LifeSkills Handbook Activity 12
This is a single activity session plan from The Lifeskills Handbook. There are 61 activity sessions altogether. The handbook is available from our resources section where you’ll also find downloadable storybooks, books and posters to help you in your work.
LifeSkills Handbook Activity 12
Friendship: Negotiating Roles and Responsibilities in a Group
Purpose of activity: To gain awareness of the roles and responsibilities of members of a group.
Life skills: Self-awareness
Materials:
- A large piece of blank paper or an outline drawing of five or six children sitting in a group
- Large pieces of paper for each group
- Pens for each group
Steps:
- Divide children into groups of five or six
- Explain that each group is an imaginary group of friends. They have to decide on the identity factors of the group as a whole. They can use the symbols to remind themselves
- They will need to discuss:
- The group then prepares a presentation of their group identity and presents their results.
Final discussion:
Select some of these ideas for discussion. Do not use all of them in a single session.
About the results
- Sometimes a group feels like another being. It has its own identity. Do you agree? Why/why not?
- How is the group’s identity different from your own? Could this be a problem? How?
About the process
- Did everyone participate equally?
- What roles did group members play, for example, who guided the discussion, who started the discussion, who made sure that they finished on time, who had the ideas, who did the drawing, writing, who was the leader, who made sure that everyone had a say?
- How were decisions made?
- Did you all respect each others views?
- Was everybody interested? Did they feel that there was trust, and support in the group, or was there any anxiety or conflict?
- How did they deal with any disagreements?
- Was there any sub-grouping?
- Was everyone happy with the conclusions you came to?