Activities to Build Confidence in Elementary Children

Drawing Activities

• Have the children make an ̶0;All about me̶1; poster each month. The children can draw pictures of themselves on the poster. Ask them to cut pictures of items from magazines that describe them or make them feel good. Hang the pictures on the wall and have the children do a new picture each month to see how much they have changed. Alternatively, have the children make a ̶0;me̶1; scrapbook they must update each day. They can record things that make them happy and what they want to be. Knowing who they are will help them build confidence.

Interview Activities

• Create interview activities on the first day of school by pairing up students who do not know each other. Give the students five minutes to interview each other. Have each student stand up in front of the class and introduce the child he interviewed. Do the same activity on the last day of school; however, omit the interviews. Pair the children up and have them speak to the class about their partner from what they learned about him throughout the school year.

Compliment Activities

• Ask the children to sit in a circle and give one student a beanbag. She must toss the beanbag to another player and say a compliment about the person who catches it. Each player must continue to toss the beanbag while sharing a compliment about that person. This activity will build self-esteem and confidence in your students. Another idea is to have all the children write one compliment about each student in the class and have them read all the compliments aloud.

Team Building Activities

• Team building activities allow children to build self-confidence by teaching them that they are valuable and contribute their own skills in a group setting. Ask the children to stand in a circle facing outward with their elbows interlocked and one player standing in the middle of the circle. Mark a starting line and finish line 20 feet apart. The children must work together to run from the starting line to the finish line without anyone letting go of the others' arms or falling down. For a game, divide the children into groups of six or seven and have a race to the finish line.