24/05/2025
One year, my fourth grade teachers asked me to do one last lesson with their students (after our official end of the year transition lesson). They needed a little SEL boost, the teachers and students needed a break from one another, and I was more than happy to have some bonus time with them. The catch? Zero time to plan or prep.
Enter: "Find the Clip!" It’s great for any time of year as a filler activity or the whole shebang.
Here’s how you play: Everyone sits in a circle. You show them the largest clip. They close their eyes and you clip it onto someone (shoe tongue, pant hem, sleeve, scrunchie, etc). Tell the students to open their eyes, stand up, and silently walk around to try and find the clip. When they find it, they discreetly go back to their seat (trying their best not to be obvious about who they saw it on!). The person with the clip is pretending to look for it as well. This first round is done when everyone is sitting except the clip wearer. Then repeat with a smaller clip, and a smaller clip, and so on until you’re out of clips or time!
After the last round, I asked my students: “How does this activity connect to what we talk about in here? How is what you just did related to friendships, feelings, your identity, or moving to middle school?”
Here were some of their answers:
💡 Perseverance
💡 Sometimes you have to pay attention to people because their thoughts and feelings might not be obvious
💡 Being the clip wearer can be like if someone feels invisible to others
💡 It’s hard but you can always find the good even if it’s really tiny
It was awesome! Super fun but still low key, and a great brain stretch for them.
