1. I Can Think 5-8yrs program
Teachers/Parents Resources

2. 4. Talking to Myself (Affirmations) Being Me Goals
The teachers manual consists of 36 pages with all concepts explained, teachers aides and suggested activities for each topic.
There are 6 topics:
1. Being a Better Me
2. We think in pictures
3. What are Habits
4. Talking to Myself (Affirmations)
Being Me
Goals
Each topic can be conducted over a terms 6 week period (once a week) or twice a week for 3 weeks.
The topics each take approximately 50 minutes to complete. This includes the activity times.

3. Examples on each page.
On the right hand side of each page there are notes and recommendations to help the teacher deliver each topic.
At the beginning of each new topic there is an approximate running time. This may vary if the activities are allowed to run longer than anticipated by the writer.
Where you see a Note Page Symbol, ( ) there are suggestions or statements that are helpful for explaining the concepts in this topic and items to be used for an activity.
Where you see a capital A symbol ( A ) you will see the answers to the questions asked in a particular exercise.
The pink type is recommended music that can be played softly during the topic whilst the child/ren are doing their exercises.
If there is a slide correlating to a specific topic you will see the slide number from the powerpoint presentation shown as this: [Slide #].

4. Topic 1: Being a Better Me
This topic covers the concept of wanting to be better at something.
Keep the language positive when talking about things we are not good at. It is okay to be good at something and it is okay to be not so good at something. We do not want to make the child/ren feel bad about themselves or compare themselves with anyone else. The main purpose is to get the child/ren thinking and feeling about where they would like to make changes in their life. Allowing the child/ren to express what they would like to be or do better.
An exampled person named Matthew has been used throughout the entire program so that the child/ren can relate to him and help them understand how the changes need to be made in their life.

5. Activity: Hero Drawing.
This activity will help the children start to dream about their favourite hero and perhaps start to think about the hero they would like to become.
Activity: One Wish.
This activity allows the children to dream bigger than they have before about if they had one wish – what would it be. There are no barriers, ifs or buts with this wish…..just one wish that they truly want.
You can use the outcome of this activity later in the program and draw upon each child’s “one wish” when they are deciding on their own goals.

6. Activity: Good and not so good Habits
This activity gives the children the opportunity to look at their good and not so good habits. We use the language “good” and “not so good” here because even though “bad” is an acceptable word; it does represent that the child IS bad or behaving badly. Habits are not necessarily BAD, they may not be serving the child well, but they are not a BAD person for having these habits.
We do not want the child/ren to feel that they are BAD because they now recognise that there are some habits they have that they would like to change.

7. Activity: Being Grateful
This activity encourages the children to look at their own life and see all the many things they already have in their life that are good. This keeps children looking for the positive aspects of their life.
Activity: The Frog Story
This activity shows that outside influences (i.e. other peoples opinions) can be detrimental to our beliefs and our outcomes. It is important to believe in yourself and move forward towards your goal.