This season, Girls on the Run Greater Boston will post an overview of each week's lessons for families/guardians to follow along with their participants over the next 8 weeks.
Girls on the Run
Lesson 8: Move With Your Emotions
In Lesson 8, the big idea was Move With Your Emotions. This lesson taught us different strategies to help us work with our big emotions. In our warm-up, we played tag and practiced 5-Finger Breathing. Ask your GOTR participant to teach you this tool! During our workout, we thought about how exercise and moving our bodies can help us work with our big emotions. The GOTR Goal was: Use your 5-Finger breathing strategy when you feel a big emotion.
Questions and Conversation Starters
1. What strategy can we use at home to work with our big emotions?
2. How does moving with your emotions help activate your I Can! Power?
Lesson 9: Stop & Take a Breather!
The big idea for Lesson 9 was Stop & Take a Breather. This special strategy helps us make hard choices. We used this strategy to find the right tool in our GOTR Toolbox to activate our I Can! Power.
During the workout, we used Stop & Take a Breather in different real-life situations to make hard choices. The GOTR Goal was: Use Stop & Take a Breather when you face a challenge.
Questions and Conversation Starters
1. Tell me about the Stop & Take a Breather tool. How does each part work?
2. What scenarios did you use to practice Stop & Take a Breather during the workout?
Heart & Sole (2x a week)
Lesson 8
The Big Idea in Lesson 8 was that everyone has a Wheel. Today was about turning the girls’ view outward to other people’s Wheels—acknowledging that other people’s feelings and needs are important to recognize and respond to. In the Activity, the girls put together puzzles of other people’s Wheels to signify that everyone really does have a Wheel. In the Workout, the girls practiced the steps for connecting their Wheels by running with a partner and meeting a collective lap goal. In the Journal, the girls chose a person in their life and attempted to fill in their Girl Wheel.
Their Take Home Challenge for this lesson was to try to find out more about the Wheel of the person they wrote in their journal.
Questions & Conversation Starters:
1. What does it mean “everyone has a Wheel?”
2. Who did you connect with during the Workout today? How did it go?
Lesson 9
In Lesson 9, the Big Idea was that we can resolve conflicts. There are many different factors that contribute to conflict, such as miscommunication, unwillingness to compromise, or not understanding other people’s points of view. In today’s lesson, girls learned a five-step strategy to help resolve conflict. In the Activity, they played a physical telephone game to show how conflict can arise. During the Workout, girls identified different places in their lives where conflict occurs. In the Let’s Talk, they problem-solved ways to resolve conflict when it arises.
Their Take Home Challenge for this lesson was to try using the strategy if a conflict arises.
Questions & Conversation Starters:
1. Tell me about the activity. What did it teach you about ways conflict comes about? (Miscommunication; misunderstanding.)
2. What is the strategy you learned for resolving conflict? (1. Press pause; 2. Use “I messages” and say what you feel; 3. Listen to the other person; 4. Look at their Wheel and your Wheel and see what you each want or need; 5. Brainstorm solutions.)
3. How can we use this strategy at home when conflict arises? (Share your thoughts.)
Heart & Sole (1x a week)
Lesson 4
The Big Idea for Lesson 4 was pressing pause helps us understand and manage our emotions. Today, we focused on how girls experience emotions and that people might have different responses to similar situations. We also focused on how to deal with emotions in healthy ways. Girls learned how to handle potentially challenging situations by “pressing pause” and thinking through their reactions. Pressing pause, or stopping before responding, allows people to take stock of how they are feeling, better understand their circumstances, ask for advice if they need it, etc. In the Activity, girls learned how to handle potentially challenging situations by “pressing pause” and thinking through their reactions. During the Let’s Talk, girls identified some situations where pressing pause was or could have been helpful in their lives.
Their Take Home Challenge for this lesson was to practice pressing pause, especially in situations they usually don’t, and to see what happens.
Questions & Conversation Starters:
1. Tell me what it means to press pause.
2. What are times in your life when you most need to press pause? (Share examples from your own life.)
3. Why do you think two people might have a different emotional response to the same situation? (Share your thoughts and/or an example from your life.)
4. KEEP MOVING: Ask your girl to teach you how to do interval training (and get moving together)!
