Keep hope alive

Stay Alive I Supplements

Lesson 7: “I Can Help My Family Be a Happy Family"

 I. PICTURE 

Mind Picture

Teachers: Read the following questions to your students, pausing occasionally to give time to envision details.

“Picture in your mind yourself as a mother or father. Envision holding your first baby. What does he or she look like and feel like? What do you look like, what does your future family look like? What do you do together? How do you treat one another? Envision yourself as a healthy and happy family. How do you feel about yourself? How does your family feel with you? Dwell on this picture in your mind and heart.”

Now take some time to have the students write their ideas in their notebook or draw pictures. Some may even want to share their ideas.

II. PRINCIPLE

1) Have the students write a letter to their future family. This letter is one they can read in 10-15 years. The letter can include what they dream for their family, and what the student is doing now to ensure his/her future families' happiness.

2) Go outside and observe a healthy tree, or draw a tree on a chalk board. Talk about how the branches can represent the good qualities of their future family. Explain that they are the beginnings of their own family tree and the decisions they make now will determine the kind of branches (or family) they will have. Show how the roots are the source of strength for the tree just as their healthy decisions now will be a source of strength to their future family. Have the students draw a tree in their notebooks and label the branches and roots. They may want to write “I will live a long and loving life” at the bottom or trunk of the tree.

3) Add to the Happiness Triangle. Talk about things students can do to help their future family be happy. When you do things to help others, you are happy too. Under “Something to do” write something they can learn to do that will serve them and their future families well.

III. PRACTICE

Rock Guessing Game

Choose one student to be the leader. Have him or her stand in front of the class. Have all the students stand. The leader hides a small rock in one of his/her hands. The teacher asks the students to guess which hand the rock is in (students raise whichever hand, right or left, they think the rock is in). When the leader reveals the rock, all the students that guessed correctly get to take one step forward. Then they guess again and again until someone reaches the leader. Ask the students why they didn't all guess correctly every time. The reason was that they didn't have sufficient information to help them guess correctly. Is guessing a smart way to make choices? No, making choices based on knowledge is smarter.

Stick Balance

Ask a student to try to balance a stick on their hand while looking at the bottom of the stick. Then have the student try again this time looking at the top of the stick. They should be able to balance it for a little longer. Explain that looking at the bottom of the stick was similar to making decisions based upon the present without looking to the future. For example: choosing to drop out of school, choosing to do drugs, choosing to have sex before marriage. These choices are made by only looking at what someone wants NOW not looking to the future. Have students talk about goals they have for the future and discuss choices that might interfere with achieving these goals.

Wise/Foolish Choices

Bring a hat, shoes and a shirt to class. Put the shirt on your head and ask, “Is this how we should wear a shirt?” It would be foolish to wear a shirt on your head because then it wouldn't protect your torso. Put the hat on your foot. Ask, “Is this how we wear a hat?” It would be foolish to wear a hat on your foot because then it wouldn't protect your head. Put the shoes on your hands and ask, “Is this how we should wear shoes?” It would be foolish to wear shoes on your hands because then they wouldn't be protecting your feet. Talk about how choices about what to wear can be wise or foolish. For example, it would be wise to wear shoes on sharp rocks, but foolish to wear those shoes while bathing in water. We make many choices each day. Foolish choices can harm us and make us unhappy or unhealthy, wise choices help keep us safe and make us happy.

Perspective Puzzle

Roll a piece of paper into a narrow tube and have a student try to look through the tube at a picture they have not seen before (for example one of the Stay Alive curriculum pictures.) They should be able to see just one small section at a time. Next have them look at the picture without looking through the narrow long tube. Talk about perspective. Not until you see the whole picture do you really understand it. Making decisions based on a limited perspective might have serious consequences. Have the students think of examples from their lives in which they have made a decision without all the necessary information.

Building a Strong House

Ask for two volunteers. Give each volunteer a collection of small pieces of local building materials. Give one student material that is in good condition: i.e. sturdy blocks, small straight sticks or strong straw for thatch. Give the other student inferior materials, i.e. crumbling bricks, bent or broken sticks or thin thatching materials. Ask the volunteers to build a small hut or house with their items. After they are done ask the class which house they would rather live in. Which one looks stronger? Explain that the building materials represent the consequences of the decisions we make about our lives. Our carefully thought out choices are like the superior building materials: If we make good choices we have a strong, healthy, safe and happy future and life. If we make bad decisions we have only inferior materials with which to build our life house and it is not strong, healthy or happy.

IV. PLEDGE

Have the students write a pledge in their Stay Alive Notebook:

I, ______________________, pledge that I will make “smart choices”
that will help my future family be happy. One of them is ___________ __________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________.

V. PARENT/GUARDIAN PARTICIPATION


Lesson 8: “I Need to Protect Myself and My Future Family by Staying HIV/AIDS Disease-Free”

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