September 26th is National Situational Awareness Day. It’s a great time to teach your children to be aware of others.
BIG IDEA Serving others includes being attentive to them and how they feel.
KEY SCRIPTURE Matthew 7:12
MATERIALS None needed
PREPARATION 1. Make 5 changes to things in the room you will meet in so the children can guess the differences you made in the room.
ACTIVITY
September 26th is National Situational Awareness Day. I have changed five things in this room. Take a few moments and try to figure out which five things are different. You can work together and call the differences out as you find them.
Give your children hints if they need them.
What do you think it means to be situationally aware?
Listen to answers.
Being situationally aware means to be attentive to your surroundings. It has to do with making safe choices to protect yourself and others. It also means being attentive to the people around you and what’s going on with them.
We are going to play a charades-type of game. I am going to whisper into someone’s ear which emotion they are to show on their face and with their body and the rest of you get to guess which emotion they are feeling. If there are two of you playing, you can act out the emotion and let your child guess then trade.
Here are some emotions to act out: happy, sad, afraid, angry, disgusted, and surprised
You are really good at guessing what people are feeling. This is part of being situationally aware.
The next step is to guess how someone is feeling and then act appropriately toward that person. If you can tell that a classmate is sad, it is wise to ask if there is a way you can pray for that person. If you can tell that your teacher is angry about something, it is wise to quietly wait for an explanation or instructions before asking questions or irritating her/him. If you realize that a friend is disgusted by something s/he is eating, it is wise to not offer a second helping of that food!
Part of being situationally and emotionally aware is treating people the way you would want them to treat you. Matthew 7:12 says, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
Let’s thank God for our emotions and the ability to serve others by paying attention to them!
Pray together.