As educators, it is important to teach our students the significance of nonverbal cues in communication. Our facial expressions and tone of voice play a crucial role in conveying emotions and messages to others. In this blog post, we will discuss an engaging no-prep activity that will help middle school students understand the importance of matching their body language with their verbal messages.
No-Prep Activity: The Mixed Signals Game
This fun and simple activity requires no preparation or materials. Here’s how to play:
- Have students form a circle, standing or sitting.
- Choose a student to start. This student will think of a sentence and an emotion (e.g., happiness, sadness, anger, etc.).
- The student will then say the sentence out loud while displaying the chosen emotion through their facial expressions and tone of voice.
- The other students in the circle will try to guess the emotion that the speaker is trying to convey.
- The game continues with the next student in the circle and so on, until everyone has had a turn.
This activity encourages students to pay attention to the nonverbal cues in communication and understand how they can impact the message being conveyed.
Discussion Questions
After completing the activity, use these questions to engage students in further discussions about the importance of facial expressions and tone of voice in communication:
- Why is it important to match our facial expressions and tone of voice with our words?
- Can you think of a time when someone’s facial expressions or tone of voice confused you? How did it make you feel?
- How can we improve our communication skills by being more aware of our nonverbal cues?
- Why might someone intentionally use mismatched facial expressions or tone of voice? What could be the consequences of doing so?
- How can understanding nonverbal cues help us in building better relationships with others?
Related Skills
Besides understanding the impact of facial expressions and tone of voice, there are other relevant skills that students can benefit from:
- Active listening: Learning to listen attentively and respond appropriately to others.
- Empathy: Developing the ability to understand and share the feelings of others.
- Conflict resolution: Learning to effectively resolve disagreements and misunderstandings with others.
- Nonverbal communication: Becoming aware of body language, gestures, and other nonverbal cues that can impact communication.
Next Steps
Now that you have explored the importance of facial expressions and tone of voice in communication, it’s time to further develop these skills in your students. To access free sample materials that can help you teach these and other valuable social-emotional learning skills, visit Everyday Speech and sign up for a free trial.
