Estimated time: 7 minutes
Students must try to thread Cheerios on a string while wearing socks on their hands. This activity has to be timed and the children should be hurried. We timed it to three minutes. We found it effective to have the students put two to three Cheerios on the string before putting on the socks. This highlights the increased difficulty when the socks were put on.
What you will need:
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•About 25 Cheerios (or beads) per student in a small sandwich baggy
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•A piece of string (or a shoelace), knotted on one end, for each student
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•A pair of socks for each student
Sample script:
(Leader asks volunteers to hand out Cheerios bags.) I would like you all to open the little bag in front of you and take out the string. Now I would like you to put the socks on both hands.
When I tell you to start, I would like you to thread all the beads on the string. I will start the clock and you will have four minutes to do the activity.
(Volunteers roam the room to assist the students and indicate the students’ feelings to the leader. After a few minutes, ask several children how they are feeling and write their answers on the board in the classroom: “frustrated,” “UH this is awful,“ “I can’t do this,” “I don’t have enough time,” etc. Remind the students of the remaining time.)
(At the end of the four minutes ask them to stop. Engage in some conversation around the words on the board, e.g…) That was difficult, wasn’t it? You couldn’t use your hands properly. It was very frustrating. It took you a long time to do it. You felt silly. You felt people were watching you. It didn’t feel very cool.
You know, there are people, and lots of children, who have these kinds of difficulties, who have to deal with this every day, all the time. Can you imagine what that would be like? Can you imagine how difficult that would be in writing, at P.E.? (etc.)
(At the end of the exercise, ask the students to put the Cheerios back in the baggy and tie up the socks.)