Creativity in the Classroom: KS2 Online Safety Activity

Welcome to our Creativity in the Classroom series! In this series, we share some of our favourite activities, games and challenges to stimulate creative learning on curriculum topics. All ideas come from our online teaching resource, Uno. To find even more engaging activities and interactive videos, visit the Uno website and sign up for your free trial! 

Hello and welcome to Safer Internet Day 2021! To mark this hugely important time in school calendars, we want to share one of our favourite KS2 Online Safety activities. Looking for an activity for KS1? No problem, we wrote about that last week!

We all know that the internet can be a super fun place where we chat to our friends, play games and find out new information. But did you know it’s also an emotional place? It’s true! Think of how you feel when you share a joke with your friends online, or what it’s like when you lose a round on the latest game. Just like real life, the internet is a place where we might feel happy, sad or any emotion in between.

KS2 Online Safety Activity: Emotional Gaming 

This activity is best once your class has already had an introduction to the topic of online gaming. They should be able to discuss both its benefits (fun, sociable, educational etc) and potential downsides (online bullying, sleep deprivation, difficulty managing emotions etc).

• Divide your class into groups of four, five or six. Give them a challenging emotion and ask them to create a still image of people playing online games where they might encounter this feeling. Encourage clear facial expressions!
• Ask some questions of the rest of the class. What emotions are they people in this scene experiencing? Why do you think that is?
• Discuss some simple actions these people could take to make sure gaming stays fun. For example, they might like to take a break, go for a walk or take some deep breaths.
• If the problem is long term, what could they do then? Perhaps learn to finish playing a game while they’re still enjoying it, or tell a trusted adult.
• Finally, in pairs, role play a YouTube style video to help other children know what to do if they become too emotional while playing games, and how to stop it in the first place. Think about how YouTubers engage their audience and encourage vibrant phrases and facial expressions!

To develop this activity, the group may like to develop a before and after still image and see how each scene changes. Could they improvise a scene that links the still images? What might each character say and do?

If you’d like to learn more tips for improving Creativity in the Classroom, take a look at our online teaching resource, Uno. This easy-to-use website is packed with interactive videos and teacher guides on a wide range of topics. Please get in touch to find out more and begin a free trial for your school.