The Sadsville Lesson or Assembly Plan is aimed at Key Stage 2 children and is a guide to help teachers, teaching assistants, head teachers or other professionals working with children to introduce Sadsville to children.
Aims of this Lesson or Assembly Plan:
• To offers some simple guidance on how to deliver and explain the Sadsville book to your pupils
• To help children understand and express their emotions
• To encourage children to talk about their concerns – no problem is too big or too small
• To make children aware of how they can help themselves and one another and sources of other help, including Childline
Sadsville Lesson _Assembly Plan Sept 2020
The lesson or assembly aims are to open up conversations about how children are feeling – particularly if they are feeling unhappy, worried, anxious or fearful. The lesson starts of by explaining that it is perfectly normal to cry and showing your emotions – and that there are many reasons why people cry. It then starts to explore why people may keep their feelings inside and asks children to think about if this is healthy. At this point, the lesson introduces the idea of a ‘Bag of Worries’ and asks children to write or draw what they might have in their bag.
It then talks about the idea of ‘Big’ and ‘Small’ Feelings – and explains that small feelings are natural and come and go quickly. They are all part of growing up – but that Big Feelings can affect they way we behave, how we see the world around us and ourselves. Following on from this, the lesson describes the difference between ‘Good Sad’ and ‘Bad Sad’ – with Good Sad being a label for those sad feelings that are all part of life, but Bad Sad is when someone is continually feeling worried, anxious, threatened or neglected and that this is when it is important to speak up.
At this point, the lesson talks about ‘Being a Good Friend’ and how to reach out to a ‘Trusted Adult’ – with an exercise for children to complete where they think about their own ‘Circle of Support’.
Finally, the lesson concludes with a call to action to Childline should a child feel overwhelmed by their feelings.
The accompanying worksheets and handouts are also available as PDF downloads from this site.
