Activity Title: My Body Belongs to Me | ||
Suggested Grade/Age Range: Grades 1-3 (ages 6-9) | ||
Activity Objective: The goal of this activity is to help children recognize that their body belongs only to themselves, that they have a right to personal boundaries, and that they are the only ones who can decide how they want to be touched and how a touch makes them feel. This activity presents an opportunity for children to connect feelings to physical sensations in the body to help them better establish the mind-body connection. | ||
Materials Required:
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Prep Time: 10-15 minutes Gather all materials needed for the activity – class set of mural paper long enough for body tracings Task Time: two 45-minute sessions Session 1:
Session 2:
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Activity Description: Activity: Session 1: 1. Explain to the class that they will be making life size portraits of themselves 2. Have the children briefly pair up to trace each other’s bodies onto the mural paper. Once they find a partner, hand out the mural paper to each pair 3. Once the children have had their bodies traced, they will work individually on drawing and decorating their portraits Session 2: 1. Have the children bring their completed body tracings and sit in a circle for presentation and discussion. Alternatively, the completed artwork can be displayed around the classroom and be used for an art walk whereby the class can go around and look at each other’s work 2. Have each individual present their body tracing and talk about what makes it unique. They can also point out a part of their body that they really like. Once all the children have presented, point out how each portrait is so special because our bodies are uniquely ours and only belong to us and not to anyone else 3. Have a discussion with the children about different types of touch and how they would make them feel. Use the following as guidelines: Who gets to decide how a touch makes you feel? Who can decide how to touch us? What if someone put their arm around you, how would that make you feel? What if someone touches you in a way that made you feel uncomfortable, what can you do? What if someone touched you and told you to keep it a secret? 4. Have the children go and get a pencil and lay out their body tracings where they can draw or write on them 5. Tell the children that you will now discuss as a class how feelings are experienced in the body. Ask the children what it feels like in the body when they feel a certain emotion (have a few examples ready of both positive and negative emotions that are familiar to children) 6. Have the children verbally describe this and then point out on their body tracings where they feel the sensations. They may want to mark that area or write a description on it Example: When you feel excited, what do you feel in your body? Where do you feel it? 7. Tell the children that when we experience different emotions, we experience different bodily sensations. It’s important to trust the ‘uh-oh’ feeling we get when any kind of touch feels uncomfortable, yucky, or scary. We need to get help from an adult we trust and tell this person what happened | ||
Activity Extensions: Show children the Youtube video clip on consent for kids and have a discussion around its content, especially about how only the individual themselves can decide how to be touched and how they feel about the touch. The clip can be found here. This wonderful video was made by illustrator Rachel Brian and focuses on personal boundaries. | ||
Additional Comments: Depending on time availability, this activity can extend over more than two sessions to give children more time to decorate their body tracings and really make them unique to represent themselves | ||
Additional Resources: You may also choose to review the Touch Literature Review before implementing this activity. It can be found here. |