Activity Title: The Telephone Game | |
Suggested Grade/Age Range: Grades 1-3 (ages 6-9) | |
Activity Objective: The goal of this activity is to help children recognize the importance of both verbal and non-verbal communication and how we use both when we try to express ourselves. Factors that facilitate good communication and asking for clarity will be discussed as part of the activity. | |
Materials Required: none | |
Prep Time: 10 minutes You may choose to write out instructions for the game on the board for children to refer to Task Time: 45-60 minutes
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Activity Description: Activity: 1. Have whole class in circle formation. Explain The Telephone Game: the goal is to pass a message successfully all the way around the circle. Review over the instructions and make sure everyone understands how to play the game 2. For the first round, do not give any cues on how to effectively pass the message, except for ensuring that children understand the rules of the game 3. The facilitator will always start each round. Say a message to the child next to you and have the child whisper this to the next child and so on until the message reaches the individual on the other side of the facilitator. Have that individual say the message out loud ü Ensure the messages chosen are only one sentence long and the content can vary depending on what is relevant for that particular class 4. After the first round, have a discussion with the class about whether or not the message was passed on successfully. It is likely that the children may have experienced some barriers along the way (e.g., someone saying it too softly or too loudly so others claim they heard it or cannot hear it, etc.). 5. Give children an opportunity to discuss barriers encountered and ask them what they could do during the next round to ensure the message gets passed around (e.g., saying each word slowly and clearly, making eye contact with the individual you are communicating with afterwards to check for understanding, saying the message more than once if needed, asking respectfully for the message to repeated, etc.) 6. Play another round or two of the game and have a mini discussion around what worked and what did not work each round and what could be done to facilitate better communication Have children provide some examples of effective verbal and non-verbal cues for good communication (e.g., eye contact, volume of voice, speaking clearly, etc.) Wrap-up Discussion: 7. At the end of three rounds or so, have an overall discussion with the children about what factors helped to improve communication. Write these down on the board or on chart paper 8. Make sure to mention that when trying to communicate something, it is actually important not to have others pass on this message, which may change the meaning of it. It is important to communicate directly with the person one wants to speak with 9. Make sure to emphasize that when communicating, we need to clearly say and show what we need. We also have to make sure the other person is listening 10. Emphasize that as the listener, we need to respectfully pay attention to both what is being said and the non-verbal cues that are given. We can always ask for clarification if we did not understand the first time | |
Additional Comments: Children may become frustrated when encountering a variety of barriers during the game, have a discussion with them in the beginning about respectful behaviour and review over classroom rules/agreements as needed Sometimes, the messages may be intentionally changed by individuals during the game. Use this as a teaching moment to discuss about how this may happen when we try to communicate something important in real life. Emphasize the importance of respecting one another throughout the entire game playing process and of respecting the right of the whole class to play this game by following the game rules Allow the children to play and have fun, especially with (appropriately) humorous messages or when messages do become unintentionally mixed up. At the same time, emphasize how messages can become miscommunicated in real life and use this as an opportunity to discuss the importance of clearly saying what one needs when communicating | |
Additional Resources: You may choose to review over the Communication Literature Review before implementing this activity. It can be found here. |