Topic “Social Interaction”  

Ask the children "what is a compliment? What should you do if someone gives you a compliment?"

'Teen-age' rag dolls

Cards with names of everyone in the group (including adults)

Giving and receiving compliments as part of a language group. This is a good way to boost children's self esteem.

Materials:

Compliment prompt cards, with or without visual support, as appropriate.

Compliments chart, with each child's name on the left side, with a space on the right side for the chosen compliment to be stuck.

For example:

Blu-tac to stick the compliment cards on to the chart, and the chart on to the wall.

Ball of string

Compliments prompt cards if appropriate.

Have the children stand facing each other in pairs. Tell them to walk forward until they feel they're the right distance away. Discuss how close you can be to others.

Photos of familiar people e.g. adults leading the group, class teacher/s, head teacher, all children in the group, other children from the children's class/es, etc.

photos of unfamiliar people e.g. child, baby, man, woman, police officer, shopkeeper/ market stall holder, bus driver, person at ticket booth at station etc. - from Flash-pro or internet image search

Outline drawing of the body e.g. from "pictures, please" or "language steps" for each child

red and green pens/pencils

Photos of familiar people e.g. adults leading the group, class teacher/s, head teacher, all children in the group, other children from the children's class/es, etc.

Photos of unfamiliar people e.g. police officer, shopkeeper/ market stall holder, bus driver, person at ticket booth at station etc. - from Flash-pro or internet image search.

Comment suggestion cards: comment cards can say things like:

Hello

Hi, mate

How old are you?

What's your name?

How are you?

What do you want?

Please can you be quiet

Shut up

Get out of the way!

Get lost!

Can you help me, please?

Good morning

Excuse me

Oi, you!

Are you a boy or a girl?

Alright?

1. Put the photos where the children can see them and check they can identify who every one is.

2. Have a child pick a comment card and decide which people they could say it to and which people they couldn't

3. children can suggest other comments

Work sheet for each child - on the right hand side, there should be space to stick the picture, on the left, a cloze procedure passage saying:

'My name is ___________

I am ___ years old

I have ____ eyes

I have ____skin

I have ____ hair

I like_________________

I am good at __________

My friend is called ______'

Printouts of body, hair, clothes etc from www.makingfriends.com

Glue

Scissors

Mirror (optional)

1. Print out bodies, hair and clothes from the website - make sure you have the bodies and hair available to allow each child to make a reasonably accurate representation of themselves.

2. Help the children make a picture of themselves using pictures from the website.

3. Add to the pictures to the sheet and help the children fill in the blanks.

4. Ask each child feed back to group.

5. Have a brief discussion of valuing everyone irrespective of colour, looks etc.

- Pictures/photos of different emotions - a printable set of emotion cards are available here.

- Situation cards - click here to print.

1. Print and cut out the resources.

2. Introduce the activity by having a quick discussion of how it's fine if different people feel differently about the same situation.

3. Take turns to choose a situation card and discuss it together. See if you can match how you would feel to the emotions symbols or pictures.

4. Some children may be able to explain why they'd feel that way e.g. "I'd be scared if I saw a spider because I don't like them'.

Photo emotions cards (e.g. LDA, Colorcards or from Flash-Pro) showing photos of Happy, Sad and Angry faces

1. Show the child the pictures and ask them to identify the emotion shown.

2. Help the child to think of alternative names for each emotion (e.g. angry = cross, annoyed, vexed, mad, cheesed off, in a bad temper etc. ...).

3. Put the pictures where the child can see them.

4. Say a sentence in a tone of voice that contradicts the message, e.g. "I'm fine, nothing's wrong with me" in a sad voice.

5. Ask the child to point to the right picture (or say its name) for the emotion you portray

6. Ask the child: "how did I say I was feeling?" and "How did I really feel?"

Group game for a minimum of three people

• Dice and shaker
• Pictures of a variety of different emotions (minimum 6), for example  Google image search;
• Two counters per person (each person needs two counters the same colour, but different from everyone else’s);
• 1-6 grid;
• Game track;
• Phrases cards.

1. Shuffle the emotions cards and put one face up in each of the spaces on the 1-6 grid.

2. Check the children/young person know what each card says and what the emotion is (remove any that are too difficult and put new cards in their place).

3. Let everyone choose a coloured counter. Everyone puts one of their counters on the “start”.

4. Choose one person to start (perhaps the adult should go first).

5. The person who starts shakes the dice in the cup, and puts the cup upside down on the table. Carefully lift up the cup and look at the dice so only you know which number is on top. Look at the emotions cards on the board to see which emotion corresponds to the number on the dice – but don’t say what it is.

6. Pick a phrase card. Read the phrase on the card, displaying the emotion you have been given. Use your voice and gestures. It’s fine to give children help in reading what the phrase is, but not in how to display the emotion!

7. The other players watch the player acting out the emotion. They decide which of the emotions the player is portraying. They put their other counter on the name of the emotion they have chosen.

8. When everyone has voted, the player who acted the emotion lifts up the cup to show which number was on the dice.

9. Check to see who chose the correct emotion. The people who chose correctly move their counter on to the next space

10. The player who acted also moves their counter on the same number of orange spaces as the number of people who guessed correctly.

11. The next player then has a turn to act. Continue until someone has reached the “finish” space.

Pictures of people talking to each other, for example:

Picture books (you may need to cover any writing on the page if this distracts the child);

Commercially produced pictures (e.g. LDA - Emotions cards, "Passages a decouvrir", etc);

Photos (e.g. family snaps, or photos you have specially prepared);

Pictures from comics and magazines;

Drawings you have done.

Pieces of paper cut into the shape of a speech bubble (you can buy speech bubble-shaped post-its from stationers such as Ryman or on-line)

Blu-tac (optional)

1. Show the child the picture you have selected;

2. Encourage them to have a good look at the picture;

3. Encourage them to talk about what is happening in the picture;

4. Encourage them to think about what the people in the pictures might be saying;

5. Stick a speech bubble on the picture so that it is coming out of each person's mouth;

6. Ask what each person is saying;

7. Write this down in the speech bubble (or let the child write it themself).

Larger home-made die with the following on the sides:

1. 1, 2 and 3 spots (each number of spots will appear on two sides), or, alternatively:
2. like a conventional die with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 spots on the sides.

Simple board games (probably best to be home made so they can be simple and adapted to meet your needs e.g. reinforce the colours being taught etc).

1. Take it in turn to roll a die.

2. Count the spots on the side that faces up.

3. Repeat the number a few times - 'ok, you go 3. Number 3; let's count 3 places...'

4. Move the counter forward 3 places, counting each square.

5. Roll again etc.

Action Cards - clapping, jumping, nodding, stand up;

Simple die (as above).