Manners Matter: Helper's Guide

Group Activities: Mix and Match

The Right Foot

Having good manners is often the same as matching your behavior to a particular situation. Playing this game shows you how.

Civil Action

This is a good activity for younger children because it's a fun, active game that doesn't require a lot of time or concentration. Make placards out of sheets of poster paper. Write a question on one placard and a corresponding answer on another. If you are working with a very young group, use pictures instead of or in addition to words. Make the words large enough to read from a few feet away. A possible question would be: "Where should you put your napkin while you are eating?" The answer is: "Your lap." If desired, you could use illustrations or pictures only. For example, include the image of a napkin on one card, and a lap on the other. You might use one color of poster paper or ink for all the questions and a different color for all the answers.

Make sure you have at least one placard per participant. Give each child a placard and divide the group into two lines with the "questions" in one and the "answers" in the other. Have the lines face each other. Try to have the two lines far enough apart so that the children can't read the opposing cards before the game starts. When you give the signal, the children should walk quickly toward and try to find their mate. As soon as a "question" and "answer" are paired, they should clasp hands and raise them above their heads. Once everyone is matched, have the paired children read their cards aloud and explain why they make a match. Make sure everyone is matched correctly. If you should have enough extra cards, repeat the game.

Extra Polish

Have participants practice introducing their partners from the game to the group. Encourage each of them to describe his/her partner's special interests or hobbies in the introduction.

Finishing School

Share

• What did you like best about the game?
• Were there any children in the group you didn't know? If so, how did playing a game help you get to know each other?
• Do you sometimes forget your manners when you are having a good time? If so, give an example.

Process

• How can playing games help you make new friends?
• If you are unsure of what to do in a social situation, how can you learn by watching others?
• How do you know whether something you do at home is appropriate in public?

Generalize

• What other games do you play in which you have a partner?

Apply

• In what ways can you use the manners you learned here in a classroom or on the playground?