10 Activities to Do This Week

1. Introduction game

*Great for the beginning of the school year or when a new student joins the class.

• Time allocation: 5 minutes to prepare the group, then approximately 2–5 minutes per student
• Ages: 8 years old+ (depending on reading/writing ability)
• Number of people: any even number of participants (teachers can participate to create an even number)
• What’s needed: a slip of paper and a writing utensil for each student

Everyone anonymously writes something interesting about themselves on a piece of paper (preferably something that not everyone already knows) and then gives it back to the teacher. The teacher randomly hands back out the pieces of paper (if a student gets his own, he should tell the teacher so they can swap it out. Students go around the room and talk with one another until they’ve found the person who matches with the interesting fact. Once everyone has found their match, the students introduce their partners to the group.

2. Acts of kindness activity

• Time allocation: can be modified in a number of ways
• Ages: 3+
• Number of people: as a class, a school, an after-school group, etc.
• What’s needed: stickers, poster board (or something similar), and a marker

As a part of social-emotional learning: Discuss what acts of kindness are, and encourage students to look for acts of kindness performed by others.

Each time a student sees someone offering an act of kindness (fellow classmates, friends, and adults), they tell their teacher and put a sticker and their friend’s name on the poster. The students cannot name themselves—only others.

*This can be an ongoing activity with “milestones” along the way, such as 50 acts of kindness equals a free recess, 100 acts of kindness equals a movie in the classroom, etc. Alternatively, it could be measured by an allocated period of time, such as 100 acts of kindness in one month equals a pizza party, etc.

3. Collage

• Time allocation: a one-time activity or as free time in the classroom that accumulates over time
• Ages: 7+
• Number of people: an individual activity or modified to create a collage as a group
• What’s needed: magazines, scissors, glue, and construction paper

As a way to build personal or group identity, allow students to create a collage either individually or as a group.

If done as an individual activity, encourage students to find images they like or that remind them of themselves or their lives. If done as a group, encourage students to work together to create a collage that represents who they are as a group.

Students cut out the images and put them on a piece of construction paper.

*It is important to find magazines that have content students can identify with (such as a healthy mix of magazines for each gender, those that have positive body-image messaging, etc.) Travel magazines are great for this; try to avoid having too many of the same magazines (I advise avoiding fashion or celebrity magazines).

4. Never have I ever…

• Time allocation: 2–5 minutes to prepare the group, then 1 minute per turn
• Ages: 8+
• Number of people: 10–20
• What’s needed: physical space for the whole class to stand or sit in a circle

Everyone sits or stands in a circle. Each player has 10 points to start with (or 5 for a shorter game); when you don’t have any more points, you are out of the game. The last person with points left wins the game.

Students keep track of their points on their hands by holding out all 10 (or 5) fingers and placing them on the floor or holding them up.

One person says something that they haven’t done. For example: “Never have I ever…been to the ocean.” If anyone in the circle has been to the ocean, they lose a point and put one finger down. Then the next person says something they haven’t done: “Never have I ever…” and so on.

If you want to and have the time: If only one person has done the thing from the question, ask them to tell the story of how it happened.

*The goal is to stay in the game the longest (to have fingers remaining). A good strategy is to say statements that most people have done but you haven’t.

5. Name game

*Great for the beginning of the school year or when a new student joins the class.

• Time allocation: 2–5 minutes to prepare the group, then 1 minute per turn
• Ages: 5+
• Number of people: Any
• What’s needed (optional): physical space for the whole class to stand or sit in a circle. Students can also remain seated at their own desks.

This one is simple and can be done in a short amount of time. Tell your students they have a couple of minutes to think about something they like that starts with the same letter as their first name. It could be a type of food, a place they like to visit, a character trait, etc. Then students share their name with the group and the word they’ve chosen. For example, “My name is Emma, and I like elephants,” or “My name is Emma, and I am empathetic.”

6. Circle/Action/Name game

*Great for the beginning of the school year or when a new student joins the class.

• Time allocation: 2–5 minutes to prepare the group, then 1 minute per turn
• Ages: 7+
• Number of people: Any
• What’s needed: physical space for the whole class to stand in a circle.

This game takes a bit of time, depending on how many people are in the group; the more people in the game, the longer it will take.

Everyone stands in a circle side by side. As they say their name, they act out a movement with their body (e.g., jazz hands, jump, squat, etc.). The next person introduces the person before them while mimicking that person’s movement and then introduces themselves with their own movement. This continues until every person has had a chance to introduce themselves and everyone before them). After everyone has had a turn, the whole group goes through the circle together, saying the name of every person while doing that person’s movement. If you have a student who wants a challenge (and you have the time), they can, individually, try to introduce each of their fellow classmates while doing each person’s gesture from the beginning.

7. The wind blows for… (or “I like my neighbor who…”)

• Time allocation: 2 minutes to prepare the group, then approximately 2–5 minutes per student
• Ages: 5+
• Number of people: Any
• What’s needed: physical space that allows for a circle of chairs (1 per player, minus 1—like musical chairs)

Everyone is seated except for one person who stands in the middle of the circle of chairs and says, “The wind blows for anyone who…/I like my neighbor who…” e.g., …is wearing red or …has been to the ocean, etc.

Everyone who is wearing red (or has been to the ocean) has to move (run) to another chair. This will start another round with a new person in the middle (whoever is left without a chair).

*You can play this for as few or as many rounds as you like. Kids always love this game and often want to keep playing. I’d suggest playing until everyone has had a chance to be in the middle.

8. Talking circle spider web

• Time allocation: 2–5 minutes to prepare the group, then approximately 2–5 minutes per student
• Ages: 8+
• Number of people: Any
• What’s needed: physical space that allows for everyone to sit in a circle (with or without chairs, but nothing in the middle of the circle), a ball of yarn (big enough for it to crisscross through the circle as many times as there are participants), and a prompt.

Everyone begins seated in a circle. The first person (most likely the teacher) begins the game by selecting a student to roll the yarn to. The person who receives it holds onto a corner of it (important!) before passing it on to whomever they choose. Before rolling it to the next person, the student will respond to the prompt (e.g., say something nice about the person you’re rolling the yarn to, a daily check-in, etc.). After everyone has had a turn, there will be a web (if everyone remembers to hold on to their piece of yarn).

*The game can end here, or for a team-building activity, the web can be dismantled by the group communicating with one another about how to untangle it and return the ball of yarn back to its original form. This could be accomplished in a variety of ways. Pose the challenge to the group to see what students come up with!

9. A collage of feelings

• Time allocation: a one-time activity or as free time in the classroom frequently that students add to over time
• Ages: Pre-K–4th grade (to modify this for younger students, it can be a group activity or with help from older students or volunteers)
• Number of people: individual activity—or modified to create a collage as a group
• What’s needed: magazines, scissors, glue, and construction paper or poster board (crayons/markers are optional)

As a part of social-emotional learning: discuss feelings and what different feelings might look like, sound like, feel like, etc.

Individually or as a group, look through magazines for pictures of people looking surprised, happy, sad, angry, disappointed, etc.

Create one large collage for each feeling, or divide a large poster board into sections that represent a feeling.

*As an additional activity, students can decorate the collages with crayons or markers in colors they believe represent each feeling.

10. What I wish my teacher knew (could also be adapted as a school-wide activity “what I wish my principal knew”)

• Time allocation: modify as needed
• Ages: 8+
• Number of people: 1 class
• What’s needed: a shoe box (or something similar), stickers, markers/crayons/colored pencils, white or colored plain or construction paper, and any other decorations to decorate the box

The purpose of this activity is to create and introduce the class’s “what I wish my teacher knew” box. This can be done in various fun and creative ways. Each student should have a part in creating or decorating the box. The box can be used whenever a student has something they wish their teacher knew but would rather keep private. They can write on a postcard or small piece of paper what they wish their teacher knew and put it in the box with their name on it (it could be anonymous if necessary, but I recommend that the expectation is that it is not anonymous). Depending on the time available, the level of students’ abilities, etc., the teacher could divide the class in any number of ways, including the following:

Students could create the box in class, or the teacher could create the box ahead of time and have the students decorate it in class.

One group of students could be in charge of creating the box (cutting the slit in the lid, covering it by gluing blank paper to all sides and lid, etc.), and another group of students could be in charge of decorating it (drawing on the blank paper, adding stickers, etc.).

Each student could decorate a small piece of paper or write their name on it and then glue it to the box.

It is important that everyone is involved in the creation of the box so that each student knows what the box is and what it’s for. It can become an important communication tool for the classroom and be used in conjunction with talking circles.