Suggested Grade/Age Range: Grades 4-6 (ages 9-11)

Activity Objective: The goal of this activity is to use drama to illustrate different kinds of touch and how they might make us feel.

Learning Goals
Big Messages to Kids

Link to Ontario Curriculum

Materials Required:

• Touch Skit Planning Sheet
• Writing utensils

Prep Time: 5 minutes

• Make copies of Touch Skit Planning Sheet
• Gather all writing utensils

Task Time: 50-60 minutes

• Introduce activity
• Planning and rehearsing skits
• Present skits
• Whole class discussion

Activity Description:

Activity:

1.       Tell the class that they will be creating skits in small groups that explore how different kinds of touch can lead us to feel different things. Some types of touch can lead to negative emotions and make us feel unsafe. It is important that we pay attention to how a touch makes us feel and get help from a trusted adult when a touch makes us feel hurt, sad, angry, frightened, strange, or uncomfortable, etc.

2.       Give each individual a skit planning sheet and divide them into their small groups. Tell them that each individual in the group has to fill out the sheet to ensure participation

3.       Give the small groups about 15 minutes to plan and rehearse their skits. Circulate and support each small group as needed. Once the group has filled out their planning sheet, they should show it to you and then rehearse their skit once or twice

Make sure the skits are appropriate and emphasize that the touch involved is to be acted out (e.g., “in the air”) and not literal. For example, if a strong push is involved, the person is only acting out the push, but not actually physically pushing the other individual, etc.

Wrap-up Discussion/Presentations:

4.       When all the groups have finished their planning sheets and rehearsed, invite the whole class back together and have each small group perform their skits

5.       After each group has performed, engage the class in a discussion about the skit. Use the following questions as guidelines:

• What kind of touch was illustrated here? How did it make the person being touched feel?
• How did the individuals in the skit handle the situation? Could something have been done differently to improve the outcome?
• Who can the individual talk to if the touch has them or made them uncomfortable?

6.       At the end, ask the whole class to volunteer answers to the following:

Who can you talk to when someone has hurt you or made you feel uncomfortable?

7.       Emphasize to the class the necessity of getting help from a trusted adult if they ever experience a touch that makes them feel hurt, sad, angry, frightened, uncomfortable/strange, etc.

Activity Extensions:

This activity works well in conjunction with the ‘Who Can Help’ from the ‘Getting Help’ module

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:

The skit planning sheets can be optional if the small groups do not need that much structure or one skit planning sheet can be used for each group if that works better than having each individual fill them out

Additional Resources:

You may also choose to review the Touch Literature Review before implementing this activity. It can be found here.