LIFE SKILLS
FREE Life Skills Activity Sessions
Self Awareness: My Place on the Tree
Purpose of activity: To develop children's self-awareness about their present lives.
Life skills: Self-awareness, critical thinking, creative thinking
Important points: Try to ask the children to think deeply about their place on the tree and to find reasons for their choices. If children find this difficult, do not worry but note what the children feel or do not feel able to say. The activity can be repeated in Part 3 when children have improved their communication skills. If some children do not want to speak in the group, do not force them, but let them think about their ideas and if possible talk about their ideas to one friend.
Materials
A copy of the tree picture on a large poster for all the children to see
Self Awarness: my place on the tree diagram
Steps
1. Show the children the picture and explain that the tree represents life. The people on the tree are at different stages of their lives. They are doing different things for different reasons.
2. Ask the children to think of a well-known character in your country, for example a famous sports star, a character from a folktale or a famous person. Perhaps this person feels like the person at the top of the tree because he looks sure of himself and powerful. She is smiling at everyone below her. She is pleased with her position! Ask the children which figure in the picture is like the famous person. (The children will probably have different ideas and different reasons – that's fine).
3. Show the children the figure(s) on the tree which show where you feel you are in life today. Explain the reasons for your choice.
For example: I feel I am like the person doing a handstand halfway up the tree with one hand off the branch. I feel like this because I am feeling full of energy and I feel I am doing something a bit different today by starting this life skills work with you. I am not sure if it will be fun or a bit risky!
4. Ask the children to choose one figure that is closest to themselves.
5. In pairs or small groups, children discuss why they identified with a particular figure. For example…
I feel like I am at the bottom of the tree waving and looking happy because I am just beginning the life skills (so I am at the bottom of the tree). I am looking happy because I hope the class will help me and I am waving at my friends who will be with me.
Final discussion:
Do we feel like different people on the tree at different times of the day or week? Were you happy to tell us about your figure? Why/Why not?
Communication: Negotiation
Purpose of activity: To identify negotiating skills and methods to bring about a change.
Life skills: Communication & interpersonal relationships, self-awareness, critical thinking.
Important points: Negotiations are more difficult when you are talking with someone with more power. They can use that power to threaten or silence you or to ignore you. It can be useful to look for go- betweens (an uncle, an older friend etc) who have similar power.
Materials
A chart showing symbols for the six steps in negotiation
Communication: Negotiation diagram
Steps
1. Explain that negotiation involves putting yourself in the place of the other person and understanding their point of view. This is good for several reasons:
- It means you appreciate and respect the other person’s point of view. This reduces the risk that you will say something that causes conflict and hurt.
- If you recognise the other person’s point of view, they will become more willing to recognise yours
- Good negotiation should result in both people gaining something.
2. Explain there are six steps in negotiation:
- Say what you feel using I statements
- Listen to what the other person has to say to find out what they need or want
- Tell the person what you understood, so you are sure you understood it.
- Together, think of as many ideas as possible that may bring a solution to the problem.
- Agree on a solution
- Try it. If it doesn't work, start again!
Remember that sometimes you have to compromise.
3. Divide children into pairs and ask them to practice negotiating using one of the following situations. (Adapt these ideas to suit the experiences of your group but try to include some more simple situations an done or two serious ones.)
- Your friend plays music loudly when you are trying to do your homework. He says it helps him concentrate.
- A group of children tease you for attending life skills sessions. They call you 'the AIDS guy' and pay no attention when you want to share your ideas with them.
- Your partner wants to have sex but you don't think you are ready yet.
- There is a new teacher who thinks that the only way to establish his authority is to shout at the students as much as possible.
- Your father is often drunk and then he shouts at your mother.
4. After the pairs have practised, they demonstrate their role-plays. Encourage the group to make recommendations and act out different options. Encourage children to be realistic: often the powerful person will not accept ideas even if the reasons are good.
Final discussion:
- How easy was it to negotiate in these situations? How do the negotiations change when you are negotiating with someone in authority? Or with a group of people?
- Do negotiations always work? If they don't, what else can you do?
Behaviour that hurts: what makes me angry?
Purpose of activity: To help children understand how anger begins.
Life skills: Self-awareness, critical thinking, creative thinking, coping with stress and emotion, communication and inter-personal relationships.
Important points: What makes people angry differs from person to person. People need to understand what makes them angry and can learn to control their anger.
Materials
Large sheets of paper, Marker pens or crayons
Steps
1. Divide group into groups of five or six.
2. Ask each group to sit in a circle. Begin the activity by saying the phrase…'Mr Nje gets angry when someone calls him stupid names'. Ask one child in the circle to repeat this phrase and add another reason why Mr Nje asks angry. The next child in the circle repeats these two and adds another and so on until all the children in the circle have added a reason. (This is an adaptation of a memory game!).
Other 'anger' ideas are:
- when someone shouts at him
- when someone steals something from him
- when people ignore him
- when someone pushes into him on the
3. Ask children to think back to the last time they got angry. In pairs, ask them to describe this to a friend without saying names and without saying what happened when they got angry, like this: I got angry yesterday when someone pointed at me and laughed at my clothes.
4. Ask each child to describe their partner’s reason for getting angry. Write these on a flip chart. If an idea is repeated, do not write it twice but put a tick next to the first reason.
5. Ask children to think of the two reasons that that mad them the angriest. Each child comes up to the list and (with the help of the educator if necessary), places a tick beside each of their two top reasons.
What Makes me angry?
Examples from a group of working children in Delhi…
- When I cannot sell my coconuts
- When my mum hits me
- When I don’t have time to play, as I have to spend all my time working
- When I have too much work
- When someone beats you
- When someone harasses us while we are working
- When someone teases you or uses bad language
- When I don’t want to work but I have too
- When someone steals the materials we have collected for selling
Final discussion:
Is there anyone that does not ask angry? Can you solve problems well when you are angry? What is good about being angry? What is bad about it?
Monitoring and Evaluating Life Skills 15/15: TOOLS TO STIMULATE DISCUSSION
For those of you conducting life skills activities or life skills training with young people or adult facilitators. Here is the last of my series of 15 weekly posts onMonitoring and Evaluating Life Skills. Each of them are extracted from the Toolkit I developed for the Jacobs Foundation with the help of many of their field partners and which you can download for FREE by clicking here. Please find the Lifeskills Toolkit half way down the page under the heading, Intervention and Application. If you wish to have a hard (printed) copy please contact me with a short description of your work and why you would like the hard copy. As always please comment on these posts and let's get a conversation going!
In the 'tools' download you will find lost of explanations and discussions about the different types of evaluation tools like structured and semi-structured interviews, role plays, surveys and types of survey questions. Also set out are some more qualitative methods like draw and write. In addition, there are twelve activities to engage children and young people and to stimulate discussion and information. Young people can feel uncomfortable in a formal interview or even a focus group discussion. A creative activity can helps to get their attention and focus and stimulate opinions. The informal chatting that happens during a creative activity acts as 'warm up' and often results in deep and interesting reflections at the end of the activity. To give you a sense of the contents here is the list of activities:
1. CD Covers
2. Collage
3. Shields
4. Masks
5. The Most Significant Story
6. Speech bubbles
7. Picture This
8. Builder
9. Draw and write
10. Moving Circles
11. Image Theatre
12. Fill in the blanks
For step by step explanations on how to conduct each activity and for examples how some of the partners of the Jacobs Foundation have used these download the full version of the toolkit here.
Monitoring and Evaluating Life Skills 14/15: COMMUNICATING THE RESULTS OF YOUR EVALUATION
For those of you conducting life skills activities or life skills training with young people or adult facilitators. Here is 14 of 15 weekly posts on Monitoring and Evaluating Life Skills. Each of them are extracted from the Toolkit I developed for the Jacobs Foundation with the help of many of their field partners and which you can download for FREE by clicking here. Please find the Lifeskills Toolkit half way down the page under the heading, Intervention and Application. If you wish to have a hard (printed) copy please contact me with a short description of your work and why you would like the hard copy. As always please comment on these posts and let's get a conversation going!
The toolkit sets out 12 steps for planning and implementing your project evaluation. In practice, the steps may not always flow from one to another. There will be some movement backwards and forwards and there may be a need to add to, take away from or change the order of steps. Each evaluation works differently as each evaluation and each project has its own unique purpose. The crucial thing is to plan evaluations which are useful, enjoyable and realistic given the amount of time and resources for the project and the expertise of those involved. Where it is helpful, an example is set out in shaded boxes below the general points for each step. Here is more on the last step, Step 12.
Step Twelve: COMMUNICATE
The final step is COMMUNICATE THE RESULTS of your evaluation. This may be in a report or a presentation or both. Evaluation is hard work involving the effort of many people. Time needs to be set aside to communicate and deal with the results internally and externally. Positive aspects of evaluation need to be recognised and rewarded, more challenging aspects built into new planning or training activities. It’s important to ensure there are enough resources to communicate the results and make best use of the results as the project goes forward.
The most important people to report to are the young people who took part in their evaluation and explaining what will be the outcome of the results irrespective of whether the results are positive or not. This demonstrates your respect for the young people, gives them an opportunity to comment on the results and maximizes the chances of their cooperation for future evaluation. Failing to feedback properly can lead to their reluctance to participate in future evaluation activities. Depending on the style of your report, you can develop a version specifically for young people that you can give to them.
Although this is the last step in the planning process, there is one more post to give you an overview of M&E tools and 12 tools to stimulate discussions wiht children and young people.
Monitoring and Evaluating Life Skills 13/15: WRITE UP THE RESULTS OF YOUR EVALUATION
For those of you conducting life skills activities or life skills training with young people or adult facilitators. Here is number 13 of 15 weekly posts onMonitoring and Evaluating Life Skills. Each of them are extracted from the Toolkit I developed for the Jacobs Foundation with the help of many of their field partners and which you can download for FREE by clicking here. Please find the Lifeskills Toolkit half way down the page under the heading, Intervention and Application. If you wish to have a hard (printed) copy please contact me with a short description of your work and why you would like the hard copy. As always please comment on these posts and let's get a conversation going!
The toolkit sets out 12 steps for planning and implementing your project evaluation. In practice, the steps may not always flow from one to another. There will be some movement backwards and forwards and there may be a need to add to, take away from or change the order of steps. Each evaluation works differently as each evaluation and each project has its own unique purpose. The crucial thing is to plan evaluations which are useful, enjoyable and realistic given the amount of time and resources for the project and the expertise of those involved. Where it is helpful, an example is set out in shaded boxes below the general points for each step. Here is more on Step 11. As there is a holiday for Christmas the final two installments in this series will be posted on January 3rd and January 10th.
Step 11
Developing and presenting a written evaluation report gives an opportunity for others such as funding agencies, officials, researchers and other staff to learn from the evaluation. Before you decide to write a report, think about how you communicate in your organisations. Match your reporting style with this you may not need a written report!
Here is an outline for the type of information that is usually included in a written evaluation report. This may be too long a document for your purpose. Adapt it to match our needs.
A Sample Outline of an Evaluation Report
1. Title page
- Name of report;
- Name and address of the project;
- Time period covered by the project evaluation;
- The date the report was completed; and
- The name of the authors of the report.
2. Summary
This is really important as many people will only red the summary! It is easier to write the summary AFTER the rest of the report has been finished. It usually contains
- The purpose of the evaluation;
- A very brief description of the project (3-4 sentences);
- Who carried out the evaluation and how it was done;
- Important results;
- Important conclusions; and
- All the recommendations.
3. Table of contents
4. Description of the project (history, aims, objectives, target group)
5. Description of the evaluation process and methods
6. Results
7. Conclusions and recommendations
8. Appendices:
- A list of people involved in the evaluation e.g. officials and young people (if this is appropriate to identify them);
- Examples of the tools and recording methods/charts you used;
- Examples of tables and diagrams; and
- Lists of other documents and references used.
Monitoring and Evaluating Life Skills 12/15: DATA ANALYSIS
For those of you conducting life skills activities or life skills training with young people or adult facilitators. Here is number 12 of 15 weekly posts on Monitoring and Evaluating Life Skills. Each of them are extracted from the Toolkit I developed for the Jacobs Foundation with the help of many of their field partners and which you can download for FREE by clicking here. Please find the Lifeskills Toolkit half way down the page under the heading, Intervention and Application. If you wish to have a hard (printed) copy please contact me with a short description of your work and why you would like the hard copy. As always please comment on these posts and let's get a conversation going!
The toolkit sets out 12 steps for planning and implementing your project evaluation. In practice, the steps may not always flow from one to another. There will be some movement backwards and forwards and there may be a need to add to, take away from or change the order of steps. Each evaluation works differently as each evaluation and each project has its own unique purpose. The crucial thing is to plan evaluations which are useful, enjoyable and realistic given the amount of time and resources for the project and the expertise of those involved. Where it is helpful, an example is set out in shaded boxes below the general points for each step. Here is more on step 10. This is a long section in the toolkit and this extract is just the outline of what you can find in the full version.
Step TEN: ANALYSE
Now that the information has been assembled, cleaned and organized, it is now DATA. The penultimate step in planning your evaluation is to consider how you will ANALYSE the data. You need to remind yourselves of the purpose of the evaluation. There is nearly always more data generated in the monitoring and evaluation activities than you need. So be clear on what you do need and stick to this! If possible, give yourself the scope to look for the unexpected too.
The same data can be analysed in many different ways and at different levels of complexity. How you do it is linked to the time you have available and the purpose of the evaluation. Remember if you have good data which is well organised you can go back to it and analyse it more deeply and for different purposes later when you have more time!
Here are some simple steps to use to undertake data analysis. There are many ways to do it and so this is not THE way but it is A way to bring together and understand and explain data. If your project or organisation already has set out a way to do this then use the methods that are familiar.
Remind yourself of the aims of the evaluation and the objectives of the specific activity that generated the data you will analyse
- Get familiar with the data to begin the process of abstraction and conceptualisation.
- Create some kind of chart (sometimes called a thematic framework) that sets out the issues arising from the themes you have noted and the sub themes.
- Using the themes and sub themes to guide you, look again at the details of the data. Undertake data analysis activities. Select the activities that are relevant to the type of data you have. Start with what feels simple and build from there. For example: Make a note of the frequency of the data (how often a piece of information occurs or is said). You can colour code the notes or make a coloured dot beside each piece of data to show where the data came from (if you have different sources). This part of the process is sometimes called indexing.
- The next step and the one which is the most difficult to describe is where you interpret the data. This process is about looking for patterns, connections, links and explanations. You search for a structure to explain what you have found. It is not mechanical step it requires your intuition and imagination. You will be illuminating young people’s attitudes, experiences and behaviour. You seek to address the questions that began the evaluation process.
- The final step to analysis is to formulate what you have found out as conclusions and set out specific strategies for change, improvements or simply a scaling up of something that you find is working well! These strategies will often be expressed in an evaluation report as, ‘recommendations’. Also, there may be one-off pieces of information or quotes that are powerful but that do not fit into a pattern. Include these in a summary but resist making a general point from this type of information.
For much more on this section and for a worked through example download the full version of the toolkit.
Monitoring and Evaluating Life Skills 11/15: IMPLEMENT & TURN INFO INTO DATA
For those of you conducting life skills activities or life skills training with young people or adult facilitators. Here is number 11 out of a series of 15 weekly posts on Monitoring and Evaluating Life Skills. Each of them are extracted from the Toolkit I developed for the Jacobs Foundation with the help of many of their field partners and which you can download for FREE by clicking here. Please find the Lifeskills Toolkit half way down the page under the heading, Intervention and Application. If you wish to have a hard (printed) copy please contact me with a short description of your work and why you would like the hard copy. As always please comment on these posts and let's get a conversation going!
The toolkit sets out 12 steps for planning and implementing your project evaluation. In practice, the steps may not always flow from one to another. There will be some movement backwards and forwards and there may be a need to add to, take away from or change the order of steps. Each evaluation works differently as each evaluation and each project has its own unique purpose. The crucial thing is to plan evaluations which are useful, enjoyable and realistic given the amount of time and resources for the project and the expertise of those involved. Where it is helpful, an example is set out in shaded boxes below the general points for each step. Here is more on steps 8 and 9 .
STEP Eight: Conduct monitoring and evaluation activities
This step is to implement the monitoring and evaluation activities planned using the tools and recording the information you have designed.
Step NINE: ASSEMBLE, CLEAN AND ORGANISE information gathered
This step is about turning information that has been gathered during monitoring and evaluation into DATA in preparation for DATA ANALYSIS. The information will need to be ASSEMBLED, CLEANED and then ORGANISED.
ASSEMBLING is about putting all the information from the variety of sources together, from evaluation and monitoring, reading it, looking at it, listening to it and getting an overview of what you have. It is useful to do this with someone else so you can discuss it.
CLEANING information is about removing information or sets of information. For example – maybe a question was not translated correctly or maybe one group being evaluated were asked to do the activity differently to the majority of the groups and the results from this group look ‘wrong’.
ORGANISING information is about reformatting information and/or putting information sets together ready to be compared or counted. The information gathered may test more than one indicator or more than one aspect of this indicator. The information may be recorded in different ways and in different places. There may be:
• Notes on or filled tick boxes on an observation schedule;
• Notes or an audio recording of/notes from a focus group discussion;
• Photos or videos;
• Information from different sections of a questionnaire;
• Information from different questionnaires; or
• Notes taken in an interview.
It may be useful (depending again on your purpose) to organize all the information about one indicator or groups of indicators together in one place. This might be a simple matter of cutting and pasting information, or dividing parts of a questionnaire into two or more places.
If the evaluation is taking place at the beginning or half way through a project and will be repeated, consider if you need to clearly identify data back to particular individuals or groups so that when it is done again, the changes can be noted and verified.
If you need to identify the different bits of information, do this as you organise it. You might use a name or a CODE. CODES are useful if anonymity is useful or important for confidentiality. If you are separating different bits of information, remember to identify them all later so the information can be reassembled and used again.
Do not forget to include relevant information generated by those monitoring the project.
For examples of how to do this download the full version of the toolkit here.
Monitoring and Evaluating Life Skills 6/15: CREATE OR SELECT INDICATORS
For those of you conducting life skills activities or life skills training with young people or adult facilitators, Here is number 6 of 15 weekly posts onMonitoring and Evaluating Life Skills. Each of them are extracted from the Toolkit I developed for the Jacobs Foundation with the help of many of their field partners and which you can download for FREE by clicking here. Please find the Lifeskills Toolkit half way down the page under the heading, Intervention and Application. If you wish to have a hard (printed) copy please contact me with a short description of your work and why you would like the hard copy. As always please comment on these posts and let's get a conversation going!
The toolkit sets out 12 steps for planning and implementing your project evaluation. In practice, the steps may not always flow from one to another. There will be some movement backwards and forwards and there may be a need to add to, take away from or change the order of steps. Each evaluation works differently as each evaluation and each project has its own unique purpose. The crucial thing is to plan evaluations which are useful, enjoyable and realistic given the amount of time and resources for the project and the expertise of those involved. Where it is helpful, an example is set out in shaded boxes below the general points for each step. Here is more on the third step.
Step Three: CREATE OR SELECT INDICATORS
To answer evaluation questions we need to work out. for example, the component parts of an effective young leader or an effective leadership programme. These are probably in our original planning documents. They are called INDICATORS i.e. the x that demonstrates or is able to measure that y is the case. (see page xyz for further general information on indicators)
Example
- Body temperature is an indicator of health
- Hours and minutes are an indicators of time
- Exam results are an indicator of progress at school
- Being able to speak clearly and in a focused way on behalf of others might be an indicator of leadership
It is important that the indicators are directly related to the activities of your project. Sets of indicators have been suggested for each of our 14 universal life skills see the first and second recent M&E posts on this. Defining indicators can help to clarify other aspects of the project too as noted in this example.
QUOTE
I learned that defining indicators at the planning stage meant that there was greater coherence in the design of the pedagogic approach to use when implementing the life skills activity as well as the design of the evaluation. The evaluation activities need to be carefully focused on testing the achievement of the indicators and this includes any questions in a discussion that ask the participants to reflect. It is also important to understand and then create a matrix to help you identify where the young people are on a continuum as they will not all be at the same level. You need to be able to understand this an understand their progress. It is important to inform young people how and when they will be evaluation as this encourages greater responsibility in the learning process. The evaluation itself will develop their awareness of the progress they make.
Olga Vazquez, Stiftung Kinderdorf Pestalozzi, El Salvador
For more on this section download the toolkit here
LIFE SKILL ACTIVITIES
Activity 8 Friendship: What is a Friend?
This is a single activity session plan from our book, The Life Skills Handbook, a book available in digital format (only)). There are 61 activity sessions in this book. Click here for more information on the book and how to purchase it.
Purpose of activity:
To explore what it means to be a friend and to think about what we expect from a friend.
Life skills:
Self-awareness, Critical thinking
Important points:
People have different views on what makes a friend. Disagreeing and fighting can happen even between friends. Friends can have a good and bad influence. Friends should not ask too much of each other. If the group did the self-awareness Activity 1: special me, refer to this activity.
Materials:
Three sets of friendship cards
Steps:
- Divide the group into three. Give each group a set of friendship cards. Show the children each card and reads what it says. Ask each group to do the same. Make sure the children understand what each image means.
- Ask the children to discuss each card in their groups and write a tick on the back of each card that most of them agree with and a cross on the back of a card that most of them disagree with. Say that there are no right or wrong answers and that they should have reasons for their answers.
- After 10/15 minutes of discussion ask one child from each group to read out a card and say whether the group agrees or disagrees, and to explain why. If other groups disagree, they can explain why. Make an 'agree' and a 'disagree' pile of cards until all the cards are finished. You can also do this discussion by showing and reading the cards to all pairs or groups. The pairs or groups discuss whether they agree or disagree and then report their answer. The important part of this activity is a good discussion.
- Ask the children to think about two other ways to describe a friend and write and/or draw these in the two remaining cards. For example:A friend is someone who knows what to do when I am sad A friend shares her things with me
- Ask each group to share their new ideas.
Final discussion:
How can friends make a difference to you? Can you be friends with anyone? What things make it difficult to be friends with someone? What things make it difficult to be friends with you? What did you learn about having friends from this activity?
Follow up:
Refer to this session when everyday things happen for example, when friends have an argument or do something considerate.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION on Linked in at our Life Skills Group
Monitoring and Evaluation Tools to Use with Children: Moving Circles
Lifeskills Activities
For those of you conducting life skills activities or life skills training with young people or adult facilitators, Here is the last of my series of 15 weekly posts onMonitoring and Evaluating Life Skills. Each of them are extracted from the Toolkit I developed for the Jacobs Foundation with the help of many of their field partners and which you can download for FREE by clicking here. Please find the Lifeskills Toolkit half way down the page under the heading, Intervention and Application. If you wish to have a hard (printed) copy please contact me with a short description of your work and why you would like the hard copy. As always please comment on these posts and let's get a conversation going!
In the 'toolkit' download you will find lost of explanations and discussions about the different types of evaluation tools like structured and semi-structured interviews, role plays, surveys and types of survey questions. Also set out are some more qualitative methods like draw and write. In addition, there are twelve activities to engage children and young people and to stimulate discussion and information. Young people can feel uncomfortable in a formal interview or even a focus group discussion. A creative activity can helps to get their attention and focus and stimulate opinions. The informal chatting that happens during a creative activity acts as 'warm up' and often results in deep and interesting reflections at the end of the activity. Here is the list of activities in this section:
1. CD Covers
2. Collage
3. Shields
4. Masks
5. The Most Significant Story
6. Speech bubbles
7. Picture This
8. Builder
9. Draw and write
10. Moving Circles
11. Image Theatre
12. Fill in the blanks
Here is the activity on Moving Circles...
10. MOVING CIRCLES LIFESKILLS ACTIVITY
Before selecting this tool, remember to define the purpose of the evaluation, define your key questions and select or develop indicators that relate to the purpose and the questions. No materials are needed.
Process
- Identify the area you wish to explore, e.g., a life skill or an indicator or broader themes and issues to do with the life skills project. This activity can be used with young people to evaluate their view of a life skills project or activity.
- Young people make an inner and outer circle with partners facing each other. This can be quickly done by numbering the group either 1 or 2 and then making the number ones form the first circle facing out and the number 2’s stand opposite one person facing them.
- Young people in the inner circle think of a problem or a response to a question, and ask their partner in the outer circle to suggest advice. The partner makes a suggestion.
- After a few minutes, all the people in the outside circle move one place to the right. The children with problems ask the same question to their new partner in the outer circle.
- The game continues.
- Here are some questions that could be used:
- What were your hopes for the project?
- Were those hopes met?
- What was the best part of the project? Why?
- What was the worst part? Why?
- What was our biggest success?
- What would you do different next time?
- What is the biggest change in our community as a result of the project
7. Conclude with a general discussion on these same issues. The ideas and themes can be written on a chart. Young people can vote for the three issues they feel most strongly about. This can be done using a limited number of tick or stickers (3 or 5).
CASE STUDY (extract)
Moving Circles was conducted in 45 mins with 17 girls aged 12–13 years. We introduced the session and asked the group what they know about research using these questions:
- What is research?
- What is it for?
- What kind of research have you heard of?
- What questions do you have?
We gave the group an example of opinion polls using the example of their favorite team in the world cup. We talked to the group about the importance of reviewing & reflecting after an experience, to improve it and invited them to participate in a research process. We placed questions on the wall:
- What did you think about the program at the beginning?
- In relation to the regular activities in school, how do you think this programme is different?
- What was your favorite part of the project? Why?
- What was the most important thing you learned about the program? Why?
- What was the biggest success of the program?
- What would you like to do different this year, in relation to the program?
- What is the biggest change in your school/grade as a result of the program?
- What new things would you like to do/discuss as part of the program?
We asked them to form 2’s or 3’s. Each group was given one question. They discussed what the program was about last year to help them create a second question. Groups paired up and interviewed each other taking in turns to answer and ask the questions. They then move on until every group has interviewed or been interviewed by every other group. They noted the questions and answers.
In the whole group, we asked the young people to discuss the experience. We collected papers and informed them that we would provide feedback. Each young person filled out a further individual survey of 10 questions.
For the full set of results please download the toolkit!
Activity 7 Influences: Adverts and Media
This is a single activity session plan from our book, The Life Skills Handbook, a book available in digital format (only)). There are 61 activity sessions in this book. Click here for more information on the book and how to purchase it.
Purpose of activity: To understand how adverts affect us. Advertisements are part of the environment and they can reflect the values of our society and create peer pressure.
Life skills: Critical thinking, creative thinking
Important points: People who smoke cigarettes put their own and others health at risk. Advertisements for cigarettes try to influence people to start smoking and to buy cigarettes.
Materials: Three adverts for smoking (and/or other adverts in the environment which the children may see often). You can use the illustrations below but it is better to cut out local ones from magazines or newspapers or go on the streets to look at billboards, where appropriate.
Steps
- Ask the group what messages are being given by each advertisement. How does the advertisement try to affect us? For example: By being colourful and eye catching; by linking a good life with the product; by using sexy image; or by using words that make us laugh or catch us by surprise
- Discuss whether these advertisements tell the truth.
- Ask the children to describe or show a poster advert s/he likes very much and say why.
- Ask children what other kinds of adverts they hear or see (radio, TV, magazines).
- Discuss why we like or dislike advertisements and how they affect the way people think.
- In pairs or groups, ask chidlren to act out a role-play in which one child has seen an advertisement for something that s/he wants to have or to do. S/he has to try to convince the group and the others in the group have to change his or her mind. Allow 10 minutes and then the pair or group have to declare the outcome.
Final discussion:
Ask the group to remember how the discussion developed. Ask the children if they have been affected by an advertisement. Which advert? Should we be careful of adverts? (Think about how we gain or lose from having or doing what is advertised.)
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Activity 6 Influences: What is my Network of Relationships?
This is a single activity session plan from our book, The Life Skills Handbook, a book available in digital format (only)). There are 61 activity sessions in this book. Click here for more information on the book and how to purchase it.
Purpose of activity: To recognise and explore important relationships
Life skills: Self-awareness, inter-personal relationships
Important points
Be prepared for a child to describe a problem relationship or even abuse during this activity. Find out before the session how children can be supported if it becomes necessary.
A 'ship' image is used in this activity because ‘ship’ is part of the English word’ relationSHIP. If you are working in another language can choose to use the visual image of the ship (see picture) or you can use another visual image.
Materials
- One large outline picture of a ship for the whole group with the heading ‘relation-SHIP’ or as appropriate in the local language
- Five outline pictures of ships with one of the following headings:
- Parents and elders
- Brothers, sisters and cousins
- Friends
- People in authority (teachers, police, employers)
- Boy/girlfriend.
- Marker pens or crayons
Steps
- Explain what a relationship is in your own words and in a way that is appropriate to your culture and that the children will understand.
- Ask children to give examples of people with whom they have a relationship such as:
- Parents and elders
- Friends
- People in authority (teachers, employers)
- Boy/girlfriend.
3. Show the picture of the relation-SHIP. Ask for an example of what makes a relationship strong (saying kind things to someone). These good things are needed to keep the ship working. Write the example in a suitable place on the ship (hull, engine, etc). Then ask for an example of something that can weaken or damage relationships (Taking something from a person without them knowing). Write it in the water/air surrounding the ship (stormy water, strong wind, rocks)
4.Divide children into pairs or groups. Each group takes one kind of relationship (see list above).
5. Using the five ships, each pair or group discusses two or more things that make the relationship strong. They write these on the ship. They discuss two or more things that could damage the relationship. They draw or write these in the water and the air surrounding the ship.
6. Hang their relation-SHIP posters on the wall. The pairs and groups visit each others posters and explain their drawing to the others.
Final discussion:
What are the most important relationships? Is this the same for everyone? Why/Why not? What makes relationships good/bad?
Spend some time thinking quietly about a relationship that is good. Then think about a relationship, which is not good. Can you do anything about it?
Ask children to volunteer to share these ideas with a friend or with the whole group.
- Did it make you think of your own relationships?
- Has it given you ideas about the good and bad relationships you have?
- Has it given you ideas about how to make your relationships better?
Follow up activity
Children can draw their own ships. This activity can be repeated in Part 3
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Activity 5 Identity Factors: Changing Behaviour
This is a single activity session plan from our book, The Life Skills Handbook, a book available in digital format (only)). There are 61 activity sessions in this book. Click here for more information on the book and how to purchase it.
Purpose of activity: To become aware of what is needed to support the development of life skills
Life skills: Self-awareness
Important points: Do this activity after Activity 4: What are Identity Factors?
Materials
- Set of identity factor symbols from Activity 4
Steps
1. Ask each child to think of one change that they would like to make in their life in the near future. Ask the children to stating the change they want by starting a sentence, I want to...
For example:
- I want to… learn to read
- I want to… return home to live with my mother
- I want to… be a member of the football team
- I want to… stop smoking
- I want to…. be a happy person.
2. Decide which identity factor it is, for example:
- I want to learn to read (SKILLS)
- I want to return home to live with my mother (ENVIRONMENT)
- I want to be a member of the football team (SKILLS)
- I want to stop smoking (BEHAVIOUR)
- I want to be a happy person (IDENTITY)
3. Ask each child in turn to stand on the corresponding identity factor. For example: for, I want to be able to learn to read, the child stand on the symbol for SKILLS. With the help of the whole group, the child then thinks about changes that are needed from the other identity factors so that change can happen.
For example:
- I want to lean how to read
- BEHAVIOUR - she needs to attend her classes and practice
- BELIEFS - she needs to believe that it's important to read and write
- ENVIRONMENT –she needs to find an environment where she can practice
Final discussion:
- Is it always our fault if we can't do what we want to do?
- What do we need to support our ideas?
- Was there anything you did not understand?
- Was there anything you would like to do again, or do more of next time?
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Activity 4 Identity Factors: what are identity factors?
This is a single activity session plan from our book, The Life Skills Handbook, a book available in digital format (only)). There are 61 activity sessions in this book. Click here for more information on the book and how to purchase it.
Purpose of activity: To understand the factors that makes up a person’s identity
Lifeskills: Self-awareness and creative thinking
Important points
The point of this activity is to separate identity and behaviour. Children who regard themselves as 'bad people' may feel that nothing can be done about this. It is important to show them that they are not bad, though their behaviourmay sometimes be bad. They can control and change behaviour.
These ideas are important but may seem a bit abstract. You can try the activity first with a group of friends, colleagues or older children and ask their feedback. Adapt this activity carefully if you are translating it into another language.
Materials
- Poster with the following sets of identity factor symbols.
- Sets of five cards, each card showing one identity factor symbol. You need enough sets for each pair for example five sets for 10 children.
Steps
- In the whole group, repeat the sentence, I can do it here. For each word hold up the corresponding symbol.
- Divide the children into groups of four and give each group a complete set of cards with the five identity factor symbols.
- Each child repeats the sentence but putting different stresses on the words. The group discusses how this changes the meaning of the sentence. (If the children cannot read ask them to repeat the sentence after you.)
- Do this again, this time one child holds up the relevant identity factor symbols in turn as another one repeats the sentence. The others in the group say which was the identity factor stressed.
- When all the children in the group have done this, one child holds up the symbols in turn as the rest of the group repeats the sentence. The person with the symbols stands up when they want group to emphasise one of the symbols.Divide the group into pairs. In pairs they then lay one set of symbols onto the floor in the following order:
- Identity
- Beliefs
- Skills
- Behaviour
- Environment
7. The children step on each identity factor and say something about themselves in relation to this identity factor. The educator practices this with the whole group first by asking the children to repeat the following sentences. Then, in pairs, the children take it in turns to finish the sentence so that their partner can hear their answers.
8. Ask children to volunteer to repeat their identity factors to the whole group
Final discussion:
Were their aspects of your identity which you liked, did not like? Why?
Follow up
Children can design their own identity factor symbols.
Activity 3 Self Awareness: The Timeline
This is a single activity session plan from our book, The Life Skills Handbook, a book available in digital format (only)). There are 61 activity sessions in this book. Click here for more information on the book and how to purchase it.
Purpose of activity
- To help children identify and discuss past events
- To help children think about long term goals
Life skills: Creative thinking
Important points
Girls often have a poor self-image and see fewer opportunities for themselves. Encourage girls to think about positive ambitions again. Talk about this with the group.
Materials
- Card
- Large sheet of blank paper, such as flipchart paper
- Coloured pens
Steps
- Show a poster of a timeline.
- Explain how to use the timeline by drawing symbols of your own life on it. Focus on the period of your life that matches the age range of the children in the group. Special dates or events may include:
If the children are unable or unwilling to put the events into a specific order, have them draw their symbols inside a circle shape instead.
3. In small groups or pairs, children can show their timelines or circles.
4. Ask the children to draw or write in three future events that they hope will happen in the years ahead. These may include:
- Going to primary/secondary/high school
- Getting a job
- Getting a house
- Starting college/training programme
- Getting married
- Moving to another place
- Having children
Final discussion:
In the large group, children talk about and/or show the symbols about their future goals.
Were you happy to draw/write your timeline? Why/why not? How did you feel/Did you find it difficult to remember past events? To think about the future?
Sample Life Skills Activity Sessions 1/3
Self Awareness: My Place on the Tree
Purpose of activity: To develop children's self-awareness about their present lives.
Life skills: Self-awareness, critical thinking, creative thinking
Important points: Try to ask the children to think deeply about their place on the tree and to find reasons for their choices. If children find this difficult, do not worry but note what the children feel or do not feel able to say. The activity can be repeated in Part 3 when children have improved their communication skills. If some children do not want to speak in the group, do not force them, but let them think about their ideas and if possible talk about their ideas to one friend.
Materials
A copy of the tree picture on a large poster for all the children to see
Self Awarness: my place on the tree diagram
Steps
1. Show the children the picture and explain that the tree represents life. The people on the tree are at different stages of their lives. They are doing different things for different reasons.
2. Ask the children to think of a well-known character in your country, for example a famous sports star, a character from a folktale or a famous person. Perhaps this person feels like the person at the top of the tree because he looks sure of himself and powerful. She is smiling at everyone below her. She is pleased with her position! Ask the children which figure in the picture is like the famous person. (The children will probably have different ideas and different reasons – that's fine).
3. Show the children the figure(s) on the tree which show where you feel you are in life today. Explain the reasons for your choice.
For example: I feel I am like the person doing a handstand halfway up the tree with one hand off the branch. I feel like this because I am feeling full of energy and I feel I am doing something a bit different today by starting this life skills work with you. I am not sure if it will be fun or a bit risky!
4. Ask the children to choose one figure that is closest to themselves.
5. In pairs or small groups, children discuss why they identified with a particular figure. For example…
I feel like I am at the bottom of the tree waving and looking happy because I am just beginning the life skills (so I am at the bottom of the tree). I am looking happy because I hope the class will help me and I am waving at my friends who will be with me.
Final discussion:
Do we feel like different people on the tree at different times of the day or week? Were you happy to tell us about your figure? Why/Why not?
REFERENCE
http://www.lifeskillshandbooks.com
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ReplyDeletehttp://www.skillsconverged.com/FreeTrainingMaterials/tabid/258/articleType/CategoryView/categoryId/114/Decision-Making.aspx
this is really great but i want to know about the process of decision making in life skill . please give me information about it .
ReplyDeletegood example and very well explained about the life skills, it is so important for kids to get life skills education
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