Third Grade Life Skills Parent Newsletter - Key School

The problem solving model we are teaching at school has four steps.
1. What is the problem?
2. What can I do?
3. What might happen if...?
4. Choose and use a solution.
(1) The first step - answering “What is the problem?” - requires
students to pay attention to feelings, facial expressions, body language,
and situational clues in order to identify what is the matter. Children
tend to phrase problems from only one point-of-view and often are
judgmental and blaming, so we practice neutral problem statements:
Blaming:
Neutral:
Jack is mean. He took the ball and won’t let
Jill play with it.
Jack and Jill want to play with the same ball,
and Jack got to it first.
To assist students with problem identification, we use the acronym
H.A.L.T. - Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. Halt, meaning stop, is an
appropriate reminder for students to slow down and consider what the
problem might be: “Is it hunger, anger, loneliness or tiredness?” For
example, a child bickering during the drive home from school might
really be hungry and tired (sound familiar?).
(2) The second step - answering “What can I do?” - requires
students to think about what they need to do during a problem situation.
In class, we are generating a list of ideas for students to refer to
throughout the year (copies will be sent home).
Sometimes children become stuck on one type of solution and need
assistance generating alternatives. We can help students to
brainstorm as many ideas as possible by refraining from evaluating
their suggestions, remaining neutral, and gently probing (“That’s one
idea. What is another? Can you think of a different type of option?
What else could you do?”).
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