Third Grade: Making a Plan

For our final lesson in our Skills for Learning unit, we talked about what makes a good plan. We briefly reviewed our four Skills for Learning:

1. Focus Attention
2. Listen
3. Use Self-Talk
4. Be Assertive

Next, we listened to the Skills for Learning song and pointed to the different Skills for Learning posters when we heard each one. We played Sentence Switcheroo, a brain builder where I read the same sentence twice and students have to use their bodies to show whether it was the same or different (standing for the same, sitting for one change, reaching up high for two changes). 

We talked about a boy named Cheng who had forgotten to take his homework home -- again! We talked about how he was feeling (sad, frustrated, angry, disappointed, nervous, embarrassed). We talked about what a plan is, and why we can use plans to help us be successful. We talked about what makes a good plan:

• The order makes sense
• It's simple
• You can do it

When a plan has meets these three criteria, we can consider it a good plan. We brainstormed what Cheng could do, and students used Think, Turn, Tell to share their ideas with their partners. Cheng decides to write himself a note that says "REMEMBER HOMEWORK," and students brainstormed where to put the note where he would see it. Cheng decides to put the note on his desk, but he still forgets his homework at school once he puts his homework on his desk. Students brainstormed a final step for Cheng's plan to help him remember to get it home. Cheng decided to put his homework in his backpack as soon as he saw the note, and he is now able to take his homework home and uses a similar plan to get his homework back to school. We used the Good Plan Checklist to make sure our plan met the criteria for a good plan, and it did!