Key Takeaways
- Bullying involves repeated unkind behavior or threats towards others, taking various forms like name-calling, physical harm, online messages, or exclusion.
- It’s crucial for all students to speak up if they or someone else is experiencing bullying.
- Understanding feelings can foster empathy and help in reducing bullying instances.
- Teaching students to differentiate between teasing and bullying is essential.
- Engaging in role-playing scenarios can help students learn how to respond to bullying effectively.
- Encouraging students to stand up for others is vital in preventing bullying.
- Utilizing activities like “Emotion Charades” and “Helping Hands” can facilitate understanding and support against bullying.
Bullying: An Introduction
First, let’s talk about what bullying is. Bullying is when a person repeatedly behaves unkindly or threatens someone else. It can be in the form of name-calling, physical harm, online messages, or excluding someone on purpose. Teach all students that if they or someone else is experiencing this, it’s important to speak up.
Bullying Activities for Elementary Students
1. Understanding Feelings
Our first activity will help students understand and identify feelings. We’ll call it “Emotion Charades”.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Write different emotions (like happy, sad, scared, excited) on pieces of paper.
- Put all the pieces in a box.
- Take turns picking a piece of paper and act out the emotion without speaking.
- The rest of the group will guess the emotion.
Understanding feelings can help learners empathize with others, which is a great step toward reducing bullying.
2. Teasing vs. Bullying Worksheet
Now, let’s talk about different types of bullying. There is verbal, physical, cyber, and social bullying. Make sure your students know the difference and how to define the various types using this free printable bullying worksheet. Students can fill out independently or together as a group. Talk through each scenario and what to do in each case.
3. Role Play
Role playing is another great way to learn how to handle bullying.
In this activity:
- Classmates will act out different scenarios involving bullying.
- Students can take turns playing the role of the person being bullied, the bully, and the bystanders.
- After each scenario, discuss what to do to stand up against bullying.
Role-playing helps you practice responding to bullying in a safe environment.
4. Stand Up for Others
Standing up for others is a key part of preventing bullying.
“Helping Hands” Art Activity
In this no-prep activity:
- Students will trace their hand on a piece of paper and decorate it.
- Inside each finger, write a way to help someone who is being bullied.
- Share ideas with classmates and discuss.
This “Helping Hands” activity encourages learners to think about how they can support others.
Conclusion
Bullying can be a tough issue to tackle, but with these bullying activities for elementary students, they’ll be better prepared to handle and prevent it. Remind your students that if they or someone they know is being bullied, don’t hesitate to talk to a trusted adult.
Sample Video
Students learn best from watching real students their own age model skills. Try out this sample video-modeling lesson below. We offer our entire Social-Emotional Learning platform free for 30 days here!
