Introduction
As educators, we know that students may have a hard time adjusting to tasks they don’t enjoy, especially after a vacation or break. It’s essential to teach them the importance of staying calm and following the plan, even when they don’t feel like it. This blog post will introduce a no-prep activity to help elementary students develop these skills, as well as discuss related skills and provide further resources.
No-Prep Activity: The Task Adaptation Game
This simple, yet engaging activity requires no preparation or materials and can be easily incorporated into any classroom setting. It helps students understand the importance of adapting to tasks they may not enjoy and encourages them to stay calm and follow directions.
- Ask students to form a circle and stand up.
- Explain that you will call out different tasks, and they have to act out the task for a few seconds.
- After each task, ask students to share how they felt about it. Encourage them to express their feelings and discuss why they may not have enjoyed the task.
- Remind students that it’s okay to feel different emotions, but it’s important to stay calm and follow the plan even when they don’t like the task.
- Continue calling out tasks and discussing the students’ feelings until everyone has had a chance to participate.
Discussion Questions
- Why is it important to stay calm and follow the plan even when we don’t enjoy the task?
- How can we handle our emotions when faced with tasks we don’t like?
- What strategies can we use to make it easier to adapt to unwanted tasks?
- Why is it important to respect the feelings of our classmates when they don’t enjoy a task?
- How can we support our classmates when they’re struggling with a task they don’t like?
Related Skills
Teaching students to adapt to unwanted tasks is just one aspect of social-emotional learning. Other related skills that can be beneficial for students include:
- Self-awareness: Understanding their own emotions and recognizing their strengths and weaknesses.
- Self-management: Developing strategies to manage emotions and set personal goals.
- Social awareness: Understanding the feelings and perspectives of others, as well as appreciating diversity.
- Relationship skills: Building and maintaining healthy relationships through communication, cooperation, and conflict resolution.
- Responsible decision-making: Making thoughtful choices, considering the consequences for themselves and others.
Next Steps
Now that you have learned about this no-prep activity and related skills, it’s time to start incorporating them into your classroom. To help you get started, we invite you to sign up for free samples of our skill-based activities and resources at Everyday Speech. These materials will provide you with additional tools to support your students’ social-emotional learning journey.
