Homework - List nineteen of the worst things that ever happened to you including the approximate year it happened. Classwork - Star the ten most negative from your list. Discuss the items from the lists with students sharing out loud. Let students add to their lists if they desire. The items they placed a star by are the items they will include on their graph.
Students graph positive and negative items on graph paper.
They use words to describe each item and a picture to illustrate them. We discuss scale and legend and how to connect lines in relation to time. The child's age is used at the axis with negative numbers below the age and positive numbers above the axis. These are left in their writing folders if they do not want to share the items they used on their graphs. The students' beginning lists of the positive and negative items are also placed in their writing folders.