Description
Help students practice giving compliments to each other during this engaging group game.
Supplies
- Balloon/ball for each group with provided tasks written on each
How to Play
- Prep work: Write the following compliment tasks on the balloon/ball for each group of students.
- Compliment person to your right
- Compliment person to your left
- Compliment yourself
- Compliment the leader
- Compliment someone who is taller than you
- Compliment someone who is shorter than you
- Have students stand in a circle of no more than 12 students.
- Give each group of students the balloon/ball with tasks written on it.
- Tell the students that they will be tossing the balloon/ball across the circle.
- Each student that catches the balloon/ball looks at where their right thumb is on the balloon/ball. Whatever task is closest to their right thumb they must complete.
- Once they complete the task they toss the balloon/ball to another student in the group.
- This continues until time is up or all students in the group have gotten a chance to share out.
Activity Prompts for Reflection
- How did it feel to receive a compliment?
- How did it feel to give a compliment to someone else?
- What’s a compliment you recently received?
- Is there anyone in the group you wanted to give a compliment to but didn’t get a chance to?
Other Ways to Play
- Instead of having each student share when they catch the ball/balloon, play music and when the music pauses the student holding the balloon looks at their right thumb and does the compliment task listed.
- If there isn’t enough time to write out on the balloon/ball, do the above and when the music stops, announce the compliment task that the person holding the balloon/ball needs to complete.
- Instruct students that they can not pass it to someone who has already had the balloon/ball.
Additional Notes
- Use the SEL Activity Prompts to tie other SEL competencies to this activity.
