Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL)
NPD September 2007
Staff Activities
Theme: New beginnings
Year group: Foundation
Title: Swap Places
A game for developing group identity.
Everyone stands up in a circle or move the chairs to make a circle. A leader goes into the middle of the circle. The person in the middle says a statement of their own choice, e.g.
‘Swap places if you like eating beans’
Swap places if you like playing in the sand’
‘Swap places if you like going to the park’
Extension
· You could change leaders or ask the leader to choose another leader.
· Everyone swap!
Discussion
When did lots of people swap? Did anyone swap a lot? Did you notice anyone who wasn’t joining in? How could you have got them to join in the game and feel part of the group?
Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL)
NPD September 2007
Staff Activities
Theme: Getting on and falling out
Year group: 3
Title: “I love you honey bunny…”
A game for making people smile!
Everyone stands up in a circle or move the chairs to make a circle. A leader starts the game by turning to the person next to them and saying
‘I love you honey bunny but I just can’t smile.’
You can use facial expressions and change your voice to put off the person next to you to get them to smile and laugh.
Discussion
What made you smile? Who made you smile? How do you feel inside when you smile? What is this feeling called? What happens to your cheeks / lips / eyes when you smile? How do you feel when you make someone else smile? Do you know someone that might need a smile? How could you cheer them up?
Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL)
NPD September 2007
Staff Activities
Theme: Say No To Bullying
Year group: 6
Title: Names and name calling
As a group, come up with common names people in Key Stage Two get called at school. Write each name on two Post-it notes. You may want to talk from your own experience but people who said these names should not be identified. Also, people who have been victim of name-calling should not be identified to the group or by the group.
Now split into two groups. Try to rank these names in order of most to least hurtful.
Discussion
Do both groups agree? Are there some names that both groups think are extremely hurtful? Why is this? What is the school’s policy about name calling, equal opportunities, racism, sexism? What should you do if someone is calling you names or putting you down?
Extension
Can you write a definition of a ‘put down’? When do put-downs and name-calling become bullying?
Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL)
NPD September 2007
Staff Activities
Theme: Going For Goals!
Year group: 4
Title: Barriers
A child has written a note with their homework saying…
Dear Miss Teacher
I haven’t done my homework very well this week because I left my homework in my tray until yesterday. It was my sister’s birthday party yesterday and I had to play with all of her friends and then I couldn’t concentrate because the house was too noisy.
From
A Child
As a group, in pairs or individually, think of any other excuses or reasons a child might give for not doing their work properly.
Then, sort the Post-its into ‘Barriers I can change’ and ‘barriers that I can’t change’.
Discussion
Are the Post-its correctly placed? Are there any that are beyond our control? Which barriers do we need help with? How could you change?
Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL)
NPD September 2007
Staff Activities
Theme: Good To Be Me
Year group: 2
Title: Relaxing
To feel good about ourselves we need to know how we are feeling and be able to calm down when we want to.
One of you will need to be the leader and read aloud these instructions to the rest of the group.
1. Find a space on the floor and make yourself feel as heavy as possible.
2. Slowly lift one arm, imagining it to be made of something really heavy – allow it to fall, repeat with other arm.
3. Lift one leg, again as if it were a dead weight – allow it to fall, repeat with other leg.
4. Tense and tighten up every muscle in the face, clench teeth, feel the skin stretching tight over the face, screw up the eyes, then relax completely.
5. Tighten shoulders then relax
6. tighten neck then relax
7. tighten tummy then relax
8. breather in deeply through the mouth to the count of 1, 2, 3, 4 and out through the mouth to the count of 1, 2, 3, 4
Discussion
What words could you use to describe tense? And relaxed? What happens to our bodies when we feel tense? How do you feel when you feel out of control? Can you give an example?
Sometimes we need to be active and moving quickly and sometimes we need to be more relaxed. It is not good for our bodies to be tense too much of the time, to build up spiky, tight feelings like anger, stress and anxiety. We will feel better inside ourselves and in our bodies if we learn techniques for relaxing.
Try
· Counting to ten, breathing steadily in through your nose and out of your mouth
· Loosely folding your arms and stroking your forearms
Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL)
NPD September 2007
Staff Activities
Theme: Relationships
Year group: 1
Title: Feelings Barometer
In small groups, create a feelings barometer with jealous at one end and proud at the other end. Can you order the events on the cards? Read out the cards and place them on the barometer to indicate how you might feel.
jealous______proud
Now, on a giant piece of paper create a group feelings barometer. Do you agree?
Now read this poem. You could take turns in reading it or you might want to use drama to show the message clearly.
Jealousy is like a worm.
It creeps inside your head and crawls
Turning warm thoughts to cold
Then settles in your tummy waiting
Ready to crawl out again….
Discussion
Are there particular situations or particular people that make you jealous? Think of as many things as you can that you might do to stop yourself being jealous.
Your mum comes second in a marathon. / Your friend wins a prize for the best dancing at the school disco.Your brother wins a prize in a painting competition. / Your mum and dad are always saying how much cleverer and more beautiful your sister is than you.
The boy who sits next to you in class gets more marks than you in the spelling test. / Your sister got a more expensive present for Christmas.
Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL)
NPD September 2007
Staff Activities
Theme: Changes
Year group: 5
Title: Melanie’s Journal
Read through Melanie’s Journal
Try to find the cause of her feelings. Create a table showing…
Change / Loss / Melanie’s FeelingsDiscussion
Why was Melanie upset that her parents wanted to move? How did she feel? What would she miss?
Why didn’t Melanie write in her journal for a while between March and June?
Who had changed?
How did her feelings change from January to September?
Extension
Have you ever moved house or moved schools? What happened? How did you feel? What would you miss if you moved house?