Personal, Social, Health & Citizenship Education

Personal, Social, Health & Citizenship Education - I Can't Do This

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– Mental Health & Well-being

Exploring the feelings felt when you think, "I Can't Do This"

• Write a poem using 'I Can't Do This' as the title (encourage children to explore the feelings felt at this time). The idea of adding the YET could be explored as an extension to this.
• Make a display of children pulling facial expressions that show how they feel when they are stuck on something. Go on to explore these feelings so that children realise that what they are feeling is normal and not to be feared but worked through.
• Freeze frame in a group the term 'I can't do this'. Photograph for a display.
• Use ' I can't do this yet' as the title of a role play or instruct the group that the last line of their role play should be 'I can't do this yet'. Discuss the scenario portrayed and how the feeling was dealt with - was it in a positive of negative way? Could it have been dealt with differently? This could be extended by other groups taking the same scenario and dealing with it in a different way.


• Explore ideas about how you can avoid giving up. Come up with a class list of strategies (e.g, the 5B's to see if they help you- Brain, Board, Book, Buddy, Boss (the teacher who is the last resort as you want to encourage independence.) List their ideas and see if you can come up with a creative way of remembering and referring to this. This is a discussion that should be constantly referred to throughout future learning. If the children help to develop this, they will own it and it will mean more to them.


• Ask children to think about a time when they felt like they couldn't do something and they gave up. Discuss what they could have done as a group. Role play the scenario with the give up ending and then replay when they didn't give up - how did the situations end differently? Which do they think was the most positive/constructive?


• Write an advertisement to sell Fortitude as a friend - why would Fortitude be a good friend to have? (Encourages children to think about his good points and the benefits of owning a Fortitude!)


• Create a piece of artwork that focuses on the feelings you have when you feel like you can't do something.


• Get children to create facial expressions that show the emotions they feel when they can't do something. Create a display of these.