STAR Sportsmanship The STAR Method Students will learn the STAR method for dealing with difficult interpersonal situations Prepare newspaper of Internet clippings of stories illustrating sportsmanship issues Explanation: Either relate in your own words two or three examples of poor sportsmanship that have recently occurred, or share with the students two or three newspaper clippings (or accounts from the Internet) that illustrate poor sportsmanship. Discussion: Why do you suppose the person in the story exhibited such poor conduct? How do you think the person felt after the incident was over? How do you think the people on the opposing team felt? Who was affected by the person s poor conduct? How would you have felt had you been in the stands watching the conduct? How would you have felt if someone you cared about had taken part in the incident? Explain to the students that sportsmanship is really about treating people the way we wish to be treated. Explain to the students that whenever they are required to make a sportsmanship decision the STAR method will help them to respond appropriately. Stop when it s time to make a sportsmanship decision; before you do something you might regret. Think about how your actions might affect you, your team, your opponents, and the officials. Act right away to show good sportsmanship. Your actions demonstrate what you re all about inside a good sport, or a poor sport. Replay your actions. Go over in your mind what you did, and think about what you can do better next time. Suggest to the students that this method will help them in all kinds of situations. Have them role play the following scenarios and give their own response to each one. 1. Student one just told student two that he/she is stupid. 2. The parents of student one just said that he/she is not allowed to go to a movie with friends because it is too late. 3. The teacher just confronted student about his/her alleged cheating in class 1
Respect Yourself Through Physical Activity 1) Students will recognize the value of physical activity, 2) Students will track their daily activity, and 3) Students will determine whether they should increase their daily activity. Make a copy of the Activity Journal for each student. Explanation: One way people can show respect for themselves is by taking care of their physical health. Over 30 percent of American children ages 6 11 are overweight and over 15 percent are considered obese or excessively overweight. One third of all adults in America are obese. Experts tell us that we should all be active for about 60 minutes each day. Exercise and sports are great but are not the only things you can do to be active. Walking to school, playing at recess, swimming, and even raking leaves are all activities that keep our bodies healthy. When we don t get enough activity, our bodies can become overweight (and unhealthy). Sometimes people tell us that products (steroids, ephedrine, creatine, etc.) like the Zeus juice that was shown in the Making Sports History program will make us strong and reduce the need for exercise. Not only can the use of products such as these be unsportsmanlike, they are often very dangerous, and can even be considered illegal. Discussion: Q: Why does it matter whether people are overweight? A: Difficulty in getting around, health concerns (shorter lifespan, hearth attack, diabetes, etc.) What struggles do you see your overweight friends and family deal with? Using the Activity Journal students can determine the average number of minutes they are active each day with the following steps: 1. Add up the number of minutes of activity each day. 2. Divide the total by the number of days they recorded their activity. 3. The answer is the average number of minutes spent in activity each day. 40 min/day 4 days 160 minutes of activity Students with fewer than 60 minutes of activity each day will work to create a plan to increase their activity. Students with 60 or more minutes each day will work to create a plan to remain active. Assignment: Each student should be given an Activity Journal to keep track of the amount of activity each child does for the following week. 2
Respect Yourself Through Eating Healthy Foods 1) Students will recognize the value of eating right 2) Students will classify foods into their correct food group, and 3) Students will track their food intake. Have the Food Guide Pyramid visible to all students. Have pictures (or the actual food) of many different foods. Make copies of the Food Journal for each student. Obtain crayons, markers, and colored pencils to decorate the food journal cover. Introduction: Display the food pyramid for the students to see. Explanation: One way people can show respect for themselves is by taking care of their physical health. Over 30 percent of American children ages 6 11 are overweight and over 15 percent are considered obese, or excessively overweight. One third of all adults in America are obese. Experts tell us that eating the right foods in the right quantities helps us to maintain a healthy weight and helps our body to ward of disease. The colored bands within the chart show the different groups or kinds of foods that we should eat to be healthy. While describing the food group show a picture to represent the group. Grain: Any food made from wheat, rice, oats, cornmeal, barley or another cereal grain is a grain product. Bread, pasta, oatmeal, breakfast cereals, tortillas, and grits are examples of grain products. Vegetables: Any vegetable or 100% vegetable juice counts as a member of the vegetable group. Vegetables may be raw or cooked; fresh, frozen, canned, or dried/dehydrated; and may be whole, cut up, or mashed. Fruit: Any fruit or 100% fruit juice counts as part of the fruit group. Fruits may be fresh, canned, frozen, or dried, and may be whole, cut up, or pureed. Oil: Oils are fats that are liquid at room temperature, like the vegetable oils used in cooking. Oils come from many different plants and from fish. Milk: All fluid milk products and most foods made from milk are considered part of this food group. Foods made from milk that retain their calcium content are part of the group, while foods made from milk that have little to no calcium, such as cream cheese, cream, and butter, are not. Most milk group choices should be fat free or low fat. Meat & Beans: All foods made from meat, poultry, fish, dry beans or peas, eggs, nuts, and seeds are considered part of this group. Dry beans and peas are part of this group as well as the vegetable group. 3
Show pictures of the different foods and ask the students which group the foods fit in to. Hold up a picture or say the name of the food and ask the kids to vote on which group it belongs. When possible, first, show foods from a single food group. Then show foods that include multiple groups, like spaghetti or pizza. Assignment: Give the students a Food Journal worksheet and help them it out and build the journal. Ask them to fill in the foods they eat for the next few days. Also ask them to record the food groups from which they eat. 4
Respecting Others The STAR Method Students will begin thinking about how their actions may affect someone else s feelings. They will also consider what actions they can take to reduce hurtful experiences. Have some music (music you think the students might like) and a way of playing music so the entire classroom can hear. Tell the students that you are going to turn on some music. Explain that while the music is playing they should walk around the room in any direction they wish. Let them know that when you stop the music and call out a number, they should stop and grab hands to make a group with enough students to equal the number that has been called out. They cannot let additional students into their group. They should maintain that group until the music has started again. Repeat the process several times. Discussion: How did you feel when you were left out and maybe even pushed out of the group? (List the responses on the board). What did you do to make sure that you were part of a group the next time around? How did you feel when you saw other students excluded from the group? What did you do to make sure that you were part of a group the next time around? What kind of real life experiences leave us with similar kinds of hurt feelings? (Friends gather at lunch and exclude students, students say things to other students to make them feel unwanted and unimportant. Students talk behind other student s backs.) What do we do when we are in these kinds of situations? How does being bullied or cyber bullied apply to these situations? Considering how we all felt during the activity, what can we do to help avoid these types of situations in the future? 5
Activity Journal Monday Write the activities you did and the number of minutes spent doing them for each day of the week. Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Food Journal Day: Write the foods you eat for each meal MEAL FOODS FOOD GROUPS Breakfast Day: Write the foods you eat for each meal MEAL FOODS FOOD GROUPS Breakfast Lunch Lunch Dinner Dinner Snacks Snacks