Hardin Elementary uses the Too Good for Drugs program for classroom guidance. This program contains five interwoven components which appear throughout the curriculum: Goal Setting, Decision Making, Bonding With Others, Identifying and Managing Emotions, and Communicating Effectively.

Too Good For Drugs

First Grade

Classroom Guidance Objectives

Lesson 1: Go for a Healthy Goal

Objective: The student will be able to:

Define healthy.

Recite at least healthy foods, leisure activities, and healthy practices.

Rationale: This lesson introduces students to the concept of setting goals and taking small steps toward reaching them. Goal setting is one of the developmental assets which helps children to be resilient and to focus on positive expectations for the future.

Lesson 2: My Special Feelings

Objective: The students will be able to:

Name six emotions: happy, sad, angry, afraid, proud, excited, embarrassed.

Describe how a person might feel in a variety of situations

Demonstrate stating feelings clearly and directly: I Feel _______.

Rationale: This lesson teaches children to recognize and name their own emotions, to better understand the causes of feelings, and eventually to recognize the difference between feelings and actions. Studies show that these are key factors in positive youth development.

Lesson 3: Listening

Objective: The student will be able to demonstrate the skill of listening.

Rationale: Listening is a critical communication skill. This lesson teaches students to listen to others by asking questions, paying attention, and restating the answers in their own words. Studies show that effective communication skills are developmental assets that help children to live positive, drug-free lives.

Lesson 4: Friendship

Objective: The student will be able to:

Discuss how friends are alike and different

Describe how differences can enrich a friendship.

List behaviors of a friend: sharing, taking turns, helping, listening.

Rationale: This lesson introduces interpersonal and cultural competence. Being aware of similarities and differences and feeling comfortable with differences are important developmental assets.

Lesson 5: Carmen’s Choices

Objective: The student will be able to:

Recite the steps of a decision-making model: Stop and Think

Demonstrate effective ways to make decisions through role-plays.

Rationale: This lesson teaches children a simplified way to make decisions that can be expanded as their thinking skills develop: Stop and Think. In later grades, other steps will be added. This decision making model was introduced in the kindergarten curriculum. For students who have had Too Good for Drugs in kindergarten, this is a review.

Lesson 6: Curious Carmen

Objective: The student will be able to:

Describe the harmful effects of using inhalants.

List ways to avoid stong chemical smells: open a window, leave the room, tell an adult.

Rationale: Young children are exposed to many ordinary household products that can be dangerous. Many exerts consider inhalants to be a gateway drug. This lesson teaches students why they should, and how to, avoid inhaling such products.

Lesson 7: Safe and Unsafe

Objective: The student will be able to:

Distinguish between safe and unsafe things for children to do.

Define the harmful effects of smoking tobacco products.

Define the harmful effects of drinking alcohol.

Rationale: This lesson teaches children to associate negative effects with tobacco and alcohol use. Studies show that many very young children develop positive expectancies about using alcohol and tobacco. Some experts believe that modifying these expectancies at an early age is a promising prevention tool.

Lesson 8: Telling the Difference

Objective: The student will be able to:

Define drug.

Define medicine.

Differentiate between medicine, alcohol, and food.

List three types of alcoholic beverages: beer, wine, liquor.

Rationale: The Category Game helps children learn to sort different things into categories, a skill they need in order to differentiate between medicine, alcoholic beverages and food. Children must recognize products as medicine or alcohol in order to learn rules that apply to those products.

Lesson 9: Getting Sick, Getting Well

Objective: The students will be able to:

Describe safe and appropriate ways for children to take medicine.

Demonstrate the skill of predicting what comes next in a sequence of events.

Rationale: This lesson helps children learn that medicines contain drugs, that they should only take medicine when they are sick, and only with adult supervision. It also teaches the important skill of predicting what comes next. This pre-readiness skill must be mastered before children can predict consequences.

Lesson 10: Cool Cats Say NO

Objective: The student will be able to :

Differentiate between safe, healthy decisions and unsafe, unhealthy decisions.

Discuss how peers influence decisions.

Discuss personal responsibility for making positive choices.

Rationale: This lesson teaches refusal skills, provides a reason for using them, and celebrates drug-free choices. Students are much more likely to use prevention skills if they understand why they should do so, and studies show that it is important to acknowledge and award children for making positive decisions.