KS1 & KS2 lesson starters: PSHE

Sue Cowley shares four ways to put pupils in a positive frame of mind for learning...

KS1

1. Pass it on

This activity gets the children to think about how they express their emotions, and to learn how to read other people’s emotional states.

• Ask the children to stand in a circle and explain that you’re going to pass some different things around the group.
• Start with a warm up – passing a clap around the circle. The pupils must turn their bodies to the left to pass the clap onto the next person. They should aim to make one continuous clapping sound.
• Now explain that, in the same way that you passed the clap around, you’re now going to pass an emotion around the circle. The children should pass around both the word (e.g. ‘happy’) and also the facial expression (i.e. a smile).
• Repeat using a variety of different emotions: sad, angry, surprised, disappointed and so on.
• Allow the children to choose some emotions of their own to pass around.
• You can also do with this using just facial expressions, and encourage the children to identify what the emotion is that you’re showing.

KS1

2. Blowing bubbles

Try this relaxation exercise with your class to help the children develop focus, manage their emotions, and learn more effectively. 

• Get the pupils to sit or lie down in a comfy position and close their eyes.
• Begin by getting them to focus on their breathing, feeling their lungs inflate and deflate as they breathe in and out.
• Now explain that they’re going to imagine that they each have a pot of magic bubble mixture inside their bodies.
• On each out breath, they’re going to blow some bubbles with their magic mixture.
• They should start by imagining they’re blowing a stream of small bubbles. Gradually, as their breathing slows down, the bubbles increase in size until they’re blowing giant bubbles.
• With each bubble, they should feel the tension drift away from their bodies.

For lots more ideas for relaxation exercises to do with your pupils, see the website http://www.relaxkids.com

KS2

3. One to 10 and back again

This whole-class exercise gets the children to think about how they express their emotions, and also how they might control them more effectively.

• You can do this activity either sitting down or standing up.
• Explain to the pupils that they’re going to count from one up to 10, and then back from 10 down to one.
• Practise just the counting a few times, until the whole class can do it together, at the same speed.
• Now explain that you’re going to give the children an emotion – anger, for instance.
• One is very slightly angry; 10 is completely furious. As they count upwards to 10, they should get more and more angry.
• Once they reach down, they should reverse the process, from 10 down to one, getting less and less angry with each number.
• Try this with a variety of emotions – happy, sad, irritated and so on.

KS2

4. Conscience alley

This is a brilliant drama technique for encouraging children to empathise: to understand how their behaviour makes other people feel. You can use it to explore a variety of PSHE-related topics.

• Get your pupils to line up in two straight rows, facing each other. They should stand far enough apart for one person to pass down in between the two lines.
• Choose your PSHE topic (e.g. bullying) and your viewpoints (e.g. those in the line are the victims, the person walking down the alley is the bully).
• Ask for a volunteer to walk down the conscience alley.
• As the pupil passes by, those in the line should whisper comments. For instance, in this scenario they might say, “Why did you hurt me?” or “What have I ever done to you?” They must not touch the person as he or she passes.
• Once the exercise is complete, ask the pupil who walked down the alley to talk about how it felt.

Visit http://www.suecowley.co.uk for more ideas.