Popsicle Surprise Group Activity

Therapeutic Popsicle Surprise (School Edition)

Design:

This activity is designed to be utilized in a school setting. It is best used with small groups of 4-6 students. It can be used as an icebreaker to get to know the group/individual. This activity can be custom designed for any group you are having. It can be tailored for any child/adolescent/teen ages 5 – 19. Each set of popsicles has questions on the back of the popsicles. The questions can be tailored to the appropriate age of the clients and group type.  For example: if you are facilitating a group on anxiety, self-esteem, social skills, healthy dating, life skills, depression, LGBTQ etc you just pick the edition envelope with the questions you desire. There is also an icebreaker edition you can do at the first session of any group.

School Social Work Model:

This item of interest meets the School Social Work model under the practice feature of “Promoting a school climate conducive to student learning and teaching excellence.” This is done by school social workers promoting a psycho-social environment that fosters academic engagement and achievement. This practice is implemented by the school social worker building supportive relationships within and between students and facilitating engagement between students such as small groups. (sswaa.org)

Objective:

The objective of this group activity is to increase open discussion about specific topics and concerns students are having. The goal is to have the students gain trust, knowledge, support, and awareness surrounding the topic and start open dialogue.  

Rules:

Explain to the group that they are at a hypothetical “Ice cream Social” and everyone is there to get to know each other better. Walk around the group and have everyone pick an ice cream/popsicle from the Popsicle Surprise box. Instruct them to lay it on their lap or table and not to flip it over yet. Once everyone has their popsicle ask for volunteers first to flip it over and read their question out loud and answer it (if they wish). If no volunteers just start cold calling on them.

Below are some sample questions from the icebreaker edition:  

1.     What was the happiest memory from your childhood?

2.     What was the saddest memory from your childhood?

3.     Tell the group a joke.

4.     What is something your mother or dad does/did that makes you angry?

5.     Tell the group three things you’d like to change about yourself?

6.     Tell the group three things you like about yourself?

7.     When you feel sad what do you do to feel happy again?

8.     Tell the group three things you worry about?

9.     Make a silly face to the person on your right.

10.  Tell the group one thing you like and one thing you dislike about school and why?

Below is are sample pictures of the Popsicle Surprise box:

          

created by Evette Robinson - Dominican University GSSW

Self Esteem M&M Sharing Activity

Self Esteem M&M Sharing Activity

                                                     

Objective:  To encourage group members to acknowledge and name positive statements about themselves as well as others. 

Materials needed:  Fun size M&M packages, 1 for each group member

*Be sure to ask beforehand about food policies in your school and group members’ allergies.

Activity:  Organize the group to sit in a circle.  Pass out the candy and have each student open their package of M&M’s to see which colors they have.  Use a visual (whiteboard, projector, poster) to show students the questions/statements that correspond to each color M&M.  Moving around the circle, each student will pick a color of M&M that they have and answer the corresponding question.  They can then eat their M&M.  Keep moving around the group until everyone runs out of M&Ms. 

Examples of questions the social worker could present include:

Red: Name something you like about your personality.

Green:  Name something that you enjoy (sport, hobby, etc.)

Blue:  Name something positive about the way you look.

Yellow:  Name something unique about the student on your right.

Brown:  Name something you like about the student on your right.

Orange:  Name something positive about one student in the group.

Discussion:  Following the activity, engage the group in a few processing questions.  How did it feel to say something positive about yourself?  How did it feel to say something positive about others?  Do you think it is easy for us to say positive things?  How did it feel to hear someone say something positive about you?  Brainstorm what could help us say positive things more often.    

This activity was adapted from Girls in Real Life Situations by Taylor and Trice-Black.

Taylor, J. V., & Trice-Black, S. (2007). Girls in Real Life Situations, Grades 6-12: Group counseling activities for enhancing social and emotional development. Champaign, IL: Research Press.

Emotional Intelligence

I just wanted to share this presentation, which was an article review, but done Item of Interest Style.  It's a useful bit of information on Emotional Intelligence and Self Esteem.  Enjoy the brief "Powtoon"

https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/dVFkicb64XT/?utm_campaign=email%2Bshare%2Bby%2Bowner&utm_medium=SocialShare&mode=movie&utm_source=player-page-social-share&utm_content=dVFkicb64XT

The Wright Family

 

The Wright Family Listening and Warm-Up Activity

 

 

PASS RIGHT – PASS LEFT

TOPIC AREA: Communication

Concept: Certain skills for good communication are certainly more important than others. One of the most important of these is the skill of listening. "Being in the moment" as it is often called these days. This activity will show the importance of listening and how difficult that is when you are not concentrating on what is being said because you are busy doing something else, or as they say, "trying to do two things at one time"!

 

Method: Classroom activity

Time Frame: 10 minutes plus discussion time

 

Materials Needed:

1. The Wright Family Story

2. One Popsicle stick, button or other item for each student in the group

 

Activity: Have your entire group from a circle (I like to have mine sit on the floor, "Indian style" if possible). Give each person, in the circle, the small item. Tell the group that you are going to read a story and every time they hear any word that sounds like right or left, they are to pass their item in their hand to the person directly on the right or left depending on what they heard. Start reading the story slowly, to give them a chance to catch on to what you want them to do. After a few passes, stop the story and ask them how they are doing. Check to see that everyone has one item in their hands. If your group is typical, some will have 2-3 items, and others will not have any. Have them redistribute items again so each participant again has just one. Continue to read the story, getting faster as you go. Stop the story a couple more times to check on how they are doing.

 

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Discussion:

 

 After a few rounds and lots of laughter and falling cups-ask students what happened? How hard was it to listen and pass objects at the same time? What does this activity tell us about communication? Any other lessons we can learn from this silly activity? Why is this activity a good way to learn a lesson? How did we help each other during the activity? What skills did we have to use in order to do this activity?
 

After this discussion, ask students some comprehension questions such as: "Where was the Wright family going?" "Who didn't go on the vacation with the family?" "What was left in the driveway?" "Why did Tommy have to run back home?" "Who got sick in the car?" See how many students can answer the question. If many of them can't, ask them why? "Why couldn't they remember the details to the story?" Someone might mention that they were busy passing the object around the circle, so they weren't concentrating on the content of the story, just listening for "right" and "left."

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/shi/pdf/training-manual/wrightfamily.pdf

Genderbread Person by itspronouncedmetrosexual.com

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