HEALTH UNIT: PERSONAL AND SOCIAL SKILLS

Preservice teacher: Collaborators:

Sophie Tye Sharlene Richman

ACARA Learning Area: Time/day/week/term:

Health Term 3
Weeks 5-7 (5 lesson unit)
1-2x 40 min lessons/week
Strand: Personal, Social and Community Health
Sub-strand: Communicating and interacting for health and wellbeing
Content descriptors:
• Practise personal and social skills to interact positively with others (ACPPS004).
• Identify and describe emotional responses people may experience in different situations
(ACPPS005).

Year level/age range/ability information: Reception (5-6 years old).

Resources/equipment/materials/technology required

• Friendly/unfriendly photo cards

• Empathy & sparkly conversation cut outs
• Body template for final assessment

Assessment of student learning/engagement/participation

“Students use personal and social skills when working with others in a range of activities. They identify and
describe the different emotions that people experience.” (ACARA).

Week 5: questioning (prior knowledge), exit cards, observation.

Week 6: role play, observation.
Week 7: role play, check list, drawing & labelling (summative).

I will be assessing students’ ability to engage appropriately with others in a range of situations, show
empathy and hold a conversation.

Links
Links to other curriculum Learning Areas, topics or unit planning

Drama – engaging in role play and demonstrating a range of facial expressions.

Literacy – labelling and expanding vocabulary.

Sophie Tye 2018

 Lesson/unit overview at a glance:

Week 5
Activity 1 (Tues 21st August) (orientation/introduction):
Friendly and Unfriendly Behaviours

• Class discussion about what might make us think that someone is friendly or unfriendly, and how we feel
when someone is being unfriendly (prior knowledge).
• Explain that every person needs to do 3 things in order to be friendly. They need to have a friendly face,
a friendly body and use friendly words.

Explicit teaching
• Model each of these to the students.

Friendly face Friendly body Friendly words

o Soften your face so o Relax, stand tall, pull o Hi, hello, hey there
it’s easy to move shoulders back
o Ask questions: ‘how
o Make sure your o Keep your arms by are you?’, ‘how was
eyebrows are your side (no folded your weekend?’
smooth and relaxed arms or clenched
fists)
o Smile
o Stand about an
o Make eye contact arm’s length away
from the person

Student’s practice:
• ‘Show me the buzz’ – scenarios.
Gathered on the floor, I will ask one student to come up at a time and I will whisper a scenario in their
ear, which they are to act out to the rest of the class. The group will try to guess whether they are being
friendly or unfriendly based on their acting, and make suggestions why.
E.g. someone might look friendly because they are smiling, but have their arms folded which is being
unfriendly.

Exit cards (formative assessment):

• Ask each student a question to answer before they pack their bag (e.g. tell me one way to make your
body look friendly, show me a friendly face, tell me one way to make your face look unfriendly etc.)

Sophie Tye 2018

 Activity 2 (Wednesday 22nd August) (concept development):
Being Friendly in Games

Revision
• Ask who can tell me some friendly behaviours? Why is it important to be friendly?
• Photo cards (formative assessment): I will show students one photo at a time which display some
friendly/unfriendly behaviours. If they think the person is being friendly, they put their thumbs up. If they
think the person is being unfriendly, they put their thumbs down.

Explicit teaching
• Talk about how we can be friendly when playing a game: being patient, enjoy watching others, be
encouraging (saying good luck, well done), try not to show disappointment if you don’t win, and being
courteous of others.

Student’s practice
• Catching the Dragon’s Tail: student’s stand in a straight line. The person at the front is the dragon’s
head, and the person at the end is the dragon’s tail. They need to carefully move around the room as the
head tries to catch the tail. When they do, the head joins the tail and the next person is the new head.
Students can practice using encouraging words, not showing disappointment when they are caught and
being patient waiting for their turn.

Week 6
Activity 3 (Tuesday 28th August) (introduction of additional content):
Empathy and Responding to Others

• Explain that people’s thoughts are important to them, even if they are different to ours. We should always
treat people with respect.
• Give a meaning for empathy, and explain that to show empathy we should say something that shows we
understand how the person is feeling, and do or say something to comfort them.
• Provide examples of how you could show empathy.

Student’s practice
• Role play (formative assessment): in a circle, students turn over cards one at a time that give them
context (e.g. school, home, with friends, during a game etc). When it is that student’s turn, they think of a
time that they felt upset/embarrassed/annoyed/unhappy in a situation and why. Other students then have
the opportunity to comfort that person by giving an empathic response.
• Extension: children can think of a time they didn’t agree with someone else on something, and think of
something they could’ve said instead.

Game
• Who is it? Students close their eyes, place heads in laps and listen carefully. I explain that I will describe
three features of a student in the group, and when the students think they know who it is they sit up and
put hands up ready to be asked. Emphasise positive things, and this is the way people are viewed by
others.

Sophie Tye 2018

 Week 7
Activity 4 (Tuesday 4th September) (review of progress/introduction of additional content):
How to Have a Conversation with Others

Engagement
• Begin with a role play between two teachers, talking at each other instead of to each other (e.g. ‘come
here, I want to talk to you. It’s my birthday this weekend’, ‘well it’s my birthday next weekend’, ‘well my
birthday will be better because I’m having a pony party’ etc…)
• Ask the children what was wrong with the way we were talking to each other, and how we could change
it.

• How to make a conversation sparkle:

1. Begin by saying ‘excuse me’ or ‘hello’
2. Smile and speak in a nice voice
3. Look at their face and turn your body towards them
4. Take turns to listen and speak
5. Show you are listening by asking questions about what the person has said.

• How to make a conversation dull:

1. Constantly disagree
2. Saying mean things
3. Keep going on and on about yourself
4. Being grumpy or not talking at all
5. Not letting the other person talk
6. Tuning out and walking away

Student’s practice
• In pairs, give them the opportunity to have their own conversation for 2 minutes and practice what they
have learned (formative assessment - checklist).
• As a group, students then need to stand in a line from shortest to tallest. They need to talk to each other
and cooperate to work this out using words like ‘excuse me’, ‘can I please go there, I think I’m taller than
you’ etc.

Activity 5 (Wednesday 5th September) (conclusion):

Recap & Assessment

• Ask someone to show a friendly face, friendly body & friendly words.
• Ask someone how we can be friendly when we’re playing games.
• Ask someone how they can show empathy.
• Ask someone how they can have a sparkly conversation.

Summative assessment
• Students each draw and label someone who shows good personal and social skills (using template).

Sophie Tye 2018

 Formative Checklist – Having a Conversation
Facing the person Asking relevant Using a friendly
Using eye contact
& listening questions voice

Eliah

Mason

AJ

Caleb

Chase

Diezel

Tyler

Monnie

Sophia

Indi

Sarah

Luna

Olivia

Annabel

Sophie Tye 2018

 Ongoing Anecdotal Notes

Student Comment
Eliah

Mason

AJ

Caleb

Chase

Diezel

Tyler

Monnie

Sophia

Sophie Tye 2018

 Indi

Sarah

Luna

Olivia

Annabel

Sophie Tye 2018

 Summative Assessment Rubric

Below average At average Above average

Friendly face Does not show Student has drawn Student exceeds
evidence of smiling the person smiling expectations. The
or being friendly. and has attempted drawing includes
to label correctly. smiling, talking and is
labelled correctly.

Friendly body Limited evidence of Labels arms being by Provides a strong

understanding and side. understanding of a
labelling. friendly body.
Correctly labels arms
by side, and may
draw another person
at arm’s length away.

Friendly words. Does not add speech, Uses a basic phrase, Extends beyond
or words are not such as ‘hi’ or ‘hello’. basic phrase,
friendly. including the use of a
question such as ‘how
are you’ or gives a
compliment.

Comment

Sophie Tye 2018