Jumpstart! PSHE

Games and activities for ages 7-13

John Foster

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317485285
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This collection of engaging and simple to use activities will jumpstart students' understanding of themselves, their relationships and their knowledge of how to lead a healthy lifestyle.

A wealth of practical activities in the book range from class and group discussions and formal debates to games, role plays, hot seating and thought tracking. This book enables teachers to deliver effective and imaginative PSHE lessons, encouraging children to:

• Share their views on issues that concern them such as bullying

• Learn to think for themselves and to make their own decisions

• Be aware of the dangers involved in drinking, smoking and drugtaking

• Understand their relationships with family and friends

• Explore social issues such as prejudice and discrimination

• Learn how to handle their emotions

Jumpstart! PSHE is an essential classroom resource that will encourage the personal development of children and is the perfect solution for helping teachers deliver effective and imaginative PSHE lessons.

PART 1 Developing self-knowledge and understanding relationships

DOI: 10.4324/9781315709222-1

CHAPTER 1 Understanding yourself

DOI: 10.4324/9781315709222-2

This chapter aims to provide activities that will help children to recognise their strengths, to consider what they are good at and what their interests are and to identify positive features of their personality. It also contains activities to encourage them to think about the future, identifying their priorities, discussing attitudes to work and what it means to be an adult.

How do you do? (Year 3 circle activity)

Aim: To help the children to begin to understand their own strengths and those of other people.

This is an introductory activity in which the children move round the circle shaking hands with each other and introducing themselves by saying, ‘How do you do? I’m…’ and telling each other their name, one thing they are good at, one thing that they hope to become better at during year 3.

We've Got Talent (Years 3 and 4 circle activity)

Aim: To recognise what each individual is good at and that everyone has different talents.

In circle time, get them to talk about their hobbies and what they like doing. Encourage them to think about things that they are good at doing. Then tell them to write down on separate pieces of paper one thing that they like doing and one thing that they are good at. Place a box labelled ‘Our Talent Box’ in the middle of the room and get them to put their pieces of paper in it anonymously.

Conclude the session by picking some of the pieces of paper out of the box and getting the class to guess who wrote them.

As a follow-up, you can invite the children to take turns in the following weeks to prepare a short talk about their hobby to give to the class. At the end of each talk encourage the children to ask questions about the person’s hobby.

IF (Years 3 and 4 circle activity)

Aim: To get the children thinking about themselves and their lives.

In this activity you go round the circle asking the children first to talk about their likes and dislikes, then about what changes they’d make in their lives if they could. Tell them that they do not have to say anything when it’s their turn, if they’d prefer not to do so, and just to say ‘Pass’.

Round 1	One thing I like doing in my spare time.
Round 2	One thing I like doing at school.
Round 3	One thing I hate.
Round 4	One thing I’d like to change at home.
Round 5	One thing I’d like to change at school.
Round 6	One thing I’d like to change about myself.

End the session by talking about some of the things they suggested changing. Discuss how easy or difficult it would be to make the changes.

What Sort of Person are you? (Years 5 and 6 card game)

Aim: To encourage each of the children to recognise positive aspects of their personality.

This is a game for groups of four. Ask the children to make a set of cards for their group with the following character traits written on separate cards: Explain that the object of the game is for each of them to collect three cards with characteristics which they think apply to them. They shuffle the cards and they take turns to draw a card from the pack. If they think the card describes one of their strengths they keep it. If they think it doesn’t, they return it to the bottom of the pack. The game continues until all four of them have three cards. They then show the three cards to the other members of the group who challenge them to give a reason why they think the card applies to them. For example, when challenged to explain why they choose to keep the card saying kind, one of them might say, ‘I think I am kind because…’ and quote an incident in which they showed kindness.

shy, confident, kind, cheerful, ambitious, honest, reliable, polite, truthful, dependable, thoughtful, sympathetic, open to advice, tolerant, generous, supportive, even-tempered, helpful, patient, decisive, caring, well-behaved, hard-working, considerate, friendly, adventurous, brave, open to criticism, sensitive, trustworthy.

What are your Strengths? (Years 5 and 6 card game)

Aim: To help the children to identify strengths.

This is a game for groups of three children. Ask the children to make a set of cards for their group with the following skills written on separate cards: Shuffle the cards and take turns to pick a card. The children must decide whether or not they have that skill. If they think they have that skill, they must show the card to the other two players and give their reasons for saying that they have the skill. If they cannot convince the other two players, the card is returned to the bottom of the pack. Once one person has three cards, they are the winner.

good listener, can explain ideas, can give reasons for views, can negotiate, can follow instructions, good at problem-solving, well-organised, good at making things, can express opinions orally, can identify key points, good at researching, can express views in writing.

The other two continue to play until one of them gets to keep three cards. The third member of the group plays on until they too have three cards.

The Future I'd Like (Years 5–8 discussion)

Aim: To get the children think about what their priorities are.

Ask the children to think about what their life would be like in an ideal world in the future and to write down what they would like to have done by the age of 25. Ask them to think of up to five things they would like to have done. Prompt them to think about such things as go to university, own my own house, travel round the world, play in a pop group, make a lot of money, have a job that helps people, get married, have children, play for England, climb Mount Everest, own a fast car, own my own business.

Encourage them to share their ideas with a partner and to discuss how their ideas are different and what this tells each of them about what their priorities are and what is important to them.

What is Work? (Years 6 and 7 making a collage)

Aim: To understand that there are different kinds of work.

Ask the children: What do we mean by work? Give groups copies of old newspapers and magazines and invite them to make a collage which illustrates the different kinds of work that people do. Prompt them to think about such things as physical work and mental work, paid work and voluntary work, manual workers and clerical workers. Encourage them to include words from job adverts as well as pictures in their collages. When they have completed their collages, ask them to show them to the other groups and to explain why they have included the pictures and words that they have.

What Sort of Job do you want? (Years 6 and 7 ranking activity)

Aim: To discuss their attitudes to different types of jobs.

Ask the children: What sort of job interests them? Do they want a job simply to earn money or because it will help people? Do you want a job that will give you status? What is most important to them? Put the list of types of job (below) on the board and ask them to rank each one according to how important it is to them on a scale of 1 to 10 in which 10 is very important and 1 is not important. Encourage them to compare their scores with a partner and to discuss what their scores reveal about their attitudes to work.

• A job that helps people
• A job that gives me status
• A job that’s not boring
• A job that I can get promoted in
• A job that doesn’t require lots of exams
• A job that involves working with people
• An indoor job
• An outdoor job
• A well-paid job
• A job that interests me and gives job satisfaction
• A job without too much responsibility
• A job that enables me to make full use of my skills.

Becoming an Adult (Years 7–8 discussion)

Aim: To consider what being an adult means.

Ask the children individually to write down what they think being an adult means. Collect their ideas on the board and discuss what being grown up means. Guide the discussion so that you get them to think about such things as acting responsibly, making your own decisions, tolerating and respecting other people’s beliefs and opinions, being reliable and keeping promises. Ask pairs to divide a sheet of paper into two columns labelled ‘Childish behaviour’ and ‘Adult behaviour’ and to list examples of each. For example, under Childish behaviour’ they migh...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part 1 Developing self-knowledge and understanding relationships
• Part 2 Keeping healthy
• Part 3 Living in the wider world