This season, Girls on the Run Greater Boston will post an overview of each week's lessons for families/guardians to follow along with their participants over the next 8 weeks. 

Girls on the Run 

Lesson 5: Stick With It!

The big idea for Lesson 5 was Stick With It! In this lesson, we learned Stick-With-It Strategies to help us persist when things feel difficult. We tried some of these strategies in our warm-up as we took on a

balloon challenge. We set our first lap goal during our workout and practiced using our Stick-With-It Strategies to find and go our happy pace! The GOTR Goal was: Use a Stick-With-It Strategy when you face a challenge.

Questions and Conversation Starters

1. What is one Stick-With-It Strategy you might use outside of GOTR?

2. Share how you stuck with something, even though it was hard. Ask your child to share how they have stuck with something, too!

Lesson 6: Self-Talk

The big idea for Lesson 6 was Self-Talk. The team learned the difference between positive and negative self-talk in this lesson. We considered how our self-talk impacts our I Can! Power and our ability to keep going when we feel challenged. In our workout, we learned about the powerful YET! (I can’t ___ YET, but I CAN ____!) The GOTR Goal was: Use your YET shield to change your self-talk.

Questions and Conversation Starters

1. Tell me how to use the powerful YET!

2. How can we use positive self-talk at home?

Heart & Sole (2x a week)

Lesson 5

In Lesson 5, the Big Idea was that we can be SMART and set goals in our Girl Wheel. Today we continued to talk about SMART goals and how girls can use that concept to set goals in their Girl Wheel. The Activity was a relay that incorporated motions to teach girls a fun way to remember the acronym. In the Workout, girls read sample goals and decided if they are SMART or non-SMART (e.g., make more friends; raise my English grade by the end of the semester). Finally, in the Journal they set a personal goal for the season in their Girl Wheel.

Their Take Home Challenge for this lesson was to start working on their Girl Wheel SMART Goal!

Questions & Conversation Starters:

1. What goal did you set in your Girl Wheel? Can I help you?

2. Share some important goals in your life and how you’ve reached them, as well as obstacles you encountered along the way.

Lesson 6

The Big Idea in Lesson 6 was that we can have different emotional responses and show them in different ways. Today we focused on how girls experience emotions and that people might have different responses to similar situations. In the Activity, the girls chose an emotion corner that best represented their response to a situation and talked about why different people can have different responses. In the Workout, girls reflected on various emotional experiences in their lives, and in the Journal, they connected their experiences to their Girl Wheel.

Their Take Home Challenge for this lesson was to keep track of what situations cause strong emotions and why they think that might be.

Questions & Conversation Starters:

1. Tell me more about the activity. What were some of the situations and the emotional responses you chose?

2. Why do you think two people might have a different emotional response to the same situation? (Share your thoughts and/or an example from your life.)

Heart & Sole (1x a week)

Lesson 3

The Big Idea for Lesson 3 was setting goals is SMART.  Today we taught girls to make SMART goals—the H&S way. In H&S, SMART is an acronym that describes how to set goals: a goal should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, and Rewarding, and there must be enough Time to complete it. The first Activity (to get a ball across the finish line) showed that even seemingly impossible goals are reachable with some planning and teamwork.

In the Workout, they set their first lap goals by making them SMART. Finally, in the Journal, they set a personal goal for the season in their Girl Wheel.

Their Take Home Challenge for this lesson was to work on their Girl Wheel SMART Goal.

Questions & Conversation Starters:

1. How can setting SMART goals help us reach our goals? (Share your thoughts or an example from your life.)

2. What goal did you set in your Girl Wheel? Can I help you?

3. Share some important goals in your life and how you’ve reached them, as well as obstacles you have encountered along the way.

4. KEEP MOVING: Set a SMART goal to train for the 5K using the Heart & Sole Tracker with your girl! For example, you can set a goal to move together for one day or for multiple days each week.