Reflection: Paper airplanes

Here are examples of the kinds of reflection questions you could ask:

What?

• How did you feel while doing the activity?
• How did you feel when your airplane did not go as far as other airplanes?
• What was frustrating about this activity? What was fun or easy?
• Did you adjust your strategy part way through? If so, from what to what, and why?

So what?

• Do you have an example of a time when you had to work with others on a joint project?
• What worked well in that situation?
• What did not work well?

Now what?

• What would you do differently next time if you had to build a paper airplane?
• What would you do differently next time if you had to work with other people to build or design something?

As you design other SEL activities with adolescents, we wanted to direct you to some helpful resources:

LEGO Foundation Playlist: Collection of “fun learning through play activities designed to help children develop skills for life.”

SenseAbility: Designed for adolescents between 12-18 years, “SenseAbility is a strengths-based resilience program” that includes curriculum materials for implementing the program within a classroom setting. However, individual activities and reflection guides can be used when working with adolescents in other settings as well.

Step by Step: Designed for classroom instruction with children between 6-17 years, “The Step by Step toolkit was developed by the World Bank with external contributors to equip teachers with resources that can help their students better understand and manage their emotions, thoughts, impulses and behaviours, form and sustain positive relationships, and make the most out of life by making responsible decisions and pursuing meaningful goals.”