Social Skills: Fiver and Cheery Dice
Simple strategies to embed Social/Emotional Learning into every lesson, everyday.
As students walk in the door, they place their fingers on their chest to rate their mood.
In upper grades you can use images or gifs.
Later in the year, or from the beginning, you may want to add a10: Over the Moon 10 Finger Woo Finger Waggling Happy as another option.
Shy kids eventually warm to you if you invariably do four things: make eye contact, smile, give a pleasant greeting, offer a hug.
Make a mental note for a later to have a one-on-one chat with students who self score lower than three.
Follow up Fiver, by rolling the dice for Cheery Dice. The number rolled sets the activity.
Pairs of kids take turns filling in the sentence frame, giving each other 10 finger woos for creative ideas … or everyone dances for a minute! As the game is played, circulate the room and give needed affection to students who self-scored a 1 or 2 in Fiver.
Cheery Dice is a remarkably powerful minute that
– generates social emotional insights
– deepens bonds
– sets goals
– develops language arts skills
– nourishes creativity
– increases student energy
– creates opportunities for lifting student moods
During Cheery Dice, walk the room, praising kids for their interchanges or prompting them for deeper engagement with their neighbor. Most importantly, give extra affection to kids who scored 1 or 2 on Fiver.
If you have kids who throw disruptive tantrums, Cheery Dice provides perfect opportunities to give them special attention.
Revisit Cheery Dice several times a day, especially after recess and lunch. Let’s replace Brain Breaks with Cheery Breaks! Find more variations to play Cheery Dice in WBT 3.0.
After Cheery Dice, place a thumbs up on your chest. Ask kids to mimic your gesture if their mood improved since playing Fiver and Cheery Dice.
Volunteers share the reason for their mood improvement.
Finally, share your own Fiver score when you started school … and its current state. Don’t burden children with anything negative you’re enduring but do explain your strategies for lifting your mood.
These three games, Fiver, Cheery Dice, and Fiver Plus, help kids enormously. They assess their mood, have an uplifting interchange with a classmate, and discover a core human truth … engaging in pleasant, social activities lifts our spirit!