Hobbies And Interests
Direct Encouragement Activities
One of the simplest ways to draw attention to the act of encouragement, and to give children the opportunity to practice it, is by having children find positive traits to encourage in one another. One simple activity that allows this is giving children a piece of paper and having them write their names at the top of the paper. Then pass the paper around the room, and ask everyone to write one word describing a positive trait about that person. This requires every child to think of something positive about every other child in the group. Limiting their responses to one word makes the task achievable even among children who don't like each other.
A similar activity that's slightly more personal is to have each child create or bring a "gift" for one other person in the group. To ensure that everyone gets a gift and to avoid children pairing up with their friends for this activity, it's best to assign partners. You can give craft materials and have them make gifts, or in an outdoor space, you can have them find gifts. You can also have them mime imaginary gifts. The gifts should be meaningful and should represent something that the recipient does well or a way the recipient has helped the group.
Indirect Encouragement Activities
Children can also learn the habit of encouragement through activities that allow them to observe and encourage specific behaviors in their peers. For example, you could have the group perform an activity. This could be a game, a team building activity, or even a classroom exercise. Meanwhile, the other half of the group should watch the active group for a specific positive behavior. This could be leadership, cooperation, or even encouragement. When a child in the watching group has observed this behavior in all the members of the active group, he should say "Bingo." The watchers can then tell the active group what they observed. Then the groups switch places. The second group should perform a different activity, and the new watchers should be watching for a different trait. This activity allows children to practice noticing and responding to positive behavior while it's occurring, which is a valuable method of encouraging others.
Incorporated Encouragement Activities
You can also teach encouragement by incorporating encouraging behavior into other activities. For example, you can create a framework for ongoing encouragement over a period of time. One example of this is Necklace Exchange, in which each child starts with a necklace of beads that are all the same color. Every time someone says something to a child that encourages her, she gives that person one of her beads. The goal is for every child to have a multicolored necklace that includes beads from every person in the group by the end of the time period.