Experience Instructions - The Way We Roll

Tune In

Seat children on the floor in a circle. Using just one ball, roll it across the circle to a child, and then encourage them to roll it across to someone else. Once the ball has been rolled around a few times, ask the children - how does this activity make you feel? Some children may say happy, while others may suggest they feel sad or upset because they didn’t get a turn.

Explain to the children that it is important that the class works together to ensure that everyone feels both happy and safe when they are at school as this is when they will be able to learn at their best. Suggest that there are things you can do as a class to help each other feel both happy and safe.

Find Out

Explain that you are going to use a coloured ball to find out what it is that makes people feel happy at school. Roll the ball labelled ‘Happy’ to a child across the circle and tell them something that makes you feel happy at school. Answers could include:

‘I am happy when people use nice words like please and thank you’.
‘It makes me happy when people share things.’
‘I am happy when I get a turn on the slide.’

Allow the ball to be rolled back and forth between children encouraging them to share their thoughts with each other.

Repeat this process using a second coloured ball labelled ‘Safe’. Children's answers could include:

‘I feel safe when my friends don’t use their hands on me.’
‘I feel safe when I don’t run on the concrete.’
‘I feel safe when I don’t swing too high.’
‘I feel safe when I say ‘stop’ and my friends listen’.

Take Action

Preparation: Set up a table with the ‘Way we Roll’ templates, drawing materials, and scissors. Scissor work is great for developing fine motor skills! If you have not yet established scissor safety with your children you could either use this opportunity to establish the safety guidelines, or you could pre-cut out the templates for the children.

Explain to the children that they are going to create some classroom rules to keep us happy and safe. Invite students to create a picture demonstrating a behaviour that would make them and their classmates feel safe or happy, on the ball shaped paper provided. Move around to the different children and discuss their drawing with them. Use marker pens to write an explanation under each picture.

Set up your wall display with the Way We Roll title poster and the children's artwork. Once the display is set up, discuss the different pictures with the children. Explain to the children that ‘The Way We Roll’ means the agreed way that everyone should behave in class so everyone can feel safe and happy. This is the code of behaviour that we are going to follow for our room. Ask the children if they think anything important is missing from the wall and add these to the display.

This display can be a working display that is added to and changed as the year progresses.

Building Belonging: The Way We Roll

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