Friday Fun: Getting Along with Others Activity
Materials: bowl of water, pepper, sugar, and a bar of soap
Sprinkle lots of pepper over the surface of the water, explaining to the child or children that the pepper represents all the people in their lives that they come into contact with, including friends, family members, teachers, and even strangers. Talk about how whether or not we get along with people is related to how we treat them and how we speak to them.
Now take the bar of soap (I drew a mean/angry face on ours with a permanent marker) and explain that it represents the hurtful, or negative ways that someone can treat others or speak to them. Dip the soap in the water and notice how all the pepper moves away. Point out that people don't want to be around someone who is not nice to them.Now take a spoonful of sugar and pour it into the center of the bowl, saying that it represents the sweet and kind ways of treating people. Note that all the pepper moves back in toward the sugar. Point out that people like to be around those who are kind to them and speak nicely to them. These behaviors make others want to be our friend.
Julie's Story:
I did this with my sons and they thought it was amazing and, I think, really understood the message. I know that in interactions in the future I can tell them to remember the pepper people, and try to behave more like the sugar and less like the soap. Shared family references like this have a sort of secret code coolness that can really allow children to buy into the "game" of behaving like seasonings!
Just as a warning, though, if you have a child like my 7-year-old, who likes to make everything silly, you might have to contend with a comment (said in jest) like, "So I guess we should always stay away from soap and cover ourselves in sugar!"
If you tried this, how did it work? Have you tried any other ways of making an abstract lesson more concrete? What did you do? Please share in the Comments section!
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3 comments:
Thanks for this activity suggestion! I love the idea of giving kids a physical illustration of a important lesson. I enjoyed looking around your site and look forward to the official launch!
Thank you for the comment! I really recommend doing the activity - it was so quick to set up and such a concrete way to demonstrate the concept. Thank you for checking out the site; come back in a few weeks to see what we're doing!
What a great activity. I look forward to using this one with my son when he's a little older.
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