Skills Challenges

Spend 5-10 minutes in a quiet place and listen carefully to the sounds around you. How many different sounds can you hear? Try to count the different sounds you can identify around you.

With your friends or family, create a storybook. One person starts the story with an opening sentence, and each person adds a sentence or two to continue it.

Once the story is finished, you can illustrate the scenes as a team, with each person drawing different parts of the story.

Plan a meal to enjoy with your friends or family. Write down some of your ideas for this meal and explain these ideas to your friends and family. Ask them for their feedback: what do they like and dislike about these ideas? Now, try to use their feedback to make an even better meal.

Write a letter to your future self about one or two goals you want to achieve in the next six months. Try to include what steps you will take to achieve these goals and how you think you will feel when you succeed.

Set a small goal to help you stay positive throughout the week. For example, you might like to write down one thing you are grateful for each day or tell yourself one thing that you are looking forward to every morning.

You might like to write down your goal and put this reminder somewhere that you will see it each day to remind you.

You have been asked to invent a new sport. Write down the rules of the sport, any equipment that you need to play and how many players you need.

Imagine you are asked to design a community garden. There is a limited amount of space, and you need to decide what sort of plants you would like to grow. For example, what colour are the plants? Would you like to grow fruit and vegetables? Do you want to include any other features in your garden?

Draw a picture of your community garden.

Think of your favourite story, perhaps a fairytale or a story you invented. Tell that story to a family member or friend and try to make the story exciting by using different tones of voice, facial expressions, and hand gestures.

Listen carefully as someone tells you a short story or reads one out loud. Now, try to put the events of the story in the correct order, or retell the story in your own words.

Challenge: Can you add more details or remember specific quotes from the story?

Work with your family to plan a fun outing or adventure for everyone. Together, decide where you’ll go, what you’ll need to bring, and how you’ll get there.

Try to ensure that everyone contributes to the planning of your adventure.

When you are speaking with a friend or family member, listen carefully to what they are saying. Think about how they are feeling when they are speaking to you. Reflect on how you know this.

Pick one task you do often, like organising your school bag or doing a chore. Aim to do it better than ever before! Think about steps you can take to make it your "personal best," such as doing it faster, more neatly, or with more focus.

Extension: once you have completed your task, think about how it felt to do this activity in a different way.

Think of one person each day you can say something kind to, perhaps you could give them a compliment, say thank you or give them some encouragement.

Think about how you will deliver this message. Will you tell them in person or write it down?

Extension: Keep a journal of all the kind words you’ve shared throughout the week and how they were received.

Imagine you can have any pet in the world, even if it does not exist: what pet would you have? Draw your pet and describe it. What does it eat? Where does it live?

Extension: Write a story about an adventure that your imaginary pet goes on.

You are in charge of planning a birthday party for a friend. You have a limited amount of money and time. How will you make sure everyone has fun? Think about the activities, food, and decorations you could use.

Think of something you're good at, like drawing, cooking, or playing a game. Teach a friend how to do that activity. Break it down into simple steps, and speak clearly so your friend can follow along.

Ask a family member or friend to describe their favourite place to you, like the seaside, a park, or a house. Without seeing any pictures, draw what you hear based on their description.

Extension: Swap roles! You describe something for someone else to draw. How similar is their drawing to what you imagined?

Work with other people in your household or a group of friends to build a landmark that has significance to you as a family or as a friendship group.

You should:

• Discuss and agree on a landmark that you will build
• Consider how you are going to build it, what materials do you already have that you could use?
• Divide up the work so that everyone has something to do
• Finally, build your landmark.

Extension: Afterwards, as a group reflect on what you have created. What worked really well? How could it be improved?

Ask members of your family or friends about their strengths and talents and create a poster to celebrate the strengths of your family or friendship group.

You could ask:

• Which essenital skills are their strengths
• Any specific examples of when their strengths have shone through
• If they have any hidden talents.

Extension: Include yourself on the poster.

Set a goal that you would like to achieve in the next few weeks or months of the year.

You should:

• Consider the steps your will need to take to reach your goal
• Consider how long it will take you to reach your goal
• Consider how you are going to track this goal
• Design a goal tracker - this could be written or drawn.

Extension: Share your goal and your tracker with members of your family or friends, they might even have some suggestions to help you reach your goal.

Affirmations are positive statements that can help people feel better when they are having negative thoughts or are feeling negative emotions.

Think about a challenge that you are facing and write down five affirmations (positive statements) that help you to think about this challenge positively. Your statements (or affirmations) can help you stay positive more generally and can be as simple as: 'I can do hard things' or 'I am a good friend'.

You should:

• Write down your affirmations.
• Say your affirmations aloud to yourself or a friend or a family member.

Extension:
Create a poster with your affirmations on to remind you of them regularly.

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Imagine you are a designer for a car company. You have been asked to come up with ideas for a brand new range of cars/vehicles that are environmentally friendly. You should generate ideas and design at least two different types of car (for example, a sports car, pick-up truck, luxury car, convertible, electric car).

You could:

• Draw the different cars, making sure the drawings include specific features
• Label the features of the car
• Highlight what makes these cars better for the environment.

Extension: Write down why you think your designs make great cars – how are they different from what already exists?

Consider this problem: a town has an area of land that is abandoned and is no longer being used for anything. It has become untidy, littered wasteland. You have been chosen to completely change the space and design something that will make the town a better place.

You should:

• Consider the options, come up with three different ideas to solve the problem
• Choose the best option - this should be the one you think the most people will like
• Design the new area, this could be written, drawn, typed.
• Pitch the idea to your friends and family

Extension: Go back to your design, look at the resources that you will need to create it and decide how you can do this in the most environmentally friendly way.

You are the new radio host of the brand new radio show Skills Builder FM. Your role is to host the first session live in front of either family members or friends.

Decide:

• If you would like to host the show with anyone else.
• What the topic of the show is going to be – it can be anything you're interested in, such as sports, fashion, celebrities, news, science, art, a hidden talent... anything!
• If you want any special guests to talk on your show.

Consider:

• How you are going to engage listeners using your tone and expression.

Extension: Ask your listeners for feedback. For example, what did they like about your show? Is there anything you could improve for next time?

It is your 'secret' mission to find out three new facts about a family member or a friend. To do this you will need to listen very carefully and ask open questions to understand what they are saying and find out more.

You should think about:

• who you want to find out more about (it could be more than one person);
• how you can use eye contact and your body language to show you are paying full attention to what they are saying;
• what questions to ask, to show you have understood what they have said or to help you find out more information.

At the end of the day talk with them about your mission - did they notice you were listening carefully to them?

Extension: Ask those involved how your careful listening made them feel. Share your thoughts about what you noticed too.

Create a piece of collaborative artwork with members of your family or your friends.

You should:

• Have a group discussion to agree on a form (e.g. sketch, paint, digital art or sculpture)
• Agree on a theme and a design
• Assign each person a different task or piece of the art to complete.
• Finally, work together to make the artwork!

Extension: Work together to present the artwork to anyone who hasn't been involved in designing and creating it.

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Think about something you can do really well. It could be a dance, singing, a sport, storytelling - anything you like. Your task is to teach this talent to a family member or a friend.

To do this, you should:

• consider who you want to learn this talent
• consider how long it will take to teach this talent
• consider if the talent will need to be taught in different stages
• consider what activities will help you to teach the talent

Extension: Ask the person you are teaching for feedback on what you did well and how you could improve your teaching.

Write or draw your dream career in the middle of a piece of paper. Around the writing or drawing, note down everything you need to achieve your dream.

You could include:

• What you will need to learn to have that career
• How you need to behave to succeed in that career
• What different jobs that career might involve

Extension: Write down why this is your dream career and why you think that you would be good at it.

Do something to spread positivity among your family/friends or even in your local area today.

For example, you could:

• Bake something to share with people
• Write positive and uplifiting message to hand out
• Create a positive chalk mural on the pavement

Extension: Write down how it felt to spread positivity.

Your local town or city is keen to build a new landmark to celebrate a local hero. You've been chosen to create this landmark!

You will need to generate ideas and decide which is best before creating the landmark.

Consider:

1. What has this person done?
2. Why is this person worth celebrating?
3. Who does this person inspire?

Extension: Write a summary of why you chose this person to celebrate.

Consider this problem: your local park is going to have to close because of the amount of littering and treatment of the local wildilife. Your task is to come up with three different solutions to try and fix this problem.

Consider:

1. What is causing the problem?
2. What needs to change?
3. How can you bring about this change?

Extension: Consider which solution is best and pitch this to your friends and family!

Imagine you are campaigning to be your country's leading politician.

Things to think about:

• How would you make the country a better place to live?
• What laws would you introduce?
• Create a campaign poster and speech to persuade family members to 'vote' for you.

Extension: Ask your audience to pose challenging questions at the end of your speech.

Choose someone in your household, or a friend on the phone, to interview about their dream career.

Prepare by writing a list of questions. For example:

• What did you want to do as a job when you were younger?
• Has your dream career stayed the same?
• If you could do anything, what would it be?
• What skills do you need to be successful in your dream career?
• How are you planning to reach your dream career?

During the interview, demonstrate active listening and make a note of their answers.

Extension: Interview two people and compare their perspectives.

Work with members of your household or friends to create a short dance routine. This could be inspired by a dance that you know or have already seen. As a group, decide on the music and work together to choreograph a set of dance moves.

Extension: Find an occasion where you can perform your dance!

Organise a fun activity for your household to do over this weekend (or next!)

Encourage everyone to come up with different ideas for the activity and when it might take place. It could be anything you all enjoy, from a pizza night to a walk to your favourite park, but everyone needs to take part.

You might need to organise a vote to decide. Manage disagreements carefully and most importanly, have fun!

Extension: Consider what you might need to organise in advance of the activity.

Summer is almost here - it's a great time of year to think of the future. What would you like to achieve in the coming months? Write down a goal you have and begin to plan how you can reach that goal.  

Consider:

• What will success look like?
• How will you feel when you reach that goal?
• What will you need to do to be successful?  
• Who might be able to help you?

Extension: Consider how you are going to track this goal.

Create a 'positivity jar/box' -  Using an empty jar/box, fill it with notes and messages that when you read make you and others feel positive.

Once you've finished making it, ask people in your household to take a message from the jar/box.

Extension: Decorate the jar/box.

Either on your own, or in a group invent a brand new type of chocolate and design the wrapper.

Consider:

• What type of chocolate do you want to use? (For example, dark, white, milk)
• Do you want any additional flavours? (For example, mint)
• What do you want to call your chocolate?
• What information do you need on the wrapper?

Extension: Present your new chocolate to other members of your family or friends!

Consider this problem: Imagine you and your friends or family are in a shrinking space.

You need to:

1. Choose 2-3 people to join you.
2. Use a rope (or something similar) to make a shape on the floor that everyone can fit into.
3. Slowly shrink the space every 1-2 minutes.
4. Generate a range of solutions to figure out how to keep everyone within the shrinking boundaries.

Extension: Try again, but include more people in the shrinking circle!

Imagine you are providing the voice over for a documentary about life in your household.

Go from room to room and talk about who and what is in the room as if you were the narrator of a television programme. If you can, record your ideas and play it back to other household members to make them smile.

Challenge: Reflect on how clearly you spoke.

Challenge yourself to listen actively to someone. This means you should try to understand what the person is saying, be able to respond and maybe even reflect on what was said.

It could be a family member, friend or even a teacher.

Once you have listened, tell someone else what that person told you.

Challenge: reflect on why active listening is important.

Research a culture or religion that is different from your own.
Then, create a poster or blog post celebrating what you have learnt.

You could include:

• Important people
• Historical events
• Food, art and popular culture.

Challenge: Consider why having an understanding different cultures, ideas or religions is important when working in a team.

Design a new chores rota for your household.

1. Make a list of different rooms or areas that you could help with.
2. Assign each job to a different person in your household.
3. Lead your team to get the jobs done!

Extension: do this for another household activity or routine.

Set yourself a challenge to complete during the week!

It doesn't matter how big or small the challenge is. Once you have decided on the challenge, create a plan which outlines what you will do each day to achieve it.

Extension: Set yourself a monthly or even a yearly challenge.

Either write down or draw a picture showing what Staying Positive means to you.

For example, it could mean someone managing their emotions following a setback, or looking on the bright side of a difficult situation.

Challenge: Around your definition write down an example of how you have stayed positive during the week.

Create a 'thank you' card for someone who has done something kind or helpful for you recently. This could be a friend, family member or even a teacher.

Develop ideas about what this card could include by considering what you know about this person.

Challenge: Consider how you might change the card if you were giving it to someone else.

Consider the problem: a local charity wishes to organise an event in your local area which people of all ages can join in.  The event could be sporting, musical, a fête - whatever you think would attract the most people to it.

Consider:

• Which activity would be best so that everyone could be involved?
• Could you have a range of activities?
• What other problems could arise?

Challenge: Bring this event to life!

Organise a game of 'Who am I?' with your family or friends.

Each member of the family writes the name of a famous person and places it in a bowl. Take it in turns to pick a name, describe clearly the person without saying their name and see if your family can guess who it is.

Challenge: Use a timer to see how many names people can guess in one minute.

Ask a family member or friend to read you an interesting news story or tell you about something interesting that has happened.

Your aim is to show you are listening by using eye contact but also be able to summarise the story after they have told you it.

Extension: Switch roles with the person, tell them a news story or something interesting that has happened.

Work with members of your family or your friends to create the tallest free-standing tower. This means it can't lean on anything.

You can use anything in your house to create it. You could use cushions, cereal boxes, Lego, cardboard boxes. You could even challenge yourself and others by trying to use unexpected items.

Extension: If and when it falls over, try to make it even taller.

Hold a discussion with your family members or a group of friends to decide on an indoor activity that you are going to do together.

Think about how you will include everyone. Think about how you are going to manage a group discussion and come to a shared decision.

Extension: With your family members or a group of friends, give the activity a go.

Think about a hobby you practise regularly, like reading or playing a particular game.

Set yourself a new challenge to help you improve at the hobby. This could be learning new words from a book or learning a new skill in a game. Give yourself a deadline to achieve this.

Think about what you might need to do to achieve this goal and then give it a go.

Extension: think about why having goals is important.

Get a piece of paper and write down everything that you have done to make yourself feel proud this week.

Think about if you faced any challenges. Think about every time you kept trying. Think about every time you encouraged someone else to keep trying too.

Extension: Do the same activity but for a family member or a friend, show them why they should feel positive and proud as well.

Winter is the coldest time of the year. Design a new coat/jacket that could keep anyone warm no matter how cold it gets.

What will the coat look like? What specifically will keep people warm? Could it use technology in some way? How will it be different to a regular winter coat?

Extension: Think about who would most benefit from your newly designed coat.

Consider the problem: you are stranded on a desert island and need to find your way back home.

What would you do to try and get home? What items on an island could you use to help? What problems might you run into?

Come up with atvleast two different solutions as to how you would get home.

Extension: Pick which of your solutions is better and explain why.

Think about the five most interesting facts about yourself.

Once you have thought about the facts, plan out the logical order that you would tell someone in.

Then, speak clearly when telling either a family member or friend these facts.

Think about how you might use tone, expression and gestures when telling a family member or friend.

Demonstrate your listening skills by playing a game of 'Simon Says' with your family or friends.

Pick another member of your family or friends to be ‘Simon’. Everyone else must follow Simon’s instructions but only when they say ‘Simon says…’. For example, if 'Simon says touch your nose', you touch your nose. However, listen carefully because if the person does not say 'Simon says' you do not need to do it.

Extension: Encourage everyone to show their listening by changing who ‘Simon’ is.

Work with members of your family to cook or bake something. Share your ideas and come to a group decision on what you will make and how you will make it.

Make sure everyone involved has a task that they are responsible for.

Extension: Once you have finished cooking/baking, discuss with your family why it was useful to work in a team.

How can you find out about how others are feeling about something?Draw a picture of yourself in the middle of the page, around the picture write down all of your strengths. For example, ‘I listen to others without interrupting’.

After you have written your strengths, in a different colour write down anything you could improve on. For example, ‘I listen to others and record important information as I do'.

Extension: Circle or underline the thing you most want to improve on.

Think about everything that you have accomplished at home and at school this year. Then think about what else you want to achieve next year.

Write down 3-5 goals that you want to achieve next year.

Extension: Put these goals in order of importance, start with the least important and end with the most important.

Think about the last few weeks. Write down something that has happened that didn’t go to plan or even went wrong.

Below it, write down how you responded and how you kept trying to overcome the issue.

Extension: Do this multiple times to begin a journal/diary about how you stay positive.

Make a protective holder for an egg that would stop the egg from cracking if it was dropped from 2 metres high. Your aim is to generate an idea that fits this brief: do not break the egg!

Think about what materials you could use, think about if the materials are strong enough to hold the egg, think about how you could stop the egg from falling out of the holder.

Extension: Once you have tested the egg holder, write down how how you would improve it for next time.

Imagine that you need to plan a fun activity for a group of people that you’ve never met before. It can be any type of activity, just something that you think everyone would enjoy!

What information could you use to help plan this activity? What questions could you ask to help you plan the activity?

Extension: Write down the pros and cons of the activity that you’ve planned.

Think about a person you admire. This could be someone that you know, someone that you’ve learnt about or someone from a story/movie. Imagine you could invite this person to your birthday party.

Plan how you could encourage the person to come to your birthday party by using facts and examples to support why you would like them to join your party.

What tone might you use? What might you say to convince them to come?

Extension: Pretend a family member or a friend is the person you would like to invite and try to convince them to come.

Watch a video on a topic that you are interested in. After watching the video, take time a moment to think about what you heard and note down the key points covered.

Extension: watch the video again while reading your summary of the key points. Did you note down all of the most important information? If you missed something, add in that information.

Think of a job you might like to do in the future. Do you have to work as part of a team in this job?

Write a list or create a poster of how you might be expected to behave and communicate in this job. You might like to think about the dress code, what time you would arrive to work, what language you might use when speaking with your teammates.

Draw a picture or cut out pictures of three people. Imagine they are all on the way to play a sport. Draw a thought bubble to show how each person feels. Make each person have a different emotion. How might they show that emotion? How might the other people react?

Think of a task that you do on a regular basis. For example, brushing your teeth or reading a book. What do you need to do this task really well? For example, to concentrate on reading, you might need to remove distractions or find a quiet place in the house.

Once you have completed this task, how do you know that you have completed it well? How does it feel when you have done something well?

Choose a character from a book you have read or a film you have watched. Did the character feel positive or negative? How did you know? Think about what they may have said or done to show you how they were feeling.

Think about how their mood may have changed throughout the book or film. Did they continue to feel positive or negative? If their mood changed, why did it change?

Think of your favourite meals and foods. Create a cookbook to show others how they can make these meals.

How could you explain the recipes to others? Could you use words, pictures or videos?

Extension: imagine a brand new meal that you would like to eat and add the recipe to your cookbook.

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?