What I Like About You
Equipment list
Alphabet bean bags or tiles
Explanation
"What I Like About You" is a lesson that encourages active learning while providing a safe and inclusive environment that promotes social intelligence. The lesson entails students, in pairs, using alphabet bean bags to spell out something that they admire (non-physical) about their partner. Below is an outline on how to implement the initiative:
Place a pile of alphabet bean bags a reasonable distance away from the pairs.
Provide students a few minutes to think of a non-physical characteristic they admire about their partner.
When the lesson starts, within each pair, one student moves at a time to pick up a letter bean bag (tile, etc) from the pile - with the intention to spell the word that they originally thought of.
If one student has all the letters for their word, they can assist their partner in retrieving the final letters for their word.
After each pair, and student, has collected the letters for their words, they spell the word and explain why they admire that characteristic.
Group Debrief: You can go around the group to share everyone's words, ask for a few examples, or it can be kept within the pairs.
Collect bean bags, and see all the smiles :)
Variation/progression
Progression
Increase/decrease the distance of the bean bag pile
Add/remove limitations on the words they can use (i.e.: 'x' amount of letters)
Variation
Hangman (Snowman) - Similar to "What I Like About You", students one at a time retrieve a bean bag from the pile to try and guess the word their partner thought of. If the letter is incorrect, they have to toss the bean bag back into the pile. Continue until students have correctly spelt out the words.
