Leadership - day 5 planning and organization

Mindfulness Activity:

Trivia question: How long is a blue whale?

A) 20 meters
B) 30 meters
C) 40 meters

Mindfulness Activity:

• Sit so you're comfortable.
• Close your eyes or keep them open.
• Imagine sitting in the warm sun. Feel it.
• Notice how the sun warms your legs. Notice how it warms your back, then your arms, then your face.
• Take 3 big belly breaths.

Daily Checklist Booklet

Supplies:

• Paper or a notebook
• Stapler
• Markers or crayons

A daily checklist is a great way to learn accountability, and practice organization and planning skills. If you don’t have a spare notebook, fold a small stack of paper in half and staple at the seam to make a notebook.

Have your child decorate and personalize their booklet.

• On each page, make four sections: Morning, Afternoon, Evening and Chores.
• Under each section, list the daily tasks that should be completed that day.
• Check off tasks that have been completed. Celebrate at the end of the day if everything gets done.

Magnet Maze

Supplies:

• Cardboard
• Popsicle sticks
• A paperclip
• A magnet
• Markers

Have your child decorate a handful of popsicle sticks and a piece of cardboard for the maze template.

Help your child plan out tracks for a maze using the popsicle sticks with a start and finish spot. Make sure the tracks are wide enough for a metal paperclip to pass and turn through.

Glue the sticks to the cardboard and let dry.

Have your child guide the paperclip through the maze using a magnet from underneath the piece of cardboard.

Indoor Lawn Bowling

Supplies:

• Tape
• Newspaper
• Tinfoil and various other paper-type materials
• Golf ball

Have your child create 4 bowling balls.

Use the same rules for lawn bowling with the golf ball as the marker. The bowling balls will likely be different sizes, so you'll have to adjust how hard or softly you should roll the ball to get to the marker.

Everyone will take turns rolling their bowling balls. Whoever’s ball is closet to the marker wins the round.

Allow your child to explore and adjust the bowling balls to see what size/shape will work best for rolling.

Review Questions:

Ask your child:

• When things are disorganized in your room, how does that make you feel? Better or worse? (Feel)
• How do you think having strong planning and organization skills is related to leadership? (Think)
• What are some things you can do around the house to help keep your family organized? (Act)

Mindfulness Trivia Answer

Answer: 30 metres

Mindfulness Activity:

Trivia Question: There are many animals that live in groups where everyone has a specific job. Can you think of 2 insects that live in colonies and what jobs they have?

Mindfulness Activity:

• Sit so you’re comfortable.
• Picture a flower in front of you. It is your favourite colour and it is the most beautiful flower you’ve ever seen!
• Imagine how it smells. Take a long sniff in through your nose. Let all the air out through your mouth.
• Take 3 smelling breaths thinking about what it smells like.

Create a routine: 3 things to do before...

Supplies:

• Paper
• Scissors
• Colouring materials

Watch the 3 Things to do Before... video

Have your child think of an activity they do everyday to complete the sentence "3 things to do before ____". E.g. 3 things to do before online school, 3 things to do before bed, 3 things before going outside.

Now think, what are 3 things you need to do before each activity can be started?

Help your child make a schedule by using words or pictures. Hang this routine reminder in the room the activity takes place in. E.g. If you choose 3 things to do before bed, hang your routine in the bedroom. Or 3 things to do before online school can be hung next to the school working space.

Bringing order to our favourite things

Supplies:

• 10-20 things you have at home (e.g. Favourite books, toys, movies, photos, etc.)
• Have your child think of different ways they could organize their items. Try:
• Biggest to smallest
• Oldest to newest
• In rainbow order (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet)
• Softest to hardest
• Favourite to least favourite

Have an award ceremony for your items. For example, you could say "And the award for softest item goes to… Mr. Fluffy Pants!"

Create drawings of your items to show how they are arranged in their different categories.

Set up my space

Now that we are staying home and sharing space, we need to create places we enjoy being in. Have your child:

• Look at the space where you do your school work. Add 1 thing to help keep you more organized. It could be a clock, a box or tray to keep paperwork in, or a pad of paper to doodle on while you are thinking.
• Think of your classroom at school, was there an item that you used all the time that helps keep you organized?
• Next, remove 1 thing that is distracting. Think about your classroom. Are there items that are usually not allowed in your workspace?

Review Questions:

Ask your child:

• When you plan something and get it done, how do you feel? (Feel)
• Are there any other distracting items you could remove from your workspace? (Think)
• Are there any other routines that you can create to help you be organized? (Act)

Mindfulness Trivia Answer

Trivia Answer: Bees, ants and termites all have their own forms of workers, collectors and guards.

Mindfulness Activity

Trivia Question: The diameter of a basketball is 9.55 inches. What is the diameter of the basketball rim? Find Answer Below

A) 13 inches
B) 18 inches
C) 24 inches

Mindfulness Activity:

• Sit comfortably.
• Close your eyes or keep them open.
• Notice how it feels when you say these sentences to yourself: I am safe. I have everything that I need. I am surrounded by people who love me

Mayor of Your Own City

Supplies:

• Large pieces of white construction paper or a few pieces of regular sized paper
• Drawing materials (regular and colored pencils)

Pretend you are mayor of a new city or town. Give your city/town a name. Design/draw your city on your construction paper/regular paper. Make a list of features that your town needs and features that you want your town to have. If you are having trouble, try to answer these questions:

• How are people going to move around the city/town?
• Who is going to live in your town?
• What do people/kids do to have fun?
• What is your town known for?
• Where is your favourite place to go in your town?

Plan out where each of your features will be in your town. Draw and colour them in.

Were you able to include everything that you wanted to? If you didn’t have enough space, what would you remove from your city? If you had more space, what would you add?

Game Night

Supplies:

• Items and games around the house

Plan a fun game night event for the people in your household or your friends over video chat. When planning your game night, try to answer the following questions:

• What games does everyone like to play?
• Who will play the games?
• Will there be snacks?
• What time will this event start and finish?
• Will you need any equipment?

After your event, write down what went well and what could have been planned different. This could become a weekly event at your house.

Space Survival Mission

Supplies:

• Paper
• Pencil

Pretend you are a member of a space crew that has landed on the moon. During landing, your ship suffered some damage that has left the ship unable to move. You were supposed to meet up with the mother ship approximately 500 km away.

Below is a list of the 15 items that you have in your ship. Rank these items in order from most important "1" to least important "15".

• Box of matches
• Food concentrate
• 50 feet of nylon rope
• Parachute silk
• Portable heating unit
• Two pistols
• One case of dehydrated milk
• Two 100lbs tanks of oxygen
• Stellar map
• Self inflating life raft
• Magnetic compass
• 20 litres of water
• Signal flares
• First aid kit, including injection needles
• Solar powered FM receiver-transmitter

Answers are listed below.

Review Questions:

• How does it feel to plan something from start to finish? (Feel)
• If you could do one thing different as mayor of your own city or planning game night, what would it be? (Think)
• How will you take the skills that you learned today and use them each day? (Act)

Mindfulness Trivia Answer

B) 18 inches

Activity 3 Answers

15 - Box of matches; Virtually worthless - there's no oxygen on the moon for them to stay lit
4 - Food concentrate; Efficient means of supplying energy requirements
6 - 50 feet of nylon rope; Useful in scaling cliffs and tying the injured together
8 - Parachute silk; Provides protection from the sun's rays
13 - Portable heating unit; Not needed unless on the dark side
11 - Two pistols; Possible means of self-propulsion
12 - One case of dehydrated milk; Bulkier duplication of food concentrate
1 - Two 100 lb. tanks of oxygen; Most pressing survival need (weight is not a factor since gravity is one-sixth of the Earth's - each tank would weigh only about 17 lbs. on the moon)
3 - Stellar map; Primary means of navigation - star patterns appear essentially identical on the moon as on Earth
9 - Self-inflating life raft; CO2 bottle in military raft may be used for propulsion
14 - Magnetic compass; The magnetic field on the moon is not polarized, so it's worthless for navigation
2 - 20 litres of water; Needed for replacement of tremendous liquid loss on the light side
10 - Signal flares; Use as distress signal when the mother ship is sighted
7 - First aid kit, including injection needle; Needles connected to vials of vitamins, medicines, etc. will fit special aperture in NASA space suit
5 - Solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter; For communication with mother ship (but FM requires line-of-sight transmission and can only be used over short ranges)​​