Psycho-Education Curriculum Lesson Plan
Module
The Lorax Module 1
SELF: How We Recognize and Respond to Loss
Audience
Middle School
Objectives
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Identify the different characters’ responses to loss in
The Lorax
Connect how an individual experiences loss to his/her
personal history
Understand that not everyone will respond to the
same loss in the same way
Materials/Resources
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The Lorax Film
Paper, pencils
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Explain to students that they will be watching the film
The Lorax and talking about how the characters in the
story lost their forest. Explain to the students that loss
is a natural part of life for everyone, and we can learn
how to better handle losses in our lives so that we can
respond in healthy ways to what we’ve lost.
Explain to students that everyone responds to loss
differently, and whatever emotion they feel when
they lose something is natural and normal.
Modeling: On a whiteboard the teacher will identify 5
things s/he would be affected by if s/he lost it. The
teacher will model big losses (people, natural
disasters, etc) with small things (favorite book, car
keys) to help students understand that even small
losses can cause big emotional reactions.
Learning Activities
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The teacher will direct the students to write down
their own 5 things that would affect them personally
of they lost them.
Show Students the film The Lorax.
Pause movie at key points.
o Discussion questions throughout the movie:
 What loss does this character
experience, and how does s/he react
to it?
 What emotions do you think that
character is feeling, and why?
 Why would this character react
differently to the loss of the forest
than another character?
At the end of the movie, the teacher will explain to
the students that they will be continuing in the
coming weeks to use The Lorax to talk about Safety,
Emotions, Loss and Future.
Exit Ticket: Students reflect in writing what the Take
Home Message means to them personally
Take Home Message
Everyone experiences loss and there are normally emotions
that come with loss. Not everyone has the same emotion for
the same loss.
Group Variations
Psycho-Education Curriculum Lesson Plan
Module
The Lorax Module 2
Safety: The Importance of Safety to Wellbeing
Audience
Middle School
Objectives
Materials/Resourc
es
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Identify things in one’s own environment/community that are threats to
safety.
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The Lorax Film
Paper, pencils
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Explain to students that they will be using the film The Lorax, which they
saw the day before, to do some activities around the idea of safety.
Ask students to identify key moments from the film that were impactful
for them in order to activate prior knowledge and connect the lesson to
the previous day.
Show Students the following clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c1I0Sz4Nks&index=5&list=RDp1jp
KTYmIzA
Discuss with students the importance of this clip to the entire film and
how this family moving in to the forest represents a threat to the safety
of the Truffula Forest.
Discussion questions: What different kinds of safety are there (physical,
emotional, psychological, moral)? Why is it important to feel safe? What
are some examples from the movie where someone’s safety was
threatened?
Activity: Students work in groups of 3-4 to identify elements in their
school that are threats to safety. Students will then identify elements in
their community that are threats to safety.
Learning Activities
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Groups will report out their safety threats.
Take Home
Message
All people have the need for community and to belong to a group, but this
cannot happen unless the person first feels a sense of safety.
Group Variations
Names: ________________________________________________________________________
Threats to Safety in Your School
Threats to Safety in Your Community
Psycho-Education Curriculum Lesson Plan
Module
The Lorax Module 3
Safety: The Fight-Flight-Freeze Response
Audience
Middle School
Objectives
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Understand the basic human stress
response and how it interferes with
safety.
Identify one’s own typical response to
stress
Materials/Resources
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The Lorax film:
Paper, pencils, index cards
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Explain to students that they will
continue to use the film The Lorax to
explore the idea of safety.
Ask students to identify key moments
from the film that were impactful for
them in order to activate prior
knowledge and connect the lesson to the
previous ones.
Remind students of the scene in the film
when the Lorax first appears from the sky
and ask them if they remember the
responses from the forest animals (the
animals all run away and hide.)
Explain to the students that the human
response to a stressful situation can take
the form of fight, flight or freeze, and
that everyone reacts differently based on
their personal life experiences.
Learning Activities
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Ask students to identify any other stress
responses that they saw in the film.
Explain to students that we can train our
brains to react differently to stress by
creating a plan to keep ourselves safe
whenever we encounter stress and/or
frustration.
Activity: The teacher will model his/her
own safety plan. Students then will work
individually to create safety plans,
identifying 5 things they can do
personally to help themselves remain at
an emotional baseline.
Each student will report out one item on
their safety plan.
The teacher will collect the safety plans
and create a display in the classroom of
all of the safety plans.
Take Home Message
All people experience stress, but we can learn to
cope with stress in an appropriate way by giving
ourselves the tools to handle stressful situations.
Group Variations
Psycho-Education Curriculum Lesson Plan
Module
The Lorax Module 4
Emotions: Living with our Choices and Their Consequences
Audience
Middle School
Objectives
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Communicate an emotional state
Identify emotions in a situation and match appropriate emotion to that
situation
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The Lorax Film
Paper, pencils
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Explain to students that they will be using the film The Lorax, which
they previously saw, to do some activities around the idea of emotions.
Ask students to identify key moments from the film that were impactful
for them in order to activate prior knowledge and connect the lesson to
the previous day.
Show Students the following clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nNgHSJNbEE&list=RDp1jpKTYmIz
A&index=12
Discussion questions: How does the Once-ler feel about what his
Materials/Resources
Learning Activities
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Take Home Message
Thneed business did to the Lorax and friends? How do our actions
have consequences for other people? How do our emotional reactions
have consequences for other people in our lives? Have there ever been
any times when you regretted something you did because of the effect
it had on someone else?
Activity: Students will complete the Stress Journal and the Emotional
Squares. At the end of the activity, each student will share one item
from either their stress journal or their emotional squares.
Before you can deal with stress and negative emotions. You must learn to
recognize what causes it.
Group Variations
Psycho-Education Curriculum Lesson Plan
Module
The Lorax Module 5
Emotions: The Emotional Impact of Man’s Inhumanity
Audience
Middle School
Objectives
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Explain the importance of standing up for what is morally and/or
ethically right.
Identify current events that represent man’s inhumanity toward man.
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The Lorax film
Paper, pencils, glue sticks
Newspapers and magazines
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Show students the clip from The Lorax:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSnbAr0eA2E&list=RDp1jpKTYmI
zA&index=10
Lead the students to understand that despite the bad things the
Onceler has done to the forest, the Lorax is still concerned about him
as a person and wants to help him when he is in danger.
Discussion Questions: Why does the Lorax speak for the trees? Why is
Materials/Resources
Learning Activities
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it important to speak up for others? Have you ever spoken up for
someone else? Has someone else ever spoken up for you?
Activity: Divide students into groups of 3-4 and distribute
newspapers/magazines to each group. Students will work together to
create a collage of headlines that display man’s inhumanity toward
each other.
After they complete the collage, the teacher will display all of the
collages at the front of the room and ask the students to do a brief
“gallery walk” to view each group’s collage. Each student then will
write a brief poem describing the emotion(s) they feel when seeing the
headline collages.
Take Home Message
A tree falls the way it leans. Be careful which way you lean.
Group Variations
Psycho-Education Curriculum Lesson Plan
Module
Lorax Module 6
Loss: Tangible and Intangible Loss
Audience
Middle School
Objectives
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Explore loss as an inevitable part of life
Acknowledge that all people, including children,
experience loss
Materials/Resources
Lorax film
Paper, pencils
Learning Activities
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Explain to students that they will be using the film
The Lorax, which they previously saw, to do some
activities around the idea of loss.
Ask students to identify key moments from the
film that were impactful for them in order to
activate prior knowledge and connect the lesson to
the previous day.
Explain to students that loss comes in many forms,
and sometimes what we lose are things we can
touch (keys, a pencil, house) and sometimes they
are things that we cannot touch (hope, dreams,
love, friendship).
Show Students the following clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kA5A77v5Vdc
Ask students to identify what tangible and
intangible things the Onceler and the Lorax have
lost or may lose after the Lorax curses the Onceler.
Activity: Students are divided into groups of 3-4
and directed to write a brief story that begins with
the line “Today was the best day of my life.” After
the groups finish writing the story, the teacher will
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tell the students that they now must rewrite the
story, but they cannot use any words that contain
the letter “m.” Students will rewrite their stories
with this new parameter.
The students will read both version of their stories
to the whole class.
The teacher will then facilitate a discussion with
the students about what they felt when they lost
the ability to use words with the letter “m.”
(frustrated, angry, silly, bored, etc.).
End by asking the students to think of their safety
plans and share if there is anything on their safety
plan that can help them deal with a loss that they
experience.
Take Home Message
Loss is a part of life. Loss often brings up painful feelings so
it’s important to find ways to express your feelings.
Group Variations
Psycho-Education Curriculum Lesson Plan
Module
Lorax Module 7
Loss: Change and Transitions as Loss
Audience
Middle School
Objectives
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Identify something that you will lose when school
ends for the summer
Acknowledge that a transition to something new
means the loss of something familiar
Materials/Resources
Lorax film
Paper, pencils
Learning Activities
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Explain to students that they will be using the film
The Lorax, which they previously saw, to do some
activities around the idea of loss.
Ask students to identify key moments from the film
that were impactful for them in order to activate
prior knowledge and connect the lesson to the
previous day.
Show Students the following clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nNgHSJNbEE
Ask the students to identify why the Lorax is angry
that the tree was chopped down, and help them
understand that this represents a loss for the Lorax
and his emotional response is appropriate.
Explain to students that they will be ending school
soon for the summer and that this transition, while
exciting for some, can be hard for other because it
means they will lose what they are familiar with.
Ask students to identify something that they will
lose when school breaks for the summer.
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Activity: The whole group will participate in the
larger activity together. Seat the students in a
circular shape at desks where they will be writing.
Each student begins with a piece of paper, and the
students will write the phrase “When school ends, I
am going to lose . . .” and then finish the sentence.
After each student has written a sentence, they
will pass the paper to the left, and each student
with the new paper will add one new sentence to
what was previously written. The students will
continue to write one new sentence and pass
papers to the left until every student gets back her
original paper. When each student has her original
paper, direct students to write one final sentence
to end the narrative.
Direct each student to read their narrative out loud
to the group.
Ask students to share what they felt as they were
reading about other people’s losses.
Take Home Message
When we experience change, we often lose something,
and that loss comes with feelings about the loss. We can
look to each other for comfort in times of loss.
Group Variations
Psycho-Education Curriculum Lesson Plan
Module
Lorax Module 8
Future: The Power of Hope
Audience
Middle School
Objectives
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Identify an individual strength for each student
Explore how that strength can be used to make a
positive change in the world.
Brainstorm the solutions to a community problem
Materials/Resources
Lorax film
Paper, pencils
Hand graphic organizer
Learning Activities
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Explain to students that they will be using the film
The Lorax, which they previously saw, to do some
activities around the idea of future.
Ask students to identify key moments from the
film that were impactful for them in order to
activate prior knowledge and connect the lesson
to the previous day.
Show Students the following clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1jpKTYmIzA
Discussion questions: What does the last Truffala
seed represent? Why is it important that Ted be
the one to plant the seed? What is unique about
Ted that the Onceler believes he can bring the
forest back.
Explain to students that one person really can
change the world. Ask students to identify famous
people who have used their power to influence
the world in a positive way.
Activity: Students will first fill out the hand model
graphic organizer. They will put their name in the
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palm of the hand and write 5 things that are
unique to them that they believe make them a
powerful person.
After filling out the G.O. the teacher will lead the
students in a discussion to explore either a
problem of their community or a problem with
the school.
As a group, the students will brainstorm a solution
to the problem they have identified and form a
task force to solve the problem. Each student will
have a role in solving the problem based on their
unique powers identified in the G.O.
As a group they will write a letter to the
community or school leader describing their
solution and how each person in their group is
going to play a role in solving the problem.
Take Home Message
Unless someone like you cares an awful lot, nothing is
going to get better
Group Variations
Psycho-Education Curriculum Lesson Plan
Module
Lorax Module 9
Future: Making the World a Better Place
Audience
Middle School
Objectives
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Identify how a person can make a difference in a community
Materials/Resources
Lorax film
Paper, pencils, crayons, colored pencils
Text of MLK’s I Have a Dream speech
Learning Activities
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Explain to students that they will be using the film The Lorax, which
they previously saw, to do some activities around the idea of future.
Ask students to identify key moments from the film that were
impactful for them in order to activate prior knowledge and connect
the lesson to the previous day.
Show Students the following clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUvHO33iaxg&list=RDp1jpKTYmI
zA&index=3
Discussion questions: What do you think bringing the forest back will
do for the community of Thneedville? What did the community lose
when they lost all of their trees? Why is it important that Ted be the
one to bring back the trees?
Explain to students that they are going to look at MLK’s famous I Have
A Dream speech as an example of how one person can make a huge
difference in the world.
Activity: Distribute copies of the text of the speech and lead a Read
Aloud of the speech with the students. The teacher will need to stop
frequently and help students understand the language and the main
ideas.
Ask students to take parts of the speech that they believe are
important and practice reading it out loud with passion and conviction.
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Direct students to choose one line from the speech that they think is
particularly important, and use that line as the title for a drawing and
then illustrate it.
Students will share their illustrations with the rest of the class.
Take Home Message
We can make the world a safe, peaceful place by just being in it.
Group Variations
The Text of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
"I Have a Dream" Speech
Aug. 28, 1963
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the
greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand
today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came
as a great beacon of hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been seared
in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the
long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro is still not
free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by
the manacle of segregation and the chains of discrimination.
One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the
midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the
Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself
an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a
shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our Nation's Capital to cash a check. When the
architects of our great republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution
and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to
which every American was to fall heir.
This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men,
would be guaranteed to the inalienable rights of life liberty and the pursuit of
happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar
as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred
obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that has
come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to
believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this
nation. So we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon
demand the riches of freedom and security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce
urgency of Now. This is not time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to
take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.
Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy.
Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the
sunlit path of racial justice.
Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the
solid rock of brotherhood.
Now is the time to make justice a reality to all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to
underestimate the determination of it's colored citizens. This sweltering
summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an
invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an
end but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off
steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns
to business as usual.
There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted
his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the
foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm
threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our
rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds.
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of
bitterness and hatred. We must ever conduct our struggle on the high plane
of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate
into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights
of meeting physical force with soul force.
The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must
not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as
evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their
destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their
freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march
ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees
of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long
as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of
travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the
cities.
We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller
ghetto to a larger one.
We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their
selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for white only."
We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a
Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down
like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of your trials and
tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of
you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by
storms of persecutions and staggered by the winds of police brutality.
You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the
faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina go
back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of
our modern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be
changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that
even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow. I still have a
dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true
meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are
created equal.
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former
slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at
the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering
with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and
justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where
they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their
character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its
governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and
nullification; that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black
girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters
and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and
every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and
the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be
revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With
this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of
hope.
With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation
into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle
together, to go to jail together, to climb up for freedom together, knowing that
we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new
meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land
where my father's died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside,
let freedom ring!"
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom
ring from the hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty
mountains of New York.
Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.
Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that, let freedom, ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi and every
mountainside.
And when this happens, when we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from
every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be
able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white
men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands
and sing in the words of the old spiritual, "Free at last, free at last. Thank God
Almighty, we are free at last.