Activity 1: (10 minutes) ANCHOR CHART REVIEW

Review the Pyramid of Happiness anchor chart from the slides. Review the lowest level of the pyramid and perform that action (rubbing tummy and pretending to drink). Make the connection of sleep and stress to physical well-being. Remind students about the actions associated with each level of the pyramid.

Check for understanding:

• What have we already learned about taking care of our bodies?
• What are healthy and unhealthy habits?
• What is stress? Who feels stress?

Activity 2: (10 minutes) EVERYONE NEEDS SLEEP

Read Sleep is for Everyone, by Paul Showers or watch the read-aloud video, “Sleep is for Everyone” by Heather Carter. Have a discussion about the importance of sleep.

• How do you feel when you don’t get enough sleep?
• How do you know when you need to go to sleep?
• Do you remember taking naps? How did you feel when you missed a nap?
• How do you feel when you get enough sleep?
• What happened to the scientists when they missed sleep?
• What do we know about sleep from the scientist’s experiment?
• Have you ever stayed up for a very long time? Did you have the same experience as the scientists?

Activity 3: (20 minutes) SLEEPING STRATEGIES QUILT

What is your best strategy for falling asleep? We know that sleep is important, and so is preparing our bodies to go to sleep. Creating the right conditions helps us to get the sleep that we need. Read Sleep Like a Tiger, by Mary Logue or watch the read-aloud video, “Sleep LIke a TIger”

Have a discussion about the book:

• What did the little girl learn about how other animals go to sleep? How were they similar to or different from how she sleeps?
• What were all the things that the girl’s parents helped the little girl do to prepare for bed, even though she said she didn’t want to go to sleep?
• How did the little girl fall asleep, even though she didn’t think she was sleepy?
• What is your best strategy for falling asleep?

Cut the Sleeping Quilt into pieces and talk about all the different strategies or routines the children can use with the help of their grownup to make bedtime and going to sleep a good experience for our well-being. Attach the quilt pieces to the blank template with tape as you talk about each one, and how it helps us sleep and feel calm and relaxed and ready for sleep.

Have the children create their own quilt that represents their own sleep routine by cutting and pasting the illustrated pieces onto the blank quilt, or by drawing their own illustrations on the blank quilt template.

Activity 4: (15 minutes) FIND YOUR CALM

Read Find Your Calm, by Gabi Garcia, or watch the read-aloud video, “Find Your Calm” by Mrs. Allender and talk about stress, situations where we may feel anxiety, and all the ways the book suggests to find safety and calm

Use the slideshow to guide learning around stress, how it looks and feels for children, and ways to relieve stress. Encourage the children to try to identify what stress feels like for them.

Help the children find strategies for finding their calm. Let’s practice some stress-relieving activities!
Bring It Down by GoNoodle
Melting- Flow by GoNoodle
Healthy Coping- Anxiety by GoNoodle

Now that you have tried some strategies for calming your body, encourage the children to talk about how their bodies feel when they are calm.

Activity 5: (20 minutes) WORRY CHART

Read How Big Are Your Worries, by Jayneen Sanders or watch the read-aloud video, “How Big Are Your Worries Little Bear” by Riko’s Reading Room. Make a list of different situations that the children find stressful or worrisome. Some examples might be:

• Going to the doctor
• Coming to school
• Monsters under the bed
• Getting sick
• Talking to adults or others we don’t know well

Give each child 3 sticky notes and have them write their name on each one.

Make 3 copies of the How Big Are Your Worries Chart. Talk about one of the worries the children have shared, such as going to the doctor. Have the children show you with their arms how big that worry is for them (arms opened wide are big worries, hands close together are little worries). Have them place their sticky note on the chart that shows where the worry is for them. If it is a little worry, place the sticky note on the left-hand side of the chart, where the bear has its hands folded. If it is a big worry, have them place their sticky note on the right side of the chart, where the bear’s arms are wide apart. If it’s just a little worrisome, have them place their sticky note in the middle of the chart. Point out how the chart shows the collective worries for the class. For example, the chart may be showing that most students are worried about going to the doctor, and only a few are not. Repeat for 2 other stresses or worries that the children identified. Have the children help you compare the stressful events by visually scanning each chart, and discussing the differences that they can see based on the position of the sticky notes.

Worries or stress are important. It is our bodies telling us something. Sometimes the danger is real, but most of the time, it is not. Refresh the children’s memory of the calming strategies discussed previously.

Have the children note that not everyone has the same worries. Just because you are not worried or stressed about something doesn’t mean that others aren’t. Talk about ways we can help each other with our worries.