Setting healthy boundaries is crucial for building strong, healthy relationships. Boundaries help us convey our preferences. This helps others understand our needs and prevents conflicts and unhealthy relationship patterns from arising. Teaching kids to establish and maintain physical and emotional boundaries in real-time at an early age is important. It equips them with the necessary skills and knowledge to cultivate healthy relationships and become emotionally mature adults. Here are 26 group activity ideas to help kids set healthy boundaries!
1. Watch A Video
This fun and engaging video introduces kids to the meaning of boundaries, setting a physical boundary, and maintaining one’s personal space. It teaches different concepts related to personal boundaries through a story that will keep children hooked.
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2. Do A Role-Playing Exercise
This activity teaches children about different types of boundaries such as personal and professional boundaries. It also includes a simple role-playing exercise that helps children learn the concepts in a hands-on way. The activity ends with a set of questions that allow kids to reflect on the exercise.
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3. Learn About Boundaries In Relationships
This activity features circle charts and worksheets that help kids define various kinds of relationships and the types of boundaries in relationships that we must maintain.
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4. Do Practice Exercises
This worksheet offers excellent tips to help you know and set your boundaries. It also includes statements and actionable steps that kids can use in practical situations to support their boundary-setting practice.
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5. Reflect And Learn
In this activity, kids will learn to identify and set physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional boundaries and pay attention to their feelings. It also includes other boundary-setting practice exercises and reflection questions that help kids apply their learning to real-life situations.
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6. Learn The Boundaries Song
The Boundaries Song is a wonderful way to teach kids about setting boundaries in public spaces. It also provides statements that they can use to support their learning and help them become more assertive about their personal space.
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7. Read A Book
Encourage kids to set boundaries with other kids whilst reading, “The Not-So-Friendly Friend: How To Set Boundaries for Healthy Friendships”. It helps children develop self-awareness and emotional intelligence as well as stand up for themselves in a social context.
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8. Turn To Art Therapy
This drawing activity relies on art therapy to help young minds understand how boundaries work. It helps them define and create firmer boundaries and avoid unhealthy relationships that result from poor boundaries.
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9. Play Games
The “Practice the Cactus Counseling Game” features board games and card-matching games that teach kids about personal space. It helps them develop healthier boundaries and learn about acceptable and unacceptable behaviors in social contexts.
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10. Use A Personal Space Target
This personal space target helps kids learn about boundaries through different circles in which they can draw, write, and stick photos. It also shares tips on how to set firmer boundaries and stay away from unhealthy relationship patterns.
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11. Color Pictures
This coloring book helps kids learn about personal space and privacy in a spatial context while having fun with colors. It allows them to exercise their creativity while developing emotional and social intelligence.
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12. Tell A Story
Teach your kids about personal space and other social skills through a fun story. It will hook their attention fully and help them learn better.
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13. Read More
Encourage children to read more with Jayneen Sanders’ book, “Let’s Talk About Body Boundaries, Consent,and Respect.” It teaches them about body ownership, feelings, respect, choices, and recognizing bullying behaviors.
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14. Consult A Flyer
This eye-catching flyer lists clues that help kids understand if they are invading someone’s personal space. This allows them to master body language and avoid inappropriate behaviors in a social context.
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15. Sit On A Mat
Get kids to sit on a mat while they read, complete an art project, or finish their homework. Tell them that the edges of the mat represent their personal boundaries which no one may enter without their consent. Ensure that they don’t cross someone else’s boundary without their permission.
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16. Fill In The Blanks
This worksheet includes a definition of boundaries, tips for establishing them, and statements to assert yourself in a social context. It also has blank spaces where you can write your own statement about boundaries to guide you in specific situations.
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17. List Barriers To Boundaries
Kids will write a list of beliefs or worries that are holding them back from setting boundaries. Let them fold the piece of paper and place it in a bowl. Ask them to pick a random sheet and then share how they relate to what’s written on it. Everyone can share simple ways to overcome various worries and beliefs. This improves boundary-setting, empathy, self-awareness, and problem-solving skills.
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18. Do Fun Exercises
All About Boundaries: Teaching Children About “Drawing the Line” is a workbook. It provides 121 lessons, group activities, and worksheets that teach young minds to establish boundaries and recognize those of others. Some activities include a puppet show, writing a letter to oneself, and sending a telegram about boundaries.
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19. Do Literary Activities
This comprehensive lesson plan includes many fun activities like listing exercises, word searches, fill-in-the-blank exercises, coloring, and more. Kids will quickly master the concepts of personal space and boundaries with the help of these enjoyable activities.
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20. House of Boundaries Game
Like the game “Clue,” the House of Boundaries is a game where players must find out who killed a friendship, where, and what weapon they used. It uses the analogy of a house with many rooms to teach kids about setting healthy boundaries in different relationships.
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21. Draw A Circle Chart
Get kids to draw a circle chart; depicting their circle of friends. They will need a large piece of paper, pencils or felt tip pens and photos of their loved ones. Once they finish the exercise, ask them questions to help them build on their learning and analyze boundary-setting in a spatial context.
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22. Describe And Communicate Personal Boundaries
This teaching plan is an excellent refresher lesson on boundaries. It also boosts kids’ learning by having them share examples of different types of boundaries. It also teaches them about the need for communication regarding their boundaries in romantic relationships.
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23. Do A Word Association Exercise
You’ll need an assortment of colored pens for this activity. Have your learners write “No” in the center of a piece of paper and prompt them to notice their body’s immediate responses, thoughts, and feelings. Next, they can write a list of things they wish to say “No” to in their lives.
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24. Use A Safe Word
Discussing boundaries with kids and teaching them safe words is an excellent way to improve their boundary-setting practice. When kids feel like someone is invading their privacy they can use a safe word that they are comfortable with. Alert the kid’s family or teachers about this safe word.
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25. Teach Boundaries With Hula-Hoops
This exercise uses hula hoops as visual aids to teach kids about personal boundaries and safety in public spaces. Make each child hold a hula-hoop around their waist. Tell them that the hula-hoop symbolizes their personal space and that they must maintain that much distance between themselves and other people. If one kid wishes to cross another kid’s hula-hoop boundary, they must seek permission.
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26. Create A Chart
Kids can recreate and hang this chart as a visual reminder to maintain boundaries. It includes a statement on boundaries and steps for various situations to guide them in their boundary-setting practices.
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