BUBBLE PLANNING Practical and safe ideas for small group teaching when children return
KS2 EDITION
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Suggestions for structuring sessions Meet and Greet Welcome Back Circle Belonging Boosters Group Games Wellbeing activities Covid Discussion Prompts: Lockdown Covid Discussion Prompts: Back to school Other Wellbeing resources Outdoor /Big Space Activities Socially distanced games for Break and Lunchtime More games Emotional Regulation Closing circle Transition
Suggestions for structuring sessions • Meet and Greet – some children might need this to help them leave their parent/carer calmly and settle in • Check in circle
• Topic / theme of the week approach to delivering the curriculum • Wellbeing activity • Art/PE / outdoor learning • Ongoing individual projects • Snacks • Check out
Meet and Greet • An adult could meet each child individually as they come into the building or classroom. • Greetings could include: funny dances, elbow taps, bows, curtsies, funny waves etc. (the teacher copies at the same time or repeats back) The children really seem to like this as they are very personalised. • You may have seen some of the ideas that Paul Dix has been sharing or YouTube videos where children come into schools/classrooms and greet the teacher individually. • Some children may need a visual timeline or a more 1:1 check in with scaling and chance to park any worries or problem solve.
Welcome Back Circle • Use visuals to show what the day will look like and to reinforce the new rules. • Practice / walk through new routines and explore the way the classroom looks different. Children could make videos for seesaw to send to their parents or to the children in another bubble. • Maybe design a logo for your group, and vote on a new name. • Check in – judge the mood of the group first . Keep the tone light and matter of fact. • Starter question examples - new skill you learnt, a new tv show or Youtuber you discovered, something you are looking forward to about coming back, something or someone you missed. • Make a mindmap of lockdown experiences together, children could do their own. • Children could write or draw rubbish feelings and screw them up and throw them in the bin. • Children then write/draw positive feelings and experiences. Collect onto a class display eg tree, treasure chest .
Belonging Boosters • If there are two adults in your bubble - one gives the children a secret mission . They all have to do the same action all day and if the other staff member spots what it is then the whole class get reward points or moves up whatever system you have in place. Examples include asking people about their day, giving a compliment, getting a certain unusual word in to conversation. Make it conspiratorial and fun! • Take lots of photos of the students together as a group – in circle time, in the playground, in the hall . Put them all in a powerpoint for the white board, or print and display. Get some dressing up props and take pics of a child in disguise and rest of the class have to guess who it is. Get another adult in to see if they can guess who they are. • Collaborative art projects- eg big drawings completed one at a time , draw round your hand and write/draw inside what you are good at. Display them all together. Collective art projects or collages like this are great for belonging. You could link it to the name of your group . • Dance / Go noodle activities • Music video (check for swearing etc !) of a song everyone likes with lyrics on screen to sing along to. Think about if you want energizing or calming songs in advance to suit the time of day and what activity you are transitioning to .
Group Games • The lining up game: Without help, the children need to line up quickly in: register order, birthday month order… • Clapping: Going round the circle one clap continues the direction, 2 changes the direction back. • Birthdays: Call a month of the year, children whose birthdays are in that month, run around the circle back to their original chair.
• 99: A child leaves the room while someone is nominated. When the child enters the room they stand in the middle of the circle, the nominated child says ‘99’, trying to disguise their voice. The first child tries to guess who spoke. • Mimes: All stand facing the back of the person in front, with eyes closed. The leader says the name of the person in front of them, when they turn around mime an action. The mime is passed around the circle to see if it changes much. • Fruitbowl: Pupils split into oranges, lemons and apples. When their group name is said they must stand and do a dance on the spot. If “Fruit Bowl” is called out, everyone dances. • Hello, how are you?: One child crosses the circle to elbow bump and ask a question, then returns to their place. The questioned child then crosses the circle. • Mirrors: In pairs A/B A is the leader, B is the mirror and must copy the actions, go slowly at first. Swap roles. • Dodgems: Pupils stand in the circle and move around not touching anyone else / furniture. On a whistle they have to go in the opposite / change direction.
Wellbeing activities These could be done in a circle, or as individual table projects
• Use books/stories/videos as starting point for children and adults to share/talk about their experiences while they have been at home. Discuss these, some will be sad, some may be good. How do we feel now being back in school? Discuss how it may be different and why. What new thing do you like ? • Use art and drama as creative outlets to retell stories of lockdown • Start an “Our Lockdown “ display , acknowledging highs and lows that may have been missed • Group snack, where all sit down at a table and have their snack are really great for promoting relationships and social cohesion. You could still do this at individual tables , with the teacher sitting down too. Children could bake or make snacks .
Covid Discussion Prompts: Processing our lockdown experiences • Lockdown was a time that no-one predicted. What were your first feelings when you knew there were lots of things you had to stop doing? Did your feelings change over time? • Who did you miss the most? What did you miss about this person? • While we were all at home many of us discovered new interests or developed new skills. What new interests or skills did you discover ? • Who celebrated a birthday whilst at home? How did you celebrate it? • Did any of your neighbours do the 8 O’clock Clap for Carers ? Did you join in? What was it like? • Lots of people found new ways to communicate and spend time with each other during lockdown eg zoom , facetime, quizzes, games. What did your family do? • Laughter helps people feel happy and included. What was your funniest moment during this time? • Many of us have favourite places we like to visit. Which special places did you miss visiting and why?
Covid Discussion Prompts: Coming back to school • How are you feeling about being back in school? eg getting in a routine again? Having to get up early? Going to bed on time? Being with your friends and teachers? Wearing a uniform? • Most people describe having lots of different feelings all in the same day. Has this been happening to you ? What sort of feelings have you noticed? • What have you missed about being in school that you would like to do during the next week? • What questions do you have about being back in school? Being here today? • Now you can see your friends again and play in the outside environment, what kind of rules should we have to still keep everyone safe? Which games could be adapted to allow children their personal space? Can you devise /make up a new game?
Other wellbeing resources • Your Behaviour Support Co-Ordinator will be able to help you with resources and ideas . • The Invisible string” by Patrice Karst – great for separation anxiety . Watch it being read on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlUxXexjhYI • Play a relaxing game to take your mind off things https://www.childline.org.uk/toolbox/games/ • “The Day we went back to school” Primary Jigsaw book • https://primarysite-prodsorted.s3.amazonaws.com/oakgrove-behavioursupportservice/UploadedDocument/e136521d9d9049b58a3ffa aa1fb3ac4d/the-day-we-went-back-to-school-byprimary-jigsaw-pdf.pdf
Outdoor/Big Space Activities • https://www.behavioursupportservice.co.uk/bss-forestschool-resources/ see our site for lots of outdoor ideas • Grandma’s footsteps • Hide and seek. • “123 where are you?” • North, South, East West. • Dead Ants (Adult shouts out a number 0 – 4. If one is shouted children are allowed 1 limb on the floor etc, if 0 is shouted all children to lie on their backs. • Den making, using boxes or large construction. One den each. Or small dens for a doll, small world figure. • Football skills – dribbling through cones / keepie uppies with no ball sharing • Footgolf – kicking balls of different sizes into a hula hoop one at a time • Design a game – children will love making up their own games to play. Give clear instructions about social distancing. • Set a time challenge for running, skipping, hopping hulahooping etc - keeping equipment separate for each child
Socially Distanced Games for Break and Lunchtime Here are some games that an adult can lead. This is a great opportunity to play along and model skills like cooperating and being a good sport, as well as boosting frelationships and trust by having fun together
More playground games
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https://www.asphaltgreen.org/blog/rep-it-out-games-forsocial-distancing For even more ideas, there is a free download of “Games
To Play Whilst Socially Distancing: For Children Aged 3-7” by Martin Williams. Get it from Amazon UK . You can just read it on the website -you don’t need a Kindle. A lot of the games are suitable for older children too.
Emotional Regulation •
Children may be unused to the hubbub of a classroom, and may have spent a lot of time on devices or outside. Keep the atmosphere calm and plan in quiet times eg mindful colouring, music, ipad and outdoor learnng.
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If staff feel safe and relaxed, this will transmit to the children.
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Help children feel safe- this will reduce their anxiety and hypervigilance. You could use visual timelines, routines and social stories for this . Parents might like to try the Picturepath App where you can create timelines on an ipad which can also be shared.
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Ensure that all children know they can talk with a trusted adult over a shared activity with no pressure.
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Have a calm area (regulation station / chill zone) within each bubble that children who need to move can go into.
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Children could create their own calm boxes with sensory activities, photo etc that could stay on their workstation. Your Behaviour Support Coordinator can help with this.
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Some children with a My Plan may need access to a break out room nearby – this could be designated as belonging to a specific bubble to reduce risk .
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If a child has a My Plan, then make sure this is updated with input from parents/carers to reflect any changes since lockdown . Then really focus on those Stage 1 behaviours. With reduced academic and social challenge and more adult attention to go round, you can then distract the child more easily and intervene early to reduce the chance of the situation escalating.
Closing Circle This can be a positive way to end the session. It reassures the children that all is well and that you are looking forward to seeing them again the next day. • “Something I did today that I enjoyed/am proud of/made me smile…” • “Someone I enjoyed spending time with today is…. because…” • “Someone who helped me today/I am looking forward to seeing tomorrow…” • “I am feeling…… about coming back tomorrow” • “I would give today….out of 10” • “Something I am looking forward to doing tomorrow is…..”
Transition Resources The L.A. has created a set of resources for Y6-7 transition. This has been emailed to every SENDCO and contains lots of ideas for you to discuss with your High School SENDCOs to see what you can put in place this summer. A One Page Profile template is included, plus additional information sharing documents, as well as creative suggestions for working with students. All the resources are on the Local Offer page. https://stockport.fsd.org.uk/kb5/stockport/fsd/advice.page?id=G SSR5lIIAbw See below for other useful resources. ● https://youngminds.org.uk/resources/schoolresources/find-your-feet-transitioning-to-secondary-school/ ● https://campaignresources.phe.gov.uk/schools/resources/tr ansition-to-secondary-school-lesson-plan-pack ● https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-c-7469-secondarytransition-resource-pack ● https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/t-c-1390-ks2-transitionpack
● https://reachoutasc.com/resources/transition-to-new-class ●
Lessons based on key skills needed for secondary schools (e.g. reading timetables, using a planner, tying a tie. Make this specific with High School resources and by using their website.
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Video or socially distanced real life tours to “meet” key staff.
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Ask your SENDCO or Behaviour Support Co-Ordinator for more ideas and resources.