Girl Power
I usually try and do 6- or 8-week girls' groups at lunchtime, so I mix and match activities depending on the makeup of each particular group. Most of my girls are really interested in doing artsy craftsy projects, so I've got a bunch of them. Mostly from Pinterest, of course. The rest of the time I'm trying to sneak in items on my feminist agenda. :-)
Calming Stones - I'm lucky enough to live near the ocean, so this summer I collected a bunch of smooth stones. I have each girl choose a rock that fits nicely into her hand, then paint it with acrylic paint (valuable tip: if colors will overlap, let each dry completely before painting with the next). After school when the stones are completely dry, I take them outside and spray them with clear gloss to protect the paint jobs. The good news is that kids have been using them in class if they feel anxious, and no one has decided to throw one. Yet. Knock on wood.
Community Bingo - A get-to know-each-other activity. Students walk around the room with their bingo boards, trying to fill as many spaces as they can. Each student's name can only be entered once on the board. This is best with a group of 6 or more.
Social Atoms - Click for full instructions for a wonderful way to get a visual on how each girl views her support system, how big it is, and how appropriate her boundaries are. Just be careful that it doesn't turn into some sort of competition to see who has the most friends or biggest family.
Hand Clapping Games are all the rage right now...
The M&M Game - Yeah. Do you know how long I've been looking for an excuse to eat M&Ms "for work?" This is a fun get-to-know you game. Plus you get to eat M&Ms. Score!
Community Bingo - A get-to know-each-other activity. Students walk around the room with their bingo boards, trying to fill as many spaces as they can. Each student's name can only be entered once on the board. This is best with a group of 6 or more.
Social Atoms - Click for full instructions for a wonderful way to get a visual on how each girl views her support system, how big it is, and how appropriate her boundaries are. Just be careful that it doesn't turn into some sort of competition to see who has the most friends or biggest family.
Hand Clapping Games are all the rage right now...
The M&M Game - Yeah. Do you know how long I've been looking for an excuse to eat M&Ms "for work?" This is a fun get-to-know you game. Plus you get to eat M&Ms. Score!
Friendship Necklaces - We made these the last week of one of my girls' groups. Each girl chooses her own color of bead, then puts beads of that color on as many safety pins as there are members of the group. Each girl puts one of her own safety pins and one of each of the other girls' pins, and puts them all on a string. This group had six girls in it. A beautiful memento of their friendship group!
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Make Beliefs Comix - Bill ZImmerman's website - he's got tons of creative fill-in-the-blanks comics you can print out for free. If you like the Anti-Coloring Books, you'll love these.
A Little Birdie Told Me (from Pinterest) - A feel-good activity that helps girls identify their positive qualities. When I did this in group, one girl had a really hard time identifying her attributes, and the others gave her lots of support by offering specific examples of things they admire about her. For the project, students paint an abstract design on art paper, cut their printed-out statements into sentence strips, snip a bird silhouette from construction paper, then glue the bird and sentences on top of the painting in an artistic fashion. This is really a beautiful project.
Magazine Ad Hunt - Instead of just recycling a bunch of my daughters' old Seventeen and other girlie-type mags, I'm using them as a starting point for discussions about things like body image and peer pressure (as I read what I just wrote I realized that yes, I'm a bad mother who buys these magazines for her own girls! Darn it). Anyway, we're talking about the changing standards of attractiveness, who decides what's attractive and what's not, and whether or not current standards are fair or healthy. I'm having the girls cut out particularly heinous ads and article titles so we can make a Collage of Shame. Which I will NOT hang in my daughters' room.
Tip of the Iceberg - Another favorite topic of mine with girls is body language and non-verbal communication. I explain that just as only about 10% of an iceberg is above the ocean's surface, only a small fraction of what we say is communicated by our actual words. The majority of our communication is made through our facial expressions, body language, volume, and tone of voice. To illustrate, I might say, "I like your shirt" twice---once sincerely and once sarcastically. Then we do a role-play, where one person repeats the same sentence a number of times, trying to see how much she can change the meaning just by changing her nonverbal cues. I also try to tie in some discussion of how many misunderstandings happen when texting or Facebooking, since we can't see the nonverbal (i.e., largest) part of other people's communications.
Friendship Bracelets - I bought a kit at the craft store. If the instructions are too complicated for the kids (or for you if you're not great at this sort of thing), you can just buy colored yarn or embroidery thread and have them make simple braids that they can tie around their wrists. Members of the group should make one for each of the other members so they each have a wrist full of bracelets. This year the new rage at our school is making bracelets out of those little rubber bands. They're pretty inexpensive, and not too difficult.
Telephone - I bet you remember this game from slumber parties when you were a kid. One person thinks of a one-sentence statement and whispers it into the ear of the girl sitting next to her. She may only whisper it one time. That girl whispers what (she thinks) she heard to the next girl, and so on down the line. At the end, the last girl says aloud what was whispered to her. Usually it is quite different from the original statement. This is a good demonstration of why you shouldn't repeat or believe most rumors: the original story often quickly and easily becomes distorted every time the tale is retold.
Magazine Ad Hunt - Instead of just recycling a bunch of my daughters' old Seventeen and other girlie-type mags, I'm using them as a starting point for discussions about things like body image and peer pressure (as I read what I just wrote I realized that yes, I'm a bad mother who buys these magazines for her own girls! Darn it). Anyway, we're talking about the changing standards of attractiveness, who decides what's attractive and what's not, and whether or not current standards are fair or healthy. I'm having the girls cut out particularly heinous ads and article titles so we can make a Collage of Shame. Which I will NOT hang in my daughters' room.
Tip of the Iceberg - Another favorite topic of mine with girls is body language and non-verbal communication. I explain that just as only about 10% of an iceberg is above the ocean's surface, only a small fraction of what we say is communicated by our actual words. The majority of our communication is made through our facial expressions, body language, volume, and tone of voice. To illustrate, I might say, "I like your shirt" twice---once sincerely and once sarcastically. Then we do a role-play, where one person repeats the same sentence a number of times, trying to see how much she can change the meaning just by changing her nonverbal cues. I also try to tie in some discussion of how many misunderstandings happen when texting or Facebooking, since we can't see the nonverbal (i.e., largest) part of other people's communications.
Friendship Bracelets - I bought a kit at the craft store. If the instructions are too complicated for the kids (or for you if you're not great at this sort of thing), you can just buy colored yarn or embroidery thread and have them make simple braids that they can tie around their wrists. Members of the group should make one for each of the other members so they each have a wrist full of bracelets. This year the new rage at our school is making bracelets out of those little rubber bands. They're pretty inexpensive, and not too difficult.
Telephone - I bet you remember this game from slumber parties when you were a kid. One person thinks of a one-sentence statement and whispers it into the ear of the girl sitting next to her. She may only whisper it one time. That girl whispers what (she thinks) she heard to the next girl, and so on down the line. At the end, the last girl says aloud what was whispered to her. Usually it is quite different from the original statement. This is a good demonstration of why you shouldn't repeat or believe most rumors: the original story often quickly and easily becomes distorted every time the tale is retold.
Perspective Mapping - Laminate this page or put it in a plastic page protector. With a dry-erase marker, write in the speech bubble (or have the child write) something they said to someone else that was maybe thoughtless or hurtful or rude. Then have them think about what sorts of things the other person might have been thinking, and write those in the thought bubble. Erase and do it again, but this time writing something more appropriate or kind in the speech bubble. Will the other person's thoughts change? Discuss.
Flame of Friendship - Use the analogy of a flame to help girls deal with friendship issues like jealousy. See my blog post here to get more details.
Flame of Friendship - Use the analogy of a flame to help girls deal with friendship issues like jealousy. See my blog post here to get more details.
Affirmation Necklaces - From Carol Miller, The Middle School Counselor. This has been one of the girls' favorite activities. |