Therapeutic Play Program:

Early Adolescence: Self-esteem and Teamwork

Chantelle Greenham

Therapeutic Activities:

CAYW110

Professor Jillian Manning

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Introduction:
I have chosen to work with early adolescence children ages 13-15. The number of students that
participated in the program were roughly 18-24 students, it was held in the gymnasium at St.
Lawrence college on November 7th at 1:30.

Goal:
I have chosen to use self-esteem and teamwork as a theme. The reason as to why we picked self-
esteem as a theme for this age group is because this is where they start to go through puberty and
it could be a tough time fitting in and with certain things that go along with puberty, they may
have lower self-esteem. They respect their peers and they try to distinctly chose a peer group
where male and females may not want to be together because of many different reasons which
they would need to work on their self-esteem and teamwork for this. There are many different
changes going on in their lives right now and to have self-esteem and teamwork are very
important. Ways that I hope to achieve this is by getting them to work together in every activity
and too limit the elimination aspect that way the students don’t start to lose their self-esteem.

Program:
WARM UP
Name: Line Tag
Purpose: The purpose of this activity is to make sure the participators are engaged and getting
involved without having to do too much all at once.
Age & Size: This activity is for twelve to fifteen-year old’s and is played in one group of 15 to
around 25.
Materials: Things needed for this activity is a wide-open space with a variety of lines on it.
Instructions: Step 1- Have everyone spread out and pick a person to be it
Step 2- Explain that they can only walk on the lines
Step 3- Explain that you cannot jump line to line
Step 4- It is a walk or speed walking pace
Step 5- Making sure that you are also looking where you are going
Step 6- try not to get tagged by the people that are it
Cautions: Set a boundary that way they don’t run into certain things around the gym. Making
sure that they are aware that it is walking not running also to keep looking up not just at the lines
on the floor so that you don’t end up running into someone else.
Variations: This activity could be played in a variety of different sizes with a different level of
intensity for each.
MAIN ACTIVITY
Name: Secret Agent Tag
Purpose: The reason for this activity is to get them to work together by helping save each other
from the taggers, and to figure out who is the secret agent and who is the taggers.
Age and Size: This is meant for ages 12-15, and is meant for larger groups of around 14-20
people
Materials: All that is needed is an open space and large group of students
Instructions: Step 1- Get them to spread themselves out around the gym
Step 2- Tell them to sit down and close their eyes with their heads down
Step 3- The facilitator goes and taps four people on the head
Step 4- If you get tapped once you’re the tagger
Step 5- If you get tapped twice then you are the secret agent
Step 6- Once four people have been tapped they stand up quickly trying
to figure out who may have been tapped
Step 7- If you are the tagger you want to get as many people out as you can by
lightly tagging them
Step 8- If you are the secret agent then you want to avoid being touched so that
you can save the people that have been tagged out
Step 9- A runner is someone that didn’t get tapped by the facilitator and who
wants to avoid being tagged
Step 10- When/if you get tagged you sit down where you have been tagged and
stay seated until the secret agent can free you
Step 11- If the secret agents both get tagged out then the round is over and you
start again.
Cautions: Something that you may want to be aware of is people that don’t like running around
for a longer period of time, or if someone is scared of being tagged out because they may feel as
though they are the center of attention.
Variations: Could possibly get them too pick who is the taggers and have them leave the room
so that you can decide who wants to be the secret agents
COOL DOWN
Name: Ants on a log
Purpose: The purpose behind this activity is team work and trust. You need to be working together
the entire time and to trust that your teammates will help you out while trying to win.
Age and Size: This activity is for twelve to fifteen-year old’s and three groups of six to eight
people in each group.
Materials: Only thing needed for this activity is a line to stand on and a group of people
Instructions: Step 1- Number off the students into three groups
Step 2- Tell them which line that they are to stand on
Step 3- Get them to stand on that line and number themselves off (1,2,3 and so on)
Step 4- Explain that the object of the game is to reverse their position (3,2,1)
Step 5- You can’t step off the line
Step 6- Want to able to maneuver around your teammates to get the reverse order
Step 7- If you fall of the line you start over from the beginning
Step 8- You want to be the first one to finish
Cautions: Something that you may need to be aware of is the types of people you group together
because some may be shy and not want to talk therefore you need to have them with someone that
will take leadership so that they don’t need to speak if they aren’t comfortable but still can
participate. Another thing to be cautious about is if they struggle with being too close to others.
Variations: Another way that you could play this is to form one big group to try and get them to
all work together.