Self-healing Activities

Safety List — In this activity, students are asked to make a list of people, places and things that make them feel safe. Encourage students to refer to the list whenever the need arises.

Stop — Students make a little stop sign and put it in a place where they can look at it. When they start to think of their bad memories, they look at the stop sign and it reminds them to stop their current action and think about something pleasant.

What Actually Happened? — Ask the students to draw a picture of what they are afraid of. On the back of the picture record each student’s description of the picture. The student can refer to the picture if he or she becomes confused about an incident; it can also be used as a starting point for conversation.

Before and After — Have the students make two columns on a paper and label one “Before” and one “After.” They can write how things were before the event in one column and after the event in the other column. (This is generally used for community issues. It may be too “close” for personal issues.)

Monster Match — Have the students draw the scariest monsters they can imagine. Now draw a match for the monster. Brainstorm the characteristics of the “hero” and tell how he will “manage” the monster.

Great Things About Me — Have the children make lists of 50 to 100 great things about themselves. Hang them in the classroom or tape them to their desks so that they can refer to the list when they are feeling low.

Circle Time — Have the children sit in a circle. Give each of them a piece of paper on which they should write their name. They will pass the papers around the room and when the teacher says stop, the person who has the paper will write one nice thing about the student whose name is on the paper. After they finish, have them fold the paper so that the next person will not see what has already been written.

Day in the Life — Using a camera, have the students take a picture of their day. Then ask them to write about the pictures and how they felt at the time they were taking the picture. Compile the pictures and compositions into a booklet.

Dream Catcher — Native American people believe that bad dreams are caught in the web of dream catchers and that good dreams get out through a hole in the middle. The following site offers more information about dream catchers: www.dream-catchers.org/make-dream-catchers.html.

Wonders of the World — Children lie on a big piece of butcher paper and have a classmate trace around their outlines. Then they draw or write on their own outlines what their eyes will see in the future, where they want their feet to take them, what they like to eat, what they like to listen to and what they would like their hands to make.

Timeline — On notebook paper, have the students draw a thick horizontal line. Ask them to label it beginning at 0 (representing when they were born) and continuing with a mark for each year of life, ending with their current age. To the left of the horizontal line, have them draw a vertical line with positive and negative scales of one to 10 as illustrated below. Then ask them to make a list of significant events that have occurred in their lives, and how old they were for each event. Have them place a dot for each event at the age it occurred. Where the dot should be placed depends on how good (positive scale) or bad (negative scale) of an event it was. Once they are finished, have them connect the dots.

Dear Abby — Take 3-by-5 cards and write questions on them about things that might be of interest to students. Have the students also write questions and include these all in a box. Have the students pick a card a day and then brainstorm to find answers to the questions asked. Assist with misperceptions. Also let them know that there may be some things that have no solutions.

What Were They Thinking? — Find pictures that show some type of emotion or body language. You can use photos from home or from magazines. Have the students write or tell what the person in the picture is thinking.