The What's Your Word? activity has been helpful for many families and can also be used in the classroom.
It’s an activity for the entire family to play together. Designed to increase communication and help kids find out how Mum and/or Dad tackle certain daily feelings, events and circumstances and works equally well in the classroom. The idea came from clients who regularly drop by my stalls at the Red Hill and Mornington Markets. It’s great to hear passing positive comments and even better to have this direct feedback and suggestions for other families or groups.
How it works
Use the: • ‘I Can’ cards, • ‘A for Attitude’ book, or • the Pdf of topics provided below for download and printing. Each person receives a topic each day. eg.: • cards get shuffled and chosen by chance, • book gets opened at random, or • the topics from the pdf are cut up and placed in a bag to be pulled out indiscriminately by each person.
The idea is for each person to consider their topic throughout the day, looking for examples of when they, or someone else, encountered the feeling or condition represented by the topic.
eg. If you randomly selected the topic ‘Look for the good’. you could look for the good in other people and events, or notice when other people do this too.
At the end of the day, each person gets to report on what they noticed about themselves and others around them.
Questions to ask yourself and others:
How did you feel when you noticed this thing?
How did you, or the other person respond to the event or situation?
What would you choose do differently next time?
This strategy gives kids the opportunity to see how Mum and Dad (or their teacher) choose to respond to feelings and events and it gives parents and teachers insights to what is going on for their children. Have fun with this and I’d love to hear your feedback! All the best, Julie
What's YOUR word?
Feel free to print the 'What's your Word exercise' Pdf as a handy reference sheet for how to use this exercise at home or in the classroom.
The 'Word list' Pdf is an activity sheet full of topics to use everyday for aiding communication within families and school groups.