Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: Watch the episode

20 minutes

Find Out: Boredom busters

20 minutes

Take Action: Make your own games

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

understand that developing patience can be challenging but simple games can help.

Success criteria

Students will:

reflect on their own experiences of boredom and how they managed it
play games as a way to manage boredom
develop their own games to manage boredom and practice patience.

Tune In: Watch the episode

Step 1

Bluey 'Road Trip' - (clickv.ie/w/dSgx)

Road Trip synopsis: Bluey and Bingo find ways to entertain themselves on a family road trip. While Dad tries to stay ahead of the Grey Nomad convey or risk getting a camping spot near the toilets.

Explain to students that they will be watching a Bluey episode. However, they will start by watching a small segment at the start of the episode, then pausing the clip and predicting what might happen next.

Pause the clip after the first segment, when the episode name is on screen.

Lead a quick discussion to ask the children to make a prediction about the episode:

I wonder what is going to happen in this episode.

Consider using 'I see, I think, I feel and I wonder…' questions to guide your discussion; these can be a positive way to engage children to reflect on their learning, share their ideas and express their emotions.

'I think...' statements

Using questions that focus on ‘I think...’ statements helps students share their thoughts and ideas about what is happening. In forming an ‘I think...’ statement, students begin a thinking process about what they experience.

‘I think’ statements can also be used to predict what is about to happen. They can be used as an open-ended starter to encourage discussions about what their children are viewing.

For more evidence-based advice on developing oral language, click here.

Encourage the children to use ‘I think’ statements when sharing their thoughts with the group.

Once a few ‘I think that’ ideas have been shared, continue to watch the full episode.

Step 2

Once students have had the chance to watch the full episode, invite students to share their thoughts and feelings about the episode through a discussion. Consider the following questions:

I wonder what Bluey and Bingo think when they are in the car.
I wonder what Bluey's dad will do to get in front of the grey nomads.
I wonder what they all learn about the time it takes to get to the camp ground.
I wonder what it feels like to be bored. Is technology the best option for addressing boredom?

Find Out: Boredom busters

Preparation

Organise an area of the outside where the students can lie down. Use rugs or mats as a comfortable cover if there is no grass or another suitable surface available.

Step 1

Invite students to your designated outdoor learning area. Once they are settled, encourage a discussion about the road trip that occured in the episode.

Invite students to think about any road trips they have been on:

I wonder if you've ever been on a road trip.
Where were you going?
How did you travel? By car or bus? Did you tow anything like a caravan?
Can you remember how long it took? Did it feel like the trip took forever?
What did you do to keep from being bored?
I wonder if it was hard being patient on your road trip.
How does it feel when we're asked to be patient?

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This could be a good opportunity to introduce the Zones of Emotional Regulation chart to students.

Displaying the Zones of Emotional Regulation chart is helpful for students to visualise their feelings and lead them to build their emotional vocabulary, shifting them away from rote responses like “good” to more nuanced responses like “curious”, “excited”, or “worried”.

Find out more about teaching emotional intelligence h e re.

Step 2

Students will now play some games that will help them deal with the frustrations that can arise when they need to wait for something. These simple games can help us develop our patience.

Game 1 - Cloud Watchers

Note: This activity needs good clouds! Try to choose a day that has good clouds in formation; seeing formations can be hard to do with an overcast sky with solid clouds. If there are no good clouds, choose the next game.

Explain to students that they will now play a game of Cloud Watchers. Students will need to lie on their backs and look up at the sky (remind students not to look directly at the sun!). Students should focus on the clouds in the sky.

As students look at the clouds, pose the following questions:

I wonder you can see in the clouds.
Can you see any shapes?
How might you describe the shapes you are seeing in the clouds? Encourage students to be creative in their descriptions of the clouds they see, for example, 'that cloud looks like the head of a cat who is trying to squeeze through a tight spot' or 'that tiny cloud looks like a puff of smoke that has escaped from a dragon's nose'.

If it is a perfect cloud-watching day, lie back and watch the clouds in the sky. Continue encouraging students to share their observations of the clouds, and remind them that we can't hurry the clouds along; we just have to wait for them to drift by and as we do, we are learning to use our patience.

If the cloud watchers game can't be played, play Bigger and Biggest.

Game 2 - Bigger and Biggest

This is an active game that aims to inspire imagination and curiosity. The aim of the game is to find something big, and then identify something that is even bigger!

Before you start the game, make a note of the time you started the game; you can then report back to students on how much time passed while you were playing the game.

You could start the game with something like a leaf or a blade of grass. Pick it up and say:

This is big, but I wonder if we can find something bigger.

Invite students to find something that is just a little bit bigger than the leaf or blade of grass. Once you have found something, you can focus on this new object and again say:

This is big, but I wonder if we can find something bigger.

Again, invite students to find something that is just a bit bigger than this object.

Repeat for as long as you like. As you wrap up the game, make a note of how long you played the game and share this with students. Explain to students that games like this help us to develop patience as they take our minds off of waiting. Consider using this game next time you and your students have to do some patient waiting!

Take Action: Make your own games

Step 1

Invite students to work in pairs or small groups to invent their own games of imagination to bust the boredom. Set some boundaries for these games, for example, students should try to create a game that can be played:

sitting in a chair in the classroom
while waiting in a line
while stuck in the car or on the bus (no screens!)
in the yard
alone
in small groups
with the whole class.

Step 2

Invite students to share some of their games with the class. Keep a record of these games to try out when you need a distraction from waiting for something!

Reflection

Invite students to share their responses to the following through a class discussion:

I wonder if playing games helped to pass the time.
Do you think playing these types of games would help you be more patient? Why or why not?

Patience - Waiting Games

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Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables

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Patience - Waiting Games

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Summary

Lesson Guides and Printables

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