Positive Mental Attitude

Author’s Note: The following activities have been created for intermediate

students; however, you are encouraged to modify and adapt them to fit student

age, experiences, current units of study, etc.! As educators and

role models, we must continually make a concerted effort to model and

demonstrate the values we teach on a daily basis.

Activity 1, Personal Greetings: Start out your day on a positive note by

greeting students as they come in each day! Stand at the door and greet each

child personally. (How many times do we go through an entire school day, only

to realize there may have been one or more students whom we didn’t interact

with on a personal level at some point during the day?) I have my students

choose one of three ways to greet me, sometimes referred to as the Three H’s:

hug, handshake, or high-five. This allows students to feel a connection with

you right away, while also improving self-esteem and social skills. It’s

amazing what a difference this simple, quick procedure has made to improve the

sense of community in our classroom. On the days when

our schedule does not permit us to have our morning greeting, my fourth

graders plead to have the greeting right after lunch or at the end of the day!

Activity 2, Student Interactions: To demonstrate how positive attitude can

make a difference in the way that others perceive you and how you feel about

yourself, first divide students into pairs. One student becomes Partner A and

the other Partner B. Have partner A ask partner B, “How are you doing today,

______?” and listen for Partner B’s response. Ask students to share some of

their partners’ responses. On the board or a sheet of paper, create a list of

common responses, such as “Fine,” “Okay,” “Good,” “So-so,” etc. Then divide

these responses into two categories: positive and negative.

Ask for a student volunteer to come up and ask you how you are doing. Give a

common positive response, such as “good,” using little body language, facial

expression, or voice intonation. Then ask the student to repeat the question.

This time give the same response, but use lots of body language, facial

expression, and voice intonation. Ask students to tell you what they

observed. How did your reactions make them feel? Did they prefer one over the

other? Review the terms body language, facial expression, and voice

intonation with students and ask them to comment on how these things can make

a difference in your interactions with other people.

Ask students to brainstorm a list of positive responses with their partners,

and then formulate a class list. Some examples may include, “Fantastic!”

“Super!” “Excellent!” and “Wonderful!” Next, have Partner A pose the same

question again. Tell Partner B to change his or her response this time,

making it as positive as possible using the ideas discussed. Then have

Partner A share how this reaction compared to the first one and how they felt

about it. Let the partners switch roles so Partner A can practice positive

responses. You can also have students mingle around the room to practice

greeting each other in a positive way.

To wrap up this activity, I challenged my students to practice using

positive responses for the next week. Enthusiasm IS contagious, and

students will begin to feel more positive when they make a conscious choice to

react to life more positively! We brainstormed examples of when students

could practice this, and here are a few we came up with:

? when your parent asks how your day was

? when a friend greets you in the morning

? when a teacher greets you in the morning

? when someone calls you on the telephone

One last point to mention is that you may not always feel like giving a

positive response! What if you really are having a horrible day? I think that

it is important for students to know that it is okay to say how you really

feel, but that it can also be done in a positive way. For example, a response

on a bad day might be, “Well, I’m not having a very good day, but I know

tomorrow will be better,” or “This isn’t the best day for me, but I’m hanging

in there!”

Hopefully these activities can help you enjoy a more POSITIVE climate with

your students! Happy teaching!

– By Jen Wheeler, 4th grade teacher, Kyrene de las L