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My Identity – An activity that will help a child understand and express different aspects of his/her identity

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Difficulty Level:
Content Type:

Number of Participants: 4-10

Setting (Indoor / Outdoor): Any

Estimate Execution Time: 30 mins

An activity that will help a child understand and express different aspects of his/her identity.

  1. Six blank cards / paper with following phrases written on different papers in a readable font / handwriting.
    • I am …
    • I can …
    • I believe that …
    • I enjoy …
    • I am learning to …
    • Places where I spend my time are…
  2. Cello-tape
  3. Any music -on phone / TV / radio. If music is unavailable, someone can volunteer to sing or clap or snap fingers, etc.
  4. Timer (or you can use stopwatch on your mobile)
  5. Paper sheet to keep score (optional)
  1. Tape the six cards on the floor in a circular manner using a cello-tape. Number them from 1 to 6. Maintain one step distance between the cards.
  2. Start playing the music.
  3. When music starts, all participants start walking in a circle while landing their feet just behind each card.
  4. Stop the music randomly (like when you play musical chairs). When the music stops, the participants stop walking and stand next to the card closest to them.
  5. Each participant has to say a sentence about themselves starting with the words in the card closest to them.
  6. For example, when the music stops, say participant A is standing next to card with words ‘I am…’, then A can say ‘I am 8 years old’ and B is standing next to card with words  ‘I believe that…”. then B can say ‘I believe that ghosts exist’ or ‘I believe that good things come to you when you work hard’ or ‘I believe that a good friend shares their toys’. And after all participants are done sharing the music starts again and round two begins.
  7. Each participant gets 1 point for sharing. Whenever someone is speaking, everyone pays attention and listens.
  8. You can keep playing until every participant has had a chance to share about every card at least once.
  1. How are you all feeling?
  2. Is there anything that surprised you about someone’s sharing? Why?
  3. Was it difficult / easy to talk about yourself?
  4. In the future, you can make use of these phrases whenever you introduce yourself to others.
  1. This activity helps children think about themselves and express it to others. When children do this activity for the first time, it is possible that they copy from each other. If this happens, give them extra time to think about the sentence and then share something that is true about themselves.
  2. A facilitator’s role is to conduct the activity – put together the material, give instructions, ensure fairness and no cheating, keep score, ask reflection questions and summarise the learning. Any extra tasks will be mentioned in other sections.
  3. It is important for facilitator (parent / teacher) to participate in the activity as a player. The facilitator does not have to take on the role of a teacher. Be careful that you don’t start preaching to the players from your own life experiences.
  4. Sometimes players will come up with words that are not very obviously related to theme word. In such cases, accept the innovative attempts that challenge the traditional method of thinking. You could ask the team for an explanation of how the word is related to the theme. The idea is to encourage teams to think creatively.
  5. Set up the activity like a game, to be fun. Do not make it stressful for the players such that they feel that they are being tested.
  1. You can come up with new phrases each time for a new game. Such as My hobbies are …, I love my school because…, When I am about to do something new, I …, I wish that I could…, I like to…, I am different because …, etc.
  2. To do this activity with more than 6 players, increase the number of cards used.

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