“Being able to communicate effectively is a crucial skill for leadership and this activity will help to build confidence in your students with lots of laughs along the way too!”
Teaching leadership skills in a class-based setting is an excellent resource for strengthening lots of important life skills. Compassion, teamwork, social-emotional intelligence, and communication are some of the key skills your students will learn through leadership taught classes. There are plenty of creative ways to integrate these into your lessons to ensure your class are having fun while learning. Check out our list below for some useful ideas which can be implemented throughout the academic year.
Pass the Mic: Microphones are a valuable tool to promote both listening and speaking skills. It can develop public speaking skills, provide a fun way for active participation, and help promote language articulation. Split your class into teams of four and get each group to list some questions. These shouldn’t be too difficult, and of course make sure they are age appropriate. Questions like, ‘What is your favourite subject and why?’, ‘Which do you prefer, dinners or packed lunch?’, ‘Where do you see yourself in 10 years?’ Head to the assembly hall and pick a group to go first and ask the questions to one of the other groups. Then swap the groups about making sure that everyone in the class has an opportunity to speak into the microphone. Even if some students only feel comfortable giving one-word answers, that’s fine. Gather the class back in the classroom after and get them to share their experience of the activity. Did they enjoy it? What did they like most, asking the questions, or answering? Feedback is important for students to understand how to improve things for the next time.
Scavenger Hunt Swap: This is perfect for building teamwork and can be used at any time of the academic year. Divide your class into groups and give each group a shopping bag and a blank sheet of paper. Head out into the playground or if you have a local park or wood nearby. Get your students some time to discuss and come up with items to find which must of course fit inside the bag and are likely to be found in the area you are looking. A rock from the playground, a red leaf from the wood for example. Get the groups to list five or 10 items on the sheet of paper and then gather and disperse the sheets amongst the groups making sure the same team isn’t with their own sheet to items to find. Give the class a certain amount of time to complete the challenge. The teams have to move together to find the items working as a unit and competing with the other groups. Debrief after and ask what they found most challenging/easy about the task.
Charity Support: Get the class to think of local charities in your area and have everyone decide on one or two they would like to donate to. Split the class into groups and have one group researching the charity, another thinking of creative ways to fundraise and one focusing on financial targets. Get the groups to think about their objectives overall, how are they going to organise a fundraiser? What and who will be involved? How will they promote it? Set a date for the fundraiser to take place so everyone has a date to work towards and perhaps a financial goal the class would like to work towards for the given charity. This valuable activity will teach your students about what they can do to help in the local community, work as a team towards a set goal collectively and will help the children to find out what their strengths are and areas they would like to improve on.
Pass the Hoop: This game involves splitting the class into groups and have each group stand in a circle and hold hands. One pupil has a hula hoop around their arm and the aim of the game is to pass the hula hoop the whole way around the circle of students. This is a really fun way to get your students up on their feet and interacting together. As well as promoting teamwork and problem solving, this game develops lots of important communication skills. Being able to communicate effectively is a crucial skill for leadership and this activity will help to build confidence in your students with lots of laughs along the way too!
Team Jigsaw: Split the class into groups with each one having to complete a jigsaw puzzle within a time limit. Give each group a box containing a puzzle and at first, each group will assume that their task is to work together to build the jigsaw in the fastest time. As each time gets cracking, they will quickly realise that some of the pieces are missing, and they have extra pieces that don’t fit their puzzle. The teams will then have to work with the other teams to swap puzzle pieces in order to get theirs built the fastest. However, they can only swap one puzzle piece at a time. This activity is super for critical-thinking and problem solving.
Famous Leaders: Have your students discuss worldly leaders throughout history, or current today who they believe have made an impact in the world. You can either put your class into groups or have them work in pairs. Get them to spend some time researching leaders, and thinking about what made them stand out. Have your class then decide on one person they would like to focus on and have them design up a poster with a picture of the person and some key points listed about what makes them a leader. You could have the students present their findings in front of the class or at an assembly to incorporate their presentation and communication skills.
Pride Lines: This is a great way of instilling confidence and self-esteem in your pupils. Working in pairs give your class handouts which contain sentences such as, ‘I am proud that when I was frightened I…’ ‘I am proud that I learned a new skill when…’ ‘Something I worked hard for is…’ and so on. Each student has to finish each sentence and then listen to their partner do the same, taking it in turns. This will engage your students with their own thoughts about themselves and others, taking into account how their peers experience the same things and how it relates to them.
Who’s the Leader: Split the class into two groups and have each one stand in a circle. Have one person from each group leave the classroom and upon re-entering it will be their task to figure out who the leader is. Once the person is out of the classroom get each group to assign one person to be the leader. This person will initiate an action such as clapping hands, tapping their feet etc with the rest of the group mimicking. The group have to be careful however that they don’t let make it obvious who the leader is, so they must try not to look at the leader too. Much! Continue the actions until the person who was outside has guessed correctly who the leader is. Once they have, then swap around and have a different person leave the room. Get your students to discuss the game afterwards, did they enjoy being a leader or a follower? Perhaps they enjoyed being the person who had to investigate and guess who the leader was?
