Learning About Control with SES
/By Melissa Clay, SES Intern
This month we have been learning about the Locus of Control: what we are and aren’t in control of. One of our rotations was a series of three activities:
First, we read the book “Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad day” by Judith Viorst. In this book the main character, Alexander, narrates us through his day and gives us as readers the opportunity to tell if Alexander had a choice in what happened or if her didn’t. We used a poster board with space for situations that were in Alexanders control and those that were out of his control and placed the situations accordingly. This brought up great conversation with the students about how feelings can sometimes make us feel like we have no control when actually we do.
Our second activity was freeze dance. We made this more challenging by wearing bells on our wrists, this meant that the students had to have complete control over their movements because even the smallest wiggle would make the bells sound. The students had a lot of fun with this, trying to freeze as their leg was in midair or in other silly positions.
Our third activity was a control the balloon game. The students made boxes on the floor (which measured about 2.5 ft by 2.5 ft). Each student got a balloon, and the challenge was that they had to stay inside the square and keep the balloon in the air for 2 minutes. This activity proved challenging but fun. After the two minutes students made up their own rules: things such as only one foot could go out of the square to get the balloon if it went outside of the box or they could only hit it with their forearm or head. The students did a great job of realizing they needed to go slowly and make small movements with the balloon so it wouldn’t bounce away. This activity also helped the children with understanding spatial awareness, where their body is in a certain space.
Melissa is an intern in the Social Emotional Support program at SSYP. She came to Boston from Vermont to begin her graduate program. She is currently working on getting her master’s degree in Counseling and Expressive Arts Therapies. She has been teaching in an early education setting for more than 10 years and enjoys bringing new experiences to children through the arts.