Teaching sequence

20 minutes

Explore: Problem-solving

30 minutes

Discover: Building resilience

10 minutes

Thrive: Practising gratitude

Explore: Problem-solving

Step 1

Watch the following video:

Ormie Pig, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd63g3d8qOs)

Then discuss as a group. Use the following questions to prompt discussion:

What was Ormie’s goal?
What were some of the obstacles in Ormie’s way?
What opportunities did Ormie create to help him reach his goal?
What made Ormie a good problem solver?

Provide the following explanation to assist their thinking:

There are many ways to problem-solve, and one of the best things we can learn about ourselves is understanding what we do and how we behave when faced with a challenge.

Step 2

This step looks at The Grid Game.

Students will work together (in groups of up to 15) to discover the 10-step mystery pathway through a 4-by-4 grid.

Provide the following instructions:

Players cannot talk once the game starts and can only communicate non-verbally.
One player is allowed in the grid at a time.
If a player discovers a correct step, they remain in the grid and attempt to find the next correct square in the sequence.
The path of correct squares must be connected and can be vertical, horizontal or diagonal.
If a player is incorrect, they need to exit the grid by retracing their steps.
The grid is complete once the 10-step pathway has been discovered and ALL teammates have walked through the grid.
A 15-second time penalty will be added every time a rule is broken.

Once students are in their groups, give them 1 minute to strategise before they begin.

Once the task has been completed, debrief the activity as a group.

Use the following questions to prompt discussion:

How did your group work together?
What kind of mistakes were made?
How did your group learn from these mistakes?
What could this grid represent in our lives?

Provide the following explanations to assist their thinking:

This exercise was about overcoming the fear of making mistakes. Often, we are so paralysed at the thought of making mistakes that we don’t even try. But, each ‘mistake’ helped the rest of the group. Mistakes often help us more than we realise, so let's treat them like a gift rather than something to be feared.

Teacher note: Grids can be created before the start of the session. A 4-by-4 grid of masking tape on the floor works well. You will need enough grids for students to be in groups of no larger than 15. Depending on the number of teachers in the session, they can be the master of the grid and hold the cheat sheet. Alternatively, one student from each group can act as the grid master.

Discover: Building resilience

Step 1

This step looks at The Buzz Game.

Students should remain in the same groups to complete the next activity, The Buzz Game.

Provide the following instructions:

The group must take turns to count to 50 while replacing any number containing a ‘7’ with the word ‘buzz,’ for example, 7, 17, 27, 37 all become buzz.
The group must also replace any multiples of seven with the word ‘buzz,’ for example, 14, 21, 28, 35.
To make it more challenging, you can also have them replace any numbers whose digits add up to seven with the word ‘buzz,’ for example, 16, 25, 34, 43.
Provide each group with a piece of paper and pen to use if needed.
The fastest group to complete this accurately wins the game.

Answers: Numbers 7, 14, 16, 17, 21, 25, 27, 28, 34, 35, 37, 42, 43, 47, and 49 all become buzz.

Step 2

This step looks at brain teasers.

Explain that students can work in small groups or individually to complete a range of brain teasers and riddles. Each task varies in difficulty and has been designed to help students practise critical thinking, patience and resilience.

Display the Brain Teasers on the Resilience Games slides and allow students to complete the tasks without assistance. Only provide hints once they’ve had a significant amount of time to grapple with the challenges and test their patience/resilience.

Answers: 1. (17) 2. (13112221) 3. (34) 4. (A map). 5. (You light the match first!) 6. (A river)

Step 3

This step looks at The Drawing Game.

Ask students to pair up and collect a piece of A4 paper.

Provide the following instructions:

Pairs must sit back to back, with one person (the drawer) facing away from the graphic on the screen.
The person facing the screen (the describer) will use verbal communication to describe what their partner must draw.
The drawer will attempt to draw the described image without turning around.

Once completed, display the Drawing Game on the Resilience Games slides and have pairs share their masterpieces.

Step 4

Debrief the previous activities (The Buzz Game, Brain Teasers and The Drawing Game) as a class. Encourage students to reflect on how they felt under pressure and how this impacted their mindset and performance towards the task.

Use the following questions to prompt discussion:

What did you find challenging about the activities?
How did you overcome these challenges?
When completing an activity as a group, what role did you play?
How can you stay cool and calm while under pressure?
What kind of support can you ask for when needed?
How do we bounce forward from past challenges?

Provide the following explanation to assist their thinking:

Resilience is the ability to withstand or recover quickly (bounce back) from difficulties. Whereas gratitude is the quality of being thankful and showing appreciation.

It is important to stay cool, calm and collected in high-pressure environments and to ask for support from people around you when needed. Overcoming challenges and problem-solving assists in building resilience. The concept of resilience is supported by expressing and practising gratitude. When things don’t go our way, a great strategy is to look for the positives to keep us ‘bouncing forward.’

Step 5

Provide each student with the Gratitude worksheet. Using the letters of their name to prompt ideas, ask students to come up with a list of things they are grateful for (at least one for each letter). Once completed, ask them to share their answers with a partner.

Explain that practising gratitude can help retrain the brain to focus on the positive aspects of a situation rather than focusing on the negative and being too self-critical.

Step 6

Encourage students to facilitate a conversation with their families about gratitude. They could lead by identifying 3 things they are grateful for and then asking their family members to do the same. This could be posed as a 24-hour challenge or a weekly task.

Thrive: Practising gratitude

Step 1

Ask students to brainstorm a list of ways a person could demonstrate resilience. To prompt their thinking, ask them what resilience could look, sound and feel like.

Examples:

Looks like - showing up, asking for help, multiple attempts
Sounds like - positive self-talk, focusing on the positives
Feels like - courage, self-belief

Step 2

Watch the following video:

Kid President Thankful (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA5Qpt1JRE4)

then explain that practising gratitude is one way to continue building resilience in our lives and that we can overcome challenges by focusing on the positives (what we have rather than what we don’t have).

Advise students that over the next few weeks or months, they will be prompted to practise gratitude using the Gratitude Prompts.

Step 3

Provide students with a lined piece of paper, an envelope and a prompt from the list. First, ask them to write their name on the envelope, then read out the prompt and invite them to journal, list or draw their response.

Step 4

Once completed, ask them to store their work in the envelope and repeat this process using a different prompt over several days/weeks. Once the envelope is full, invite students to read and reflect on their answers.

Teacher note: Once a gratitude routine is established, students could be empowered to create their gratitude prompts for themselves and their peers.

Skills: Building Resilience Through Problem-Solving and Gratitude

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