional responses such as anger. As a result, they achieve high life satisfaction and an enduring positive mood.
Year level
7-10
Duration
5 minutes
Type
In class activity
SEL Competencies
Self-awareness
Self-management
Learning intention
Students realise that focusing on positive emotions lessens the opportunity for negative emotions such as anger to dominate their thoughts.
Key outcomes
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
enhance our sense of wellbeing
foster positive relationships with others
lead to self-acceptance.
Materials needed
Post-it Notes
Pens
Mapped to
Australian Curriculum: General Capabilities
Personal and Social Capability:
Self-awareness
Self-management
Activity 1
Instructions
5 minutes
Hand out Post-it Notes.
Place in a box cards on which the names of different positive emotions have been written. Examples: happiness, optimism, joy, gratitude, pride, surprise, enthusiasm.
A student draws the name of an emotion (e.g. ‘Happiness’). The other students have 30 seconds to write down on their Post-it Note how ‘happiness’ tastes, smells, looks, feels and sounds to them, which they then share with the other students. For example, happiness:
tastes like an ice cream
smells like a fragrant rose
looks like a sunrise over the ocean
feels like a giant hug
sounds like birds singing.
Variation: To speed up the process, allocate one sensory response per student per round, changing after each round.
Variation: Instead of using sensory cues, students free write what they associate with that emotion.
