Skills Challenges

Imagine that you are going on a trip to a place that you have never visited.

What information do you need to know to successfully plan the trip and make it as fun as possible?

Make a list of the questions that you need to answer and where you might be able to find the information you need.

Think of an activity that you enjoy doing. This might be something you do at home or at school.

Imagine that you are a teacher and you need to teach your friend how to complete this activity in a series of steps.

Plan how you would explain the activity clearly and put the steps in a logical order.

How might you use your hand gestures and body language to teach this activity more effectively?

Listen to the people around you talking to each other - perhaps your friends or family. Observe the conversation and listen for when someone interrupts.

Extension: Why did they interrupt? Was it for a positive or negative reason? How do you know?

Think of a time when someone has helped you complete a task.

Write a 'thank you' card to express your appreciation.

You could include:

• what they helped you with
• why it was useful
• how it made completing the task easier or more fun.

Extension: could you suggest a new project to work on together in the future?

Create a feelings chart to describe how you are feeling each day this week. You can pick the theme of the chart - for example, you could make a feelings weather chart which describes how you feel by linking it to different types of weather (sunny = happy; cloudy = ... ) Pick a theme that makes sense to you.

Try to complete the chart every morning and evening this week. At the end of the week, take a look back and see if there are any patterns to how you have felt this week. Did you always feel the same way every morning? Did this feeling stay with you until the evening or did it change? You could ask a member of your household to do this with you.

Pick something that you have completed or been successful at recently. It could be something you did at school or in a club, or something from home like cleaning your room or finishing a book. It can be a big success or something small that you are proud of.

Make an award or certificate for yourself to celebrate your success. Share your success with a family member or friend.

Think about 3 things you are grateful for today, that brighten your day and make you feel happy. They can be small things or big things.

Extension: Discuss your choices with members of your household and talk about other things that have brightened their day today too.

With a family member or friend, listen to your favourite piece of music. Now each of you create a piece of artwork to describe how the piece of music made you feel?

Show your artwork to each other. Are they similar? Did the piece of music make you both feel the same way? Could you combine them to make one piece of artwork?

Many people are concerned about the amount of plastic littering the streets, parks, rivers and beaches. Some common household items are now being made out of a different material. For example in the UK, drinks companies have to use paper straws instead of plastic.

Have a look around your home - which items are made of plastic? Can you come up with alternative materials these items could be made out of? What are the pros and cons of using an alternative material?

Share your ideas with another member of your household - can they think of others?

Think of your favourite place, this could be your house, a relative's house, a park, a museum or anywhere else you have been.

Imagine that you are giving someone a video tour of your favourite place.  

Plan where you would take them and how you could talk about the different parts or features of it. Role-play giving the tour, or write yourself a script with descriptive language.

Listen to an audio book or ask a family member to read a book to you.

Write a review of the book, including a summary of characters and main events. Share your review with a friend or family member.

Work with members of your family to design and build a den. Share your ideas and come to a group decision on how you will make it. The den could be built outside with natural materials or indoors with furniture and blankets. Take a picture of the finished den from inside looking out and outside looking in!

Draw a picture of yourself as a leader. Around your drawing write down your leadership strengths (the things that make you a good leader). Now ask a family member or friend to do the same thing. Compare your drawings. Did you both identify the same strengths?

Work together to identify 3 more strengths to add to your own list. Over the next week, complete 3 tasks at home to apply your strengths.

Think about a journey that you make quite regularly, for example the walk or ride to school or home or to a club you go to. How much attention do you pay to the details of the journey? Try to draw or write down every step of the journey.

Next time you do this journey, check what you have remembered. How much attention did you pay to the smaller details, did you remember colours or writings on signs?

Next time you are carrying out a task, stop and think about any details you may need to pay attention to. What difference will taking the time to do this have on how you complete your task?

‘Every cloud has a silver lining’ or ‘look on the bright side’ are phrases you may have heard your teachers, family members or friends say when something has gone wrong. What do you think these phrases mean?

Talk to a family member or friend about them.

Share your feelings about a time when something positive has come from a mistake or from something going wrong.

Think about your favourite food or ingredient. Now think about a member of your family or a friend's favourite food. Can you imagine a meal or dish that could include both these foods or ingredients?  What other ingredients would you need to use?

What would you call this dish? What would it look like? Can you draw it? How do you think it would taste? Can you describe this dish to your family member or friend, would they eat it?

A bridge is a great way to get from one place to another especially when there is something you can't walk on or across.

But do all bridges look the same? As you go to different places this week look out for any bridges you see.

In what ways are they the same? How are they different? Why do you think they are not all the same? Can you compare them? Do you have a favourite?

Extension: Can you draw the different bridges you have seen?

Organise a game of 'What Am I' with your family. Each member of the family writes an agreed number of objects on small pieces of paper to put in a bowl. Take it in turns to pick an object, describe the object clearly without saying its name and see if your family can guess what it is. You could use a timer to see how many objects people can guess in one minute.

Extension - to make this harder you could also write down one word that you are not allowed to use when describing your object.

Listen to a new song, paying particular attention to the lyrics (words) in the chorus.

Listen carefully twice and then try to write down the lyrics by singing the song in your head.

Extension: What is the song about? What is the main message behind the song?

When you are outside with your family, work together to create a piece of natural art. You could be in the garden, at the park, the woods or even the seaside.

Encourage everyone to join in and decide together where to make the art, what to use and what it will look like. Work as a team to gather natural resources such as sticks, leaves, stones or shells to create your art. Can you share ideas and come to an agreement about the design? Can you help each other while creating it?

Each evening for the next week, consider how you have felt throughout the day.

How can you express this to someone in your household? You could write it down or draw how you feel. Or would it be easier to talk about it?

Throughout the week try a few different ways of expressing how you have felt that day. Which way was the easiest method for you to explain your feelings? How did the other person react?

This week, set yourself a new challenge. It might be to:

• learn the rules of a new game
• learn how to play a new piece of music
• try a new sport or exercise
• get up (or go to bed) earlier
• cook something new
• start a new book by an author you've never read before
• reduce your screen time

or something else totally different and new!

How does it feel to be out of your comfort zone? Will you keep up this new activity?

Create a Positivity Poster to display at home.

1. Write words and phrases to help people stay positive.
2. Draw pictures to illustrate each phrase.

Create your own animal by merging two animals together: e.g. Head of a Zebra, body of a Bear.

Can you draw it? What will you call your new animal? Where will it live? What is it like?

Extension - now create a new animal by merging three or four different animals.

Read a story or watch a film.

Pause when a character experiences a problem. Ask yourself, is this problem...

• a simple problem? (it has one solution)
• a complicated problem? (there are a few different solutions)
• a complex problem? (there is no ‘correct solution’)

Write and/or draw how you would solve this problem, if you were the character.

Continuing reading or watching: how did the character solve the problem?

Prepare a short speech to present to your family.

Suggested topic: My favourite season / time of year.

In your speech explain why this season or time of year is your favourite. Ask your family to close their eyes as you describe a scene from your favourite season. Can your family picture what you are telling them?

How can you tell you have really understood what someone has told you?

One way to do this is to repeat back exactly what you have heard.
Another is to rephrase what you heard.
A third way is to ask questions to check your understanding. (You can use who, what, when, where, why and how questions, but make sure they are linked to what the person was speaking about).

Over the next week, have a go at using all three of these strategies to check you have understood what someone has said to you.

Which one worked best? Did the situation make a difference as to which strategy you used?

Research a culture that is different from your own.

Create a poster celebrating what you have learnt.
Your research could cover:

• people and events throughout history
• food, art and popular culture

Extension: explore diversity in your own networks. Do you connect with people whose experiences might be different from your own?

What do you think makes a good leader? Draw this person. Can you tell they are good leader from your drawing?

Now think of a person you know, or have seen on the TV or a book, who is a good leader. Draw them. Do they look like your first drawing? What is it that makes this person a good leader? What qualities do they have?

Extension:
Ask a friend or family member to think of someone they think is a good leader and to draw them.What qualities do they think a good leader has? Now think about whether you have any of the same qualities? What could you do to develop these qualities further?

Think of two or three tasks you have completed successfully in the last few weeks.  

How did you know you were successful?

What did it feel like when you succeeded? Did you take time to recognise and celebrate your success?

How does it feel now when you are thinking about it?

Over the next week try and take the time to recognise your successes (no matter how small they may seem). You might try just stopping for a moment and feeling proud of what you have achieved.

Extension:
Do you ever celebrate other people's successes? Take a moment this week to celebrate somebody else's success. It might be as simple as telling someone 'well done' or 'great job'. How did this make you feel?

Think of your favourite place. How does this place make you feel?

Can you describe your favourite place? Think about what makes it special for you.

What is in your favourite place? Are there any people or animals in your favourite place? What can you smell or hear?  

What do you think would happen if you thought about your favourite place when you were feeling angry or sad? Is this something you could try?

Think of a game you like playing, it can be any type of game for example a board game, a card or a game that uses your imagination.

How can you make this game better? What could you change to make it more exciting or more interesting or so that more people can play?

Share your ideas with a friend or member of your family. What do they think? Do they have any suggestions?

Design a scavenger or treasure hunt for your family. To do this you need to hide treasure (for example a toy or prize) somewhere in your house or garden. You then need to write out and hide clues to help your family find the treasure.

Think about the places you want your family to visit as part of the treasure hunt. What question will you ask them in order to get them there?

Write your first clue out, then hide the next clue in the place that is the answer to the first. Do this four or five times so that the answer to the last clue is the place where the treasure is hidden.

Consider the different ways you can write your clues. How can you make them harder or easier?

Think of a story where something exciting happens. Think about how you speak when you are talking about something exciting.

What happens to your voice?

Do you use your hands?

Does anything happen to your face or expression?

Tell this story to your family, try to make sure you emphasise the exciting parts.

Ask your family to give you feedback on how you spoke about the exciting parts of the story. Tell the story again and try a different way of expressing the exciting parts.

Ask a member of your family or friend to tell you about their day in detail. Ask them to include details like what time they got up, when and what they had for lunch, who they talked to and what activities they did.

Write down what you can remember. Read your notes back to the family member / friend. Could you remember the key parts of their day?

Try again with another family member or friend. Did you remember any more this time?

Try taking notes as they are talking instead of afterwards. Does this help you remember more?

Are there any tactics you can use to help you remember the important information you hear?

Think about a time you when have seen someone struggle with a task or activity they were doing.

If this situation happens again, is there anything you can do to support that person?

Now think of a time when you were struggling to complete a task or activity, what could someone have done to support you?

How would this support make you feel?

Invite everyone in your household to make a suggestion for a meal to cook one evening this week.

Can you manage the discussion so that everyone gets a chance to share their ideas and opinions in a fair way and come up with a way of making a group decision together?

Extension: Can you organise who will do what task to make the meal a success?

Create a dance routine for you and your family.

Think about what music you will use, will it be fast or slow? What dance moves do you know? Can you ask another family member to show you some of their best dance moves?

If you can, perform the dance routine together in front of some friends.

Think of an activity, task or situation that you find challenging.

What would success look like for you in this situation?

Draw how your success would look (or write it down).

What steps could you take to make this success real?

Think about three things you have achieved this year.

What did you do to make sure you were successful? Is there anything you could have done differently?

Can you build on these successes in 2023? How will you do this?

Consider the problem: do we need to throw away old or broken things?

With the help of a family member pick an old or broken item in your house. Should you throw it away or can you fix or re-purpose it?

Try to come up with a few different ideas of different ways you could use this item. What other equipment or resources might you need?

Which idea is the best? Why is this? If you can, pick an idea and make it.

Think of a day, event or activity that you really enjoyed. Close your eyes and describe this day to a member of your family. Ask them to draw what they think it looked like.

How accurate is their drawing?
What else could you tell them to help them improve their drawing?

Ask a family member to read you a new story (or one you have not read for quite some time). Close your eyes as they read, then draw a picture of what is happening in the story.

How can you tell what the characters look like and what happens to them?
What type of details are you listening for?

Paint or draw an Autumn picture with someone else in your family. Work together to come up with an idea for the picture. Discuss each other's strengths and see if you can support each other to make the best picture possible.

How did you decide what the picture would look like and who did what?
Would the picture have looked different if you had done it by yourself?

Think of a job in your house or garden that needs doing (maybe cleaning up leaves or tidying a room).

Write down the different tasks that need to be done to complete this job.
Now assign each of these tasks to a person in your house.
Explain to each person why you have given them that job.

Does dividing up a job into smaller tasks make it easier for people to work together?  Do you think each person will do their task? What might happen if they don't?

Physical Challenge

How many times can you catch a ball in 60 seconds?
Can you beat this score tomorrow?
What will your score be by the end of the week?

Extension: Think of another area where you could improve your skills each day for the next week.

Design a 'safe space' in your house.
This can be somewhere you go if you need to let out your emotions and calm yourself down.
Fill the space with positive phrases and objects that make you feel happy.
How will this space help you when you need to stay positive?

Design a comic book, where the characters are members of your family.
What could happen in the story?
How might the characters interact with each other?
Share the comic with your family and ask them what they enjoyed about it.

Consider the problem: some people don't put their litter in the bin or recycling.
With the help of an adult, go on a litter picking trail in your local area.
How is this helping to solve the problem?
How can you do your litter picking safely?

Create a sock puppet, using an old sock and spare buttons.
Tell a story using your puppet.
What voice might the puppet have?
What sort of story might they tell?

Ask a family member to read you their favourite story.
As you listen, think about what is happening in the story.
Who are the characters?
What do you think might happen next?

Play a board game with your household.
(If you don't own a board game, find an idea for a game online).
As you play, think about how you can support and encourage others.
Extension: try teaming up and playing cooperatively.

Think of a friend or family member you know well.

Draw them in the middle of a piece of paper.

Around the edge, write all of things this person is good at.

Share it with them and see if they agree.

Dictionary Challenge!

For the next week, find the meaning of a new word each day.
Try to use the word in at least 3 sentences throughout the day.

Extension: are there any other learning areas you could practise daily?

Create a Positivity Jar.

Save an empty jar.
Fill it with 'happy notes' and messages.

People in your household can take a message from the jar when they are facing a setback.

Make a musical instrument using items in your kitchen.
Can you create different rhythms using your musical instrument?
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Extension:
Decorate your musical instrument.

Go on a Shape Hunt.
How many different shapes can you spot in your house?
Record examples of the same shape in different places. For example, a rectangular door and a rectangular window.
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Extension:
What problems would emerge if every shape in your house was the same? For example, circular doors, walls and windows?

Talk to a friend or family member about your favourite fictional character.
Describe the character's appearance and personality.
Explain why you like them.
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Extension:
If you lived as this character for a day, how would you spend the time?

Go into different rooms in your house.
What sounds can you hear?
How do these sounds make you feel?
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Extension:
What conversations can you hear?
Can you summarise what was said?

Imagine a new neighbour has moved into your area.
Who would you take with you to greet them?
What could you do to make them feel welcome?
How could you find out more about them?
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Extension:
Imagine you were going to throw them a party.
What roles would each of your family members do, to help prepare the party?

Imagine your friend is feeling upset.
How would you cheer them up?
What could you say or do?
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Extension:
In what situations would these strategies not work?

What do you want to be when you are older?

Perhaps you have a dream job, or an industry you would love to work in.

Research to find out more information about routes into this career and what is involved day-to-day.

Create a list of daily affirmations.

For example, 'I can be whatever I want to be' or 'I am getting better and better every day'.

Display the affirmations in your bedroom, to wake up feeling positive each day.

Create a piece of artwork using items from nature.

For example, you could find fallen leaves, twigs or pine cones in a local park.

Extension: before you stick anything down, arrange the nature items in different ways.
How many different pieces of artwork can you make from the same set of items?

Imagine you own a pet.

What animal is the pet?

What would it take to look after this pet?

What challenges might you face, when looking after this pet?

Write a guide to looking after your imaginary pet.

Find a friend or family member to play The Story Game.

Take it in turns to say one sentence at a time, to build up a narrative.

Use linking words such as 'then' and 'next' to connect your ideas.

Did the story end up as you expected?
What was most surprising or funny about the story?

Interview a friend or family member about their job.

What is their job title?
Where do they work?
What tasks do they do at work?
What other things are you curious to learn about their job?

Hold a Sports Day at home.

Make two teams and create different events.

You could try an egg and spoon race, a pillowcase sack race.

Cheer each other on and celebrate everyone's successes.

Each evening for the next week, consider how you have felt throughout the day. Share your thoughts with someone in your household.

Was it easy to explain your feelings to them?  How could you have explained it differently?  How did the other person react?

Reflect on an area you would like to get better at.

What can you already do well? What could you improve on?

Think of three things you could do in the next week to begin feeling more confident in this area.

To cheer someone up and to let them know you are thinking about them, send them a handwritten note or card.

You could include a picture you've drawn, a poem you've written or a story you could share.

Imagine the floor in your home has turned to jelly. How would this change the way you lived there?

Extension: design a gadget that would help you to live in a jelly home!

Consider this challenge: a charity wishes to organise a 'fun run' in your local area.

The course must be accessible to people of all ages and abilities. Draw different routes your 'fun run' could take.

Which one would be best so that everyone could be involved?

Imagine you are giving a presentation about your favourite music artist.

Who are they? What style of music do they create? Why do you like them more than other artists?

Talk about your favourite artist to a friend or family member.

Watch or listen to a news broadcast.

What is the news story about? Who is involved? What might happen next in this story?

Discuss the news story with a friend or family member. What do they think about it?

Work with your family to either play a well known piece of music or create your own brand new piece of music together.

You could use your voices, household objects, or real instruments if you have them to help you make your music.

Make decisions so that everyone knows what is going on and can be involved.

Practise before performing together.

Talk to to your family.  Find out about the things they feel they are good at (their strengths).

Create a picture together of your family which shows everyone and their strengths.  

Talk about the things that you all find more difficult (weaknesses).  

How might you help each other to feel more confident with these?

Think about something you would really like to be able to do.  It might be to learn a new skill, visit a new place, learn a new language or reach a fitness goal.

Carry out research to find out as much as you can about the thing you would like to be able to do.

You could talk to other people about your ideas to find out more, read about it and plan how you will reach your new goal.

Create a mood board to include words and pictures of things that make you feel positive.

Invite your family to make their own mood board too.

Take it in turns to talk about what you have each included and why these words and pictures make you feel more positive.

A paper clip is a useful item for holding pieces of paper together.

Use your imagination to come up with as many different ideas in 1 minute as you can for what else a paper clip could be used for.  

Make a list or draw your ideas. Challenge your family and friends to do the same.  

Did they come up with the same or different ideas?  

What was the most unusual idea you came up with?  

Can you combine your ideas and come up with even more together?

Consider the problem: you have been asked to design and make bird feeders for your local area, but you can only use recyclable materials as there is no extra money for making them.

Think about different designs for bird feeders and the household items you could reuse to make them.  

Draw 4 or 5 examples you can think of for bird feeders. Label them clearly to show the recyclable materials you would suggest the feeders were made from.  

Share your ideas with your family.  Ask for their feedback on your design ideas.  

Which one do they like best and why? Which one would you like to have a go at making?

Imagine a film (movie) has been made about your family.  

Prepare a 30 second voice over for the trailer to advertise the film.

Think about what you would say to advertise the film and how you would say it clearly.

You might want to record your voice over or perform it 'live' to the rest of your family.  

Challenge other family members to have a go too and then enjoy listening to each others trailers.

Sit or lie very still. Listen.  

Listen to the sounds you can hear around you - indoors, or outdoors, close by or from far away.  

Listen to your own breathing.  Just listen very carefully for as long as you can.

Tell a family member or a friend what you have heard.

Challenge them to listen carefully too and listen carefully as they tell you what they heard.  

Did you hear the same things or different things?

How did you feel as you listened carefully? How did they feel as they listened carefully?

Work together in your family team to build the tallest tower you can.  

You can use anything you like to build your tower safely.

It must be free standing (not leaning against anything or fixed to anything to keep it upright).

You could use blocks, other toys, empty cereal boxes, cushions - anything really!  

Work as a team to try out different ideas and remember to measure your towers.  

What is the tallest tower your famliy team can build together?

Imagine you are your family's fitness coach and you need to lead their next exercise session.  

Plan a short exercise session with those who can join in by asking them what kind of exercises they enjoy or how they would like to improve their fitness.  

As you prepare for the session, think about including exercises you have done before or you might want to get some new ideas from other family members or different fitness websites. Remember to include a warm up and cool down.  Try to include something to stretch or strengthen different parts of the body (for example arms, legs, stomach). Remember to get some music ready that everyone will enjoy listening to as they work out.

Invite your famliy and friends to take part in your fitness session. Lead them through the planned exercises. As their fitness coach - the leader of the session - give your instructions clearly. Show them what to do safely. Encourage them to keep trying and have fun together.

Aim to learn the meaning of a new word every day this week and use the new words when you are talking and writing.

‍Doing this will help you develop a rich and interesting vocabulary.  

Where might you look for the new words?  Who might be able to make suggestions for you to try and include in your spoken and written words?

Challenge your family to do the same. Take a couple of minutes each day to see if you can guess each others new word.  

Make a list or a create a special family dictionary,  adding the new words and their meanings as the week goes on.

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Affirmations are positive statements that can help people to feel happier when they are having negative thoughts and feelings in tough times.  Challenge yourself to come up with 5 positive things (affirmations) you could say to yourself when you do not feel so happy.  

Some examples include: 'I am a friendly kind person.'  'I tell great jokes to cheer others up.' 'I am thoughtful and always remember my friends birthdays.'  

What affirmations would you come up with for other people in your family or your friends?  

Share your ideas and talk about how these might help you all to stay positive.

Think about your favourite book.  What does the front cover of the book look like?

If it is a fiction (story) book, does it show the characters, the setting or give a clue to the plot of the story?  

If it is non fiction book (full of facts) does it show just one image (picture or photograph)or more than one?  What else is on the cover?

Imagine you have been asked to come up with front cover ideas for another edition (printing) of the book.  

How would you redesign your favourite book's cover?

Come up with at least 3 different designs.  

You might want to draw, paint, collage or use technology to help you create different design ideas.

Share your design ideas with your family.  Which one do they like the best and why?  

Challenge them to redesign their favourite book cover too and talk about your designs together.

Think about the problem: a town has an area of land that is not being used for anything.  It has become untidy, littered waste land.  The people of the town want to improve this and make it a useable space. You have been asked to come up with design ideas of how this area of land could be used and improved.  

The people of the town would like it to be a useful, pleasant space for people of all ages to enjoy.

The town has voted to use only recycled materials for any improvements, so you need to make sure your designs are environmentally friendly.

Can you come up with at least 3 different design ideas to solve the problem?  

Label your design drawings to show the recylced materials you have included and other environmentally friendly features. Do you have a favourite design?

Share your design ideas with your family and friends. Which design idea do they like the look and sound of best to solve the problem for the town?

Imagine you are having a special party and you can invite just four very important special guests.

Your special guests could be real people you know, imaginary characters from a book or film,  or historcial figures from the past.

Think about who you would want to be your guests and why.  

Prepare a short speech to explain your thinking.

Ask your family to do the same and then take it in turns to present your speeches, clearly explaining who your special party guests would be and why.

Enjoy finding out who would be at this very special party!

Listen carefully to a song you know well. It might be one of your favourites.  Really concentrate on the lyrics (words).

Ask yourself what the song is about?  Why do you like it? Do the lyrics tell a story? Which words stand out to you and are memorable?  

After you have listened to the song, tell someone else about it. Say why you like it.

Have a go at explaining what you think the song is about.  

Can you summarise it or rephrase it? Maybe you can sing it.

Ask them to tell you about one of their favourite songs too.

Work with your family this week to get any household chores done together.

Draw up a plan of action so that everyone knows what chores they need to do.  

Talk to each other about how you can get your chores done quickly (and well) so that you can then enjoy relaxing together.

Organise a family quiz or games night.

Choose a theme for your quiz or a game your family will enjoy.

Make sure everyone has a job as you get ready for the quiz or game.

You may need someone to set the questions for the quiz, to ask the questions and to keep the scores.

You may want someone to set the game up, explain the rules to everyone - and remember someone will  need to sort out drinks and snacks!  

As a leader think about everyone's strengths - what job would they be best at to help you set up and run the quiz or game so that you all have fun?

Take a moment. Pause. Think of all the many things you can do. What do you find easy? What do you find more difficult?

You may want to write or draw as you think.

What else would you like to be able to do? Learn a new language, run faster, get more sleep, solve a crossword puzzle in record time, juggle?

What can you do in the next few weeks to work towards your goal?

Share your ideas with someone else - they might be able to help you achieve your goal.

Take 5 minutes for this calming activity today:

Step 1: Find a quiet space where you can look out of the window.

Step 2: Look at everything there is to see - try to notice the colours, the patterns, the textures.

Step 3: Pay attention to any movements such as traffic passing by, people walking or running by, raindrops falling or leaves blowing around in the breeze.

Step 4: Notice the many different shapes you can see from where you sit quietly.

Step 5: If you become distracted, gently bring your thoughts back to what you can see through the window.

Ask a family member or friend to try this calming activity too. Afterwards, talk about how it made you feel.

Imagine you are a designer for a greetings card company. You have been asked to come up with ideas for a brand new range of cards.

Design 3 different types of cards for different occasions that are important to you and your family.

You might want to draw or make the card to show your favourite ideas.

Ask a family member which card they like best and why.

You could challenge them to come up with ideas for your new range of cards too.

Consider the problem: a local charity wishes to organise a 'fun run' in your local area which people of all ages can join in.

The course should be approximately 5 kilometres in length and must be accessible to people of all ages to either run, walk, wheelchair, skip, scoot etc.

Draw different routes your 'fun run' could take.

Which one would be best so that everyone could be involved?

How could you make sure everyone was safe on the route?

Challenge your family to follow your route with you.

You have been challenged to tell a group of people up to 5 'fascinating facts' about yourself.

Think about what they already know. What might you share with them which will be new and interesting?

Prepare a short speech to share in person or by recording.

Encourage other family members to have a go to and ask each other questions about the fascinating facts.

Think of someone in your family who has a talent that you admire.

It could be they are great at baking delicious cakes, or they seem to have green fingers and their plants always grow really well. They may know lots of card tricks or they have fun ideas of things do on rainy days.

Ask them to help you learn something they know - to share their talent with you.

Listen carefully as they explain and ask questions to help you understand more.

Plan a special family meal to have at home. Talk together to decide about what you are going to cook and when.

Share jobs out between you. Someone might want to take responsibility for making sure you have the ingredients, someone might be able to lead on making the food, setting the table, even making menus.

Enjoy celebrating your great teamwork by enjoying the meal together.