Hurtful Words leave their mark!
This is a simple yet powerful way to teach your children to be sure that their words to others are respectful at all times.
Before the Activity:
You will need a “Sam” figure to use for this activity. You could either print a picture, or
Begin the Activity:
- Introduce your children to Sam! (Show them the picture you have prepared)
- Explained to them that he is in grade one and that he isn’t very well liked by his classmates.
- Ask the children to think of and share words with you that they might of heard other children say that would hurt Sam’s feelings. (For this activity, it is okay to say something mean things.
- As the children share examples, crumbled a section of the Sam picture.
- Continue this process until Sam is one serious crumpled up mess! He may even incur a few rips and tears through the process!
- Now discuss how bad Sam was feeling. How would your children feel if these hurtful words were about them?
- Lay the crumpled picture of Sam on the table.
- Now ask your child/ren to share things that they would like to say to Sam so that he would KNOW he was important and that he was respected.
- With each example they give, have them help you smooth the creases out the paper.
- As the children will soon discover, is that the hurtful words, even when they are taken back – made Sam different now. No matter how hard you try to take back the hurtful words and say that you were sorry, the hurtful words still left marks on Sam.
Place Sam up somewhere that he can been referred to as the need arises. It will serve as a constant reminder to us that we will always think before we speak.
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