My name, my identity 

Introduction 

During the introduction you will teach the children how to develop the feeling of being needed and wanted. Safety will need to be created during the exercise named 'compliment back'. This safeness will act as a base throughout the entire session.

 

1. Place the children in a circle.

2. Explain to the children what is planned for today

In this case: start with a short compliment exercise, warm-up through an exercise in pairs, find out what we like and where our skill lie.

3. Then tell the children we will be giving compliments to each other.

4. Explain the exercise to them.

The idea is that every child will have their back full of compliments at the end of the exercise. This can be achieved if everyone in the group will write 1 compliment on the back of each child. These can be compliments such as: I like you, you have beautiful hair, and you are good at playing football.

Step 1: Make sure you have 8 pens, 8 pieces of paper and tape ready.

Step 2: During the explanation of the exercise you have to stick 1 paper to each child’s back.

Sep 3: Hand out the pens. Give 1 pen to each child.

Step 4: Turn on the music. This can be any music of choice. This needs to be a fun time for the children, so it’s best if they can play music that they like.

Step 5: The children should now walk criss-cross through each other and write 1 compliment on the back of each child.

Step 6: When everyone has written a compliment to each other, stop the music. Then place the children in a circle again.

Step 7: Let the children choose 3 compliments that they received on their paper that they would like to share with the rest of the group.

Step 8: Then go around the circle and let the children share their compliments in the first person. E.g. "I can draw really well", "I am sweet" etc. Ultimately, each child should have shared 3 compliments of themselves with the rest of the group by the end of the session.

 

Points of attention:

- Ensure that you participate yourself, this way you will increase the confidence between you and the children.

- Ensure that all children receive at least 1 compliment. Separate groups should not supposed to be formed and no children          should receive more compliments than any other child. Everyone should get the same amount.

- Make sure the exercise is taken seriously. Laughing with others is not conducive to the group atmosphere and certainly not to    the development of a positive self-esteem. Also check after the session that children are not bullied or laughed at.

- Give compliments to the children yourself. If you really like a compliment then call it out. This way you are also responding to      the qualities of children.

 

Warm-up 

During the warm-up, attention will be paid to individuals. The children will learn that they have their own will and can take matters into their own hands. We will also work on communication between the children. Read the following step by step instruction where I go onto explain what you need to do.

 

1. Place the children in pairs and ask them to spread themselves across the room.

2. Explain the exercise to them.

The exercise consists of 2 parts: 

Part 1:

Step 1: Show the children the picture of the puppet from session 3.

Step 2: Ask them if they remember this puppet and can remember what its qualities were.

Step 3: Tell them that 1 person from their pair will play the puppet and that the other person will control the puppet by pulling on the imaginary strings. The puppet is meant to allow the other persons control to follow his or her movements.

Step 4: Get the children do the exercise and let them express themselves to the music

Step 5: After a couple of minutes ask them to swap roles with their partners.

 

Points of attention:

- Allow creativity. Let the children let themselves go completely.

- Ensure that the children don’t touch each other. The strings are intended to set the children in motion.

- Put on matching music. An option can be found in the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBuZDwBrsH8

 

Part 2: 

Step 1: Split the pairs up. From now on, the children will work individually and will learn how to direct themselves.

Step 2: Now ask the children to be spontaneous and move freely without thinking about what they are going to do.

 

Points of attention:

- Allow the children’s creativity. The children can be themselves.

- Call out what you see in a positive way. Name the children’s qualities.

- To connect the 2 different parts of the exercise you should play the same music in both parts.

 

3. Video

You will find below a video which will give you some suggestions of the type of movements the children could make when imitating a puppet.

 

core 

During the core of this session the children will learn how to express their opinion and can say what they like and don’t like. To understand this the children will need to do an exercise that also ensures that they will feel accepted and that trust can be built with others. This exercise is good for the children's self-image. Read the following step by step instruction where I explain what you need to do.

 

1. Ask the children spread themselves across the room.

2. Explain the exercise to them.

The aim of the exercise is that the children need to think about 5 things they like to do, or are good at doing. Afterwards it is important that they link a movement to 5 things they have chosen. They then need to stand in pairs and share their movements with the other person.

Step 1: Let the children think about the 5 things they like or are good at doing. If necessary you can let them write it down on a piece of paper.

Step 2: Let them link a movement to the 5 things they have chosen. You can give them a couple of minutes to think about this.

Sep 3: You then need to place them in pairs and ask them to spread themselves across the room.

Step 4: Explain that they can now show each other their 5 movements that they have created. Ask the children to also guess what each other's movements are.

Step 5: Then ask the children to choose just 1 movement they want to show to the rest of the group.

Step 6: Then place the children back in to a circle.

Step 7: Let each child perform their movement that he or she has chosen. They then also need to explain what the movement means to the rest of the group. The others in the circle can then imitate this movement.

 

3. Video

In the video below you will find my movements for the things I like or can do well.

I am Maxime and I love: cuddling, eating, dancing, traveling and magic