7 Habits in 1st Grade

Holy Angels is on their second year implementing Stephen Covey’s 7 Healthy Habits. The students are not only learning the language, but the action behind each habit. All 7 habits are recited during morning prayer, and each class focuses on a specific habit throughout the year. For the younger grades, I come in and we complete projects based on each “habit.”

Habit 1 - Be Proactive

You are in Charge!

I am a responsible person. I take initiative.

I choose my actions, attitudes, and moods.

I do not blame others for my wrong actions.

I do the right thing without being asked, even when no is looking.

I especially enjoy working with first graders because they love to talk. Simple as that. Hands go up even before I complete asking the question, and at times their responses have very little to do about the question asked. Five and six year olds view the world as either ONLY right or ONLY wrong - no middle.

Our discussion began with their understanding of “I AM IN CHARGE OF MY LIFE”

Who is “I”? - ME!

Who is responsible for what we say? - ME!

Who is responsible for our actions - what we do? - ME!

I focused on the Super Hero inside of them - their own special powers on being proactive...being in charge of their life. We listed two female super heroes: Bat Girl and Wonder Woman; and two male super heroes: Super Man and Bat Man. I came up with several scenarios utilizing their super hero characters, and as a class we discussed the difference between being PROACTIVE versus REACTIVE.

The first graders were fascinated by the story lines and fully cooperated in coming up with how each super hero in the scenario:

1. took responsibility for his/her action and did not blame others

2. never gave up

3. how his/her action could have been “reactive”

We finished our lesson by creating their own “Super Hero Power” sheet. On the power sheet they wrote down ways they would take charge of their life and not blame others. Some examples were:

Help my classmate when she falls downs.

Share my eraser if my classmate doesn’t have one.

Say “stop” if he’s not being nice to me.

Take turns on the monkey bar.

No running up the slide.