Self-Esteem Games for Children
THINGS NEEDED:
-A roll of paper towels for each student
-A couple of wastepaper baskets
-A couple of brooms and dustpans
-A portable radio or cd player
THE “BLOW YOUR OWN HORN” SELF-ESTEEM GAME:
1. At the beginning of class, give each child their own roll of paper towels.
2. Have each child tear off a couple of paper towels from the roll and then rip
them up and put them into the wastepaper baskets. Repeat this step until all of the paper towels have been ripped up.
3. Turn on some music and encourage the kids to dance while they are ripping up
the paper towels and putting them into the wastepaper baskets.
4. Once all of the paper towels have been ripped up and placed into the wastepaper
baskets. Have each child pick up the empty paper towel roll and place it to
his or her mouth and talk into it like a bullhorn.
5. Go around the room and ask each child to say something positive about
themselves into the makeshift bullhorn such as: “I’m great!”
“I’m a winner!” “I love myself!” “I’m a hardworker!”
6. Once all of the children have had a turn. Ask the children to stand up and
march around the room, single file, and have them say more positive
things about themselves into the makeshift bullhorns.
7. Encourage them to clap their hands and have a grand ol’ time.
8. Once all of the children have had another turn at saying positive things
about themselves, have each child take some of the shredded paper towels
out of the wastepaper baskets and throw them into the air and onto each
other. Teachers, let them go wild and have a grand ol’ time.
9. In between bouts of saying positive things about themselves and throwing
the shredded paper towels at each other, have each child pick a song
that they can all sing together. For the rest of the class period,
JUST LET THE CHILDREN HAVE FUN!
10. About 10 minutes before the class period ends, sweep up the shredded
paper towels and discard them into the wastepaper baskets and tidy up the
rest of the classroom. Have all the kids help do this. Teachers, let
any child who wants to keep their bullhorn, keep it.
SELF-ESTEEM OBJECTIVE:
-This game’s objective is to make a child feel good about his or herself
through their own positive reinforcement. Teachers, it is important for you to tell the children that although it is good for a child to hear positive things about themselves from other people, sometimes they need to hear those positive things from the most important person of all, themselves. Remember, that a person every once in a while needs to “blow their own horn.” To basically say good things about themselves because there is a chance that nobody else will.
