Hands on Activity: Enemy and Protector

Age Group: PreK – 5th  

Number of Students: 6 students + 

Duration: 10-15 minutes +

Overview

Students will learn how to be assertive as they must protect themselves and keep enemies away.

Materials

• Open space

Instructions

1. Gather students in an open space.

2. Explain the game.
   
   Instructor: “Everyone will mentally pick someone in the room that will be their enemy. Then everyone must pick someone who will be their protector. Don’t tell anyone and keep it to yourself. You are the only one who will know these choices. Once everyone has made their choices, I will yell, “go!” and everyone must try to keep their protector between themselves and their enemy at all times.”
   
   Instructor note: Ideally the group will work out a way to form a line so that everyone has their protector between them and their enemy.  However it is not the goal of the game and only rarely happens.

3. Questions?

4. Begin game

Reflection Questions

• Did you pick the same person to be your protector/enemy as someone else? What did you do in that moment?

• How did you feel when you were protected from your enemy?

• How did you feel when your enemy was close to you?

Age Group: PreK – 5th 

Number of Students: 2 students or more, but need even pairs of students

Duration: 15-20 minutes +

Overview

Students will practice being assertive as they work to force their opponent to drop their ‘egg’ while keeping theirs intact.

Materials

• Open space

• Plastic spoons for each student

• Eggs (can use actual eggs outdoors, or just small small balls – as small as or smaller than a tennis ball)

Instructions

1. Gather students in an open space divide students into two teams.

2. Give each student a spoon. (Option to play outdoors with actual eggs, or, option to play indoors with small, light balls- think smaller than a tennis ball to portray ‘eggs.’)

3. Explain the game.
   
   Instructor: “One student from each team will come to battle each round. Each student will place their egg, or ball, on their spoon. The object of the game is to try to knock your opponent’s egg off of their spoon while keeping yours on your spoon. If your ‘egg’ drops before your partner’s, you lose and the opposite team gets a point. If you knock your partner’s off of and yours stays in place, your team gets a point. If both eggs drop at the same time, then no one gets a point. The team with the  most points at the end of the game (once everyone has gone) wins.”

4. Questions?

5. Begin game.

Reflection Questions:

• How were you able to knock off your partner’s egg?

• How did it feel when your egg dropped instead of your partner’s egg?

• How do you think being assertive helped you in this situation? Do you think some of you crossed the line from being assertive to being aggressive?

Age Group: 3rd-5th   

Number of Students: 2 students +,  need even pairs of students

Duration: 10-15 minutes +

Overview

Students will practice being assertive as they take a water bottle from their partner student.

Materials

• Open space

• Water bottle- or similar object 

Instructions

1. Gather students in an open space and split into pairs.

2. Give each pair a water bottle or similar object (most students will probably have their own water bottle.)

3. Explain the game
   
   Instructor: “The taller partner will go first. The only object of the game is to take the water bottle from the other student. That is all. Once you have it, you can switch roles.”

4. Questions? (Try not to allow too many questions here as it may ruin the point of the exercise.)

5. Begin game.

6. After each student has a turn, sit everyone down to discuss this experiment.

Instructor note: The object of the game is in the reflection questions. Most students (as you will notice) will try and fight or take the water bottle forcibly. The partner who has the bottle will try to not let the other partner get it. Make sure students remain careful and to not roughly horseplay and get hurt.

1. Once it’s over and you sit students down, have them go around and explain what they did to get the water bottle. 

2. Have each student in the example, the keeper and the taker, explain what they were thinking. 

3. Now for the message of the game, ask, “Why didn’t anyone just simple ask, ‘may I have the water bottle?’” If any of the students actually did this, have them explain why they did this and what they were thinking. This game is to learn to be assertive, but also respectful. You don’t have to fight to get something; most things can be worked out through communication and just asking.

Reflection Questions:

• What was your first instinct and why?

•  How did you end up getting your partner’s water bottle?

• How did you feel if your partner turned aggressive to retrieve the water bottle?

Age Group: PreK-2nd  

Number of Students: 7 students + 

Duration: 15-20 minutes +

Overview

Children will practice duplicating the swarming behavior of bees, moving together as a group fresh from the hive toward a bully and her target to remove the victim and defuse the situation. 

Materials

• Open space 

• Cones or spots for boundaries

Instructions

1. Gather students in an open space.

2. Teach the students about how bees “swarm” to protect each other. Honey bees, Apis mellifera, swarm for one of two reasons. Either the hive has become too crowded so they split into two groups (or more), with one group remaining in the existing hive, or they all leave. In this case, all bees including the queen abandon the existing hive completely due to lack of food or water, parasite or disease infestation, frequent disturbance by humans or animals, weather changes, poor ventilation, or problems with the queen.

3. After the students grasp the meaning of swarming, choose players: 1-3 ‘bullies,’ 1-3 ‘victims,’ and the rest of the students can be ‘swarmers,’ to save the victims from the bullies to begin the game. (Know that these roles are to begin the game. All roles can/will switch positions later on in the game)

4. Establish boundaries and one side of the room to be ‘the hive’ and the other side of the room to be ‘the new destination.

5. The goal is for the ‘victims’ to move from the hive across the floor to a new destination. The goal of the ‘bullies’ is to tag the ‘victims’. The goal of the ‘swarmers’ is to protect the ‘victims’ from the ‘bullies’ as the ‘victims’ try to move from their hive to a new destination.

6. The ‘swarmers’ can form a “safe base” from any “bully” by holding hands with one or two others, taking a deep breath, and humming. The “safe base” only lasts until someone runs out of breath. A group will be between 3-4 people. (Either 1 victim and 2 swarmers, or 1 victim and 3 swarmers.)

7. When anyone in a group runs out of air, everyone must break apart and dash to find new partners. The “bully” can tag anyone who is not in a group and humming. This means ‘swarmers’ and ‘victims’ can switch during the break and find new partners, but the ‘safe base’ must contain 1 victim in the middle and 2-3 swarmers.

8. To tag anyone who is not in a ‘safe base’ “the bully” must yell “Sting” when they tag someone switching groups. The tagged person must stop and hold up both hands in the air and loudly count to five. This is how others know who will be ‘it’ next. If you are tagged by a “bully,” you become the next “bully” and the first “bully” is free. No tagbacks; keep it moving!

9. Once a ‘safe base’ group has made it across the room without getting hired, they win, and a new game can start.

10. Questions?

11. Begin game

Reflection Questions:

1. Which did you struggle with more, being a swarmer, victim, or bully and why?

2. Were you more focused on working together or saving yourself? Why?

3. If you could play again, is there any way you could be more assertive? How so?

Age Group: PreK – 5th  

Number of Students: 4 students +, split into two groups 

Duration: 15-20 minutes +

Overview

Students will challenge their perseverance skills by hopping and staying connected as a pair, while students hold onto the left foot of the person behind them.

Materials

• Open space with tables and chairs 

• Plates or napkins for each table 

• Candy (jelly beans, M&Ms, Skittles, etc)

Instructions

1. Gather students in an open space.

2. For this exercise, the children are split into two groups at random. Each group needs to go into the hallway to learn what to do without the other group hearing. 

3. Group No. 1 hears that the jelly beans are spoiled and they must get the kids in Group No. 2 to understand they should not eat the jelly beans, without using words. Group No. 2 hears they must eat the jelly beans no matter what Group No. 1 does.

4. A plate with jelly beans (or other candy) is set on the tables where students are seated, in mixed groups.

5. Start the clock for 5 minutes or less, and let the experiment take place.

6. Make sure that no one from Group 1 is speaking!

7. Questions?

8. Begin game

9. Afterward, discuss what it’s like when you and another person cannot understand each other. The goal is to open up a discussion about how it would feel to move to a foreign country and which obstacles you’d have to overcome. Teachers can also lead discussions about the roles language and culture play in everyday life, influencing our behavior and choices.

Reflection Questions:

• Was it hard not to eat the candy? Why or why not?

• Did you trust the other group? Why or why not?

• How would you feel if the roles were reversed?

TEKS: Health K.8(B); 1.9(A); 2.10(E)

         Physical Education 3.7(A); 4.7(A); 5.7(A)

Overview

Students will begin by walking to music. When the music stops, all students must step inside a hula hoop. One hula hoop will be eliminated with each round, making the challenge harder. Students will discover how to work cooperatively and creatively to make room for everyone in the hula hoops. Eventually, there will not be enough space for everyone, creating an opportunity to talk about being left out, how that might make someone feel, and how being empathetic might help in making that person feel better.

Materials:

•  Open space and 6 hula hoops (the hula hoops must be big enough to allow 4 students to easily stand inside

• Music played loud enough for students to hear

Duration: 22 Minutes

•       4 minutes – Introduce the game and the rules
•       15 minutes – Play a few rounds
•       3 minutes – Reflect on the activity

Instructions

1. Before the class begins, clear the room and place six hula hoops on the floor in the center of the open space. Choose a song to play while the students are walking around and have it ready to go.
2. Explain that you will play a game called “All Aboard.” Encourage the students to imagine that the hula hoops are little boats and you want everyone in the class to be on board a boat when the music stops. 
3. Ask the class to practice walking to music around the hula hoops, noting that they cannot step INTO the hula hoop while the music is playing. They can walk, dance, skip or hop around the hula hoops.
4. Tell them that when the music stops, everyone must step inside a hula hoop without pushing anyone else outside of the circle. The goal is to get everyone to be “all aboard” a hula hoop.
5. Once everyone is ready, begin playing the music. Wait about 10 seconds and stop the music.
6. All students should be standing inside of a hula hoop. When the group succeeds, decrease the number of hula hoops, one at a time, and challenge the group again. 
7. The group will be challenged to try different ways to fit everyone in. They might stand on one foot and balance with the other leg out, or they might hold onto each other for balance. Encourage the group to get creative
8. Inevitably, near the end, some people will not be able to fit and will be left out. This will make for a great reflection and conversation on inclusion, exclusion and how the students can learn to empathize with those who might be left out.

Reflection Questions

•       How did it feel to be excluded or not fit in the hula hoop?
•       If you were not left out, how do you think it felt to be excluded?
•       When might people feel left out at school or at home?
•       What was it like working as a group to find ways to all fit in?
•       How did you feel when you all fit?
•       When is it helpful to empathize with others who are left out?