Key Messages
- It is important to express your own feelings clearly and to be able to ask for help if other people are behaving in a way you don’t like.
- We have different interactions with different people in our lives.
Learning Intention
Students will:
- Identify situations, including types of touch, that make them feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
- Identify types of relationships where touch would not be appropriate.
Time
30 minutes
Required Resources
- Class set of ‘Welcome With a Kiss' Worksheets.
Teaching Notes
This worksheet and discussion are important as it explores what students can do if someone greets them by kissing or hugging (or touches them in any way) that they do not like. It links into the next teaching sequence which looks at personal safety.
Procedure
- Begin by asking the students if they can think of different ways to greet someone.
- Make a list of these ideas.
- Ask students if you greet all people in the same way (e.g., your grandma and the Prime Minister).
- Explain that there are ways to greet people that are formal, casual, that demonstrate intimacy, and behaviours that are reserved for helping strangers (police, school crossing attendant etc.). You may
wish to highlight that some cultures use other ways of greeting one another too. - Hand out the worksheet and read the instructions with the class. Point out that there might be more than one correct answer for each question.
- The worksheet can be completed in class or as a homework task.
- Discuss the completed worksheet.
- Conclude the session by asking students what they would do if someone were too familiar in their greeting.
Questioning
- Why do we reserve kissing and hugging for people we are close to?
- Are some types of greetings more formal than others?
- How does it make us feel if people use some greetings with us when we do not know them well?
- Has COVID changed how people touch/greet each other?
- Do some people in the class feel differently about some of these greetings?