Feeling Better - Worksheet
A differentiated Kโ2 character study exploring coping strategies, emotional regulation and positive decision-making through Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. Students identify helpful ways Alexander could respond to difficult situations, compare effective and ineffective coping strategies, reflect on their own emotional responses, and develop practical problem-solving skills. The activities encourage empathy, resilience and emotional literacy while strengthening comprehension and personal connections to the story.
Learning goals
- We are learning to use appropriate interaction skills to respond to others in a familiar environment.
- We are learning to understand how texts work on screen and in print, e.g. reading left to right, top to bottom.
- We are learning that in narrative and informative texts, the words and pictures work together to create meaning.
- We are learning to use and build vocabulary through speaking and listening and discussing new words on many topics.
- We are learning to use comprehension strategies, such as visualising, predicting, connecting, summarising and questioning to make meaning.
- We are learning to create and edit short written texts to record and report ideas and events using capital letters, punctuation and correct spelling of CVC words.
- We are learning to recognise the impact that facial expressions and gestures have when asking for and providing information, making offers, exclaiming, requesting and giving commands.
- We are learning to use nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs to structure a sentence and make it more vivid.
- We are learning to understand the different purposes of images in various text types and how they contribute to meaning.
- We are learning to use comprehension strategies to find literal and inferred meaning in texts.
- We are learning to create, re-read and edit short written and multimodal texts to report on a topic, express an opinion or recount an event using capital letters, punctuation and correct spelling.
- We are learning to recognise formal and informal language and understand the appropriate use of each.
- We are learning to use nouns to represent people, places, objects and ideas and to identify the articles and adjectives to build noun groups or to express verbs as verb groups.
- We are learning to identify visual representations of charactersโ actions, reactions, speech and thought processes in narratives and to consider how these images affect the meaning of the words.
- We are learning to use comprehension strategies to find literal and inferred meaning in texts and begin to analyse texts by drawing on our knowledge.
- We are learning to create short imaginative, informative and persuasive multimodal texts using text structures, language and grammatical features appropriate to the audience and purpose.
- We are learning that in narrative and informative texts, the words and pictures work together to create meaning.
- We are learning to use and build vocabulary through speaking and listening and discussing new words on many topics.
- We are learning to use comprehension strategies, such as retelling, making inferences and finding key words to make meaning from multimodal texts.
- We are learning to edit texts for meaning, spelling, capital letters and full stops, for ourselves and others.
- We are learning to construct texts using software including word processing programs, e.g. MS Word.
- We are learning to create short imaginative, informative and persuasive texts to explore, record and report ideas using familiar words and beginning writing knowledge.
- We are learning to recognise the impact that facial expressions and gestures have when interacting with others.
- We are learning to explore different ways of expressing emotions.
- We are learning to understand the difference between commands, statements and questions (both open and closed).
- We are learning to use nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs to structure a sentence and make it more vivid.
- We are learning to understand the different purposes of images in different text types and how they contribute to meaning.
- We are learning to use comprehension strategies to find literal and inferred meaning in texts.
- We are learning to create texts for a purpose that show our understanding of the connection between writing, speech and images.
- We are learning to edit our texts and make changes to improve meaning, spelling and punctuation.
- We are learning to use software, e.g. MS Word to construct texts and add images.
- We are learning to use common nouns, proper nouns and pronouns to represent people, places, objects and ideas, e.g. love, time, and beauty, and to use this knowledge of nouns and adjectives to build noun groups.
- We are learning to identify representations of charactersโ actions, reactions, speech and thought processes in narratives and to consider how they affect the meaning of the words.
- We are learning to create short imaginative, informative and persuasive texts using text structures and language features appropriate to the audience and purpose.
- We are learning to re-read and edit text for spelling, sentence punctuation and text structure.
- We are learning to use software, e.g. MS Word or PowerPoint to construct texts which include visual and audio elements.
Curriculum alignment
Australian Curriculum covers QLD / SA / WA / NT / TAS / ACT.
Differentiation
Modifications
Provide visual supports, emotion cards or sentence starters before writing. Encourage partner discussions or oral responses, reduce the number of scenarios for younger learners, or provide opportunities for students requiring extension to suggest alternative coping strategies and justify why they would be effective.
Extensions
Create a "Coping Toolbox" poster showing strategies students can use when they feel upset. Compare Alexander's reactions with another story character and discuss which coping strategies each character could use. Older students could write an additional page for the story showing Alexander using positive coping strategies to manage another difficult situation.