Habit #3: Put First Things First activities

by Leader in Me

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Posted on October 6, 2018

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Objective: Students will learn the importance of prioritizing and identifying their own big rocks and small rocks.

 

WHAT ARE BIG ROCKS AND LITTLE ROCKS?

Every student and family has different “big rocks” in their life. these are some examples we covered in class:

• Big rocks: things that are most important and urgent.

  • family

  • health

  • church

  • school

  • work

  • eating healthy

  • practice – sports, theater, math, reading

• Small rocks: things that are important but not urgent or take time away from things you must do.

  • Watching tv

  • Spending time on video games

  • Playing before working

 

Books read that covers habit #3:

 

The Little Red Hen

• Who was putting first things first in our story? little red hen

• How could you tell that the little hen was putting first things first? she made sure the bread was being made.

• We listened to a different version of this where the little red hen shared the bread. students explained the differences and similarities to the stories.

• We used this story to look back at habit #1 - be proactive / being responsibility and habit #2 begin with the end in mind / have a goal.

 

Froggy Gets Dress by Jonathan London

• What was the weather like when froggy woke up? snow

• What did he want to do outside?  play in the snow

• What did froggy’s mom want him to do? how did he respond? she wanted him to go back to sleep. he wanted to go outside.

• What types of clothing did froggy put on before going outside? he put on hat, mittens,scarves and boots. forgot everything else.

• What was the most important thing froggy should have been focused on? putting on all the correct clothing to stay warm.

• What was the least urgent/least important thing froggy should have been focused on? going outside to play.

• Throughout asked what items of clothing did he forget as he rushed to go play outside.

 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

• what was the little caterpillars goal? to become a butterfly

• what did the little caterpillar do to reach this goal?  eat food

• how did the little caterpillar put first things first? he ate until he turned into a butterfly

 

we talked about how if you do not set your priorities / keep your goal in mind may miss doing work, getting better at something (not practicing), and get behind on school work or other responsibilities.

 

we must take care of the most important things first and plan ahead so we can fit everything into our day.

 

Students talked about their goals and created rocks through tearing construction paper to write their Big Rocks.

 

Some examples from students:

• spending time with family

• chores

• practicing cheerleading/ football

 

Fridays activity decorating a “big rock”: