Sharing isn’t always easy. Considering the reduced amount of time our students got to spend together during COVID-19, sharing may be an even bigger challenge for children than ever before! This includes both the sharing of our belongings and the sharing of our thoughts and ideas. Below, you will find 25 activities to strengthen your elementary school students’ sharing skills and abilities.
1. Jungle Gym Outdoor Play
Playing on a jungle gym can be a great physical activity for kids during recess time. It will engage your students’ sharing skills as they wait their turn to go down the slide, swing across the monkey bars, and climb the ladders.
Learn More: The Jerusalem Post
2. Crafty Show & Tell
Show and Tell but with a twist! Your students can bring in a craft or piece of art that they have created. This fantastic sharing activity is a great way to showcase artistic talent in your class.
Learn More: Kreative in Life
3. Robot Building Station
Materials and resources are not always plentiful and sometimes this can work to our advantage in reinforcing sharing skills. Set up a robot building station with limited available materials. Encourage your students to find a fair way to share what items are available.
Learn More: BuzzFeed
4. My Family Traditions: Class Book & Potluck
Learning about family traditions can be an excellent transition into sharing activities. Students can share their family ancestry and traditions in a class book. The unit can be finished off with a small potluck for a yummy afternoon snack.
Learn More: Read Write Think
5. Start a Little Free Library
Take a book or leave a book. This helpful resource can have great benefits for students by demonstrating the value of sharing and giving them free access to books to read.
Learn More: Little Free Library
6. Pass the Story
An activity requiring teamwork is an excellent way to bolster collaboration and sharing skills. Your students can create a group story by taking turns writing 1-2 sentences each. The fun comes out of sharing the story creation and seeing what your friends wrote!
Learn More: Beyond the Chalkboard
7. Funny Flips
This fun game is an amusing grammar practice that can be completed as a group. Each student will fill out a column of words (noun, verb, adverb). After finishing, flip around the different parts to have a good laugh!
Learn More: What Do We Do All Day?
8. Exquisite Corpse Drawing
This one is similar to funny flips but you get to draw! Students can share in creating these imaginative works of art. Each student can be assigned the top, middle, or bottom sections, or create their own full corpse.
Learn More: What Do We Do All Day?
9. Synchronized Drawing
When your students realize what fabulous art they can create together, they might not want to stop! Your students will also refine their motor skills as they carefully follow and copy their partner’s pen marks.
Learn More: What Do We Do All Day?
10. Role Play Sharing Scenarios
Role play can be an effective activity for children to develop important life skills, like sharing. Gather some students to create short role-play scenes about sharing and not sharing. You can follow this up with a classroom discussion.
Learn More: Meaningful Mama
11. Decorate a Share Chair
Sharing isn’t just about sharing your toys and belongings. Sharing is also about communicating your thoughts and ideas with others. A share chair can be a designated spot for students to share their favorite work, writing, or art with their classmates.
Learn More: Fifth Grade Frenzy
12. Think-Pair-Share Activity
Think-Pair-Share is a well-established educational technique that can add value to your activity planning. After you ask a question, your students can THINK about the answer, PAIR up with a partner to discuss their answers, and then SHARE with the class.
Learn More: Hey Teach
13. Mingle-Pair-Share Activity
This fun group communication activity is an alternative to the think-pair-share method. Students will walk around the classroom as the music plays. When the music stops, they must pair with the closest student and share their answers to whatever question you ask.
Learn More: We Are Teachers
14. Share School Supplies
Communal school supplies can be a great practical demonstration of sharing in your elementary student classroom. Whether that be a caddy of supplies at each table or a classroom supply corner, your students will learn to share with each other.
Learn More: The Bossy House
15. Cooking Time
Cooking is an essential skill and can be a great way to practice sharing and cooperation. Your students will need to share the recipe, ingredients, and kitchen tools to complete the task. Alternatively, they can bring home the recipe and cook it as an activity with their parents.
Learn More: Semi-Delicate Balance
16. Read “Nikki & Deja”
Reading can be a great everyday activity for children of all grade levels. This beginner-chapter book is about friendship and the harms of social exclusion. Remembering to be inclusive to your peers and share your friendship is another huge skill your students can learn.
Learn More: Reading Middle Grade
17. Read “Jada Jones – Rockstar”
Sharing your ideas can be scary because people may dislike them. In this kid’s chapter book, Jada experiences this dilemma. Your students can learn how to better cope with disagreements through this engaging story.
Learn More: Reading Middle Grade
18. Read “We Share EVERYTHING”
For your younger students, a picture book about sharing may be more appropriate than a chapter book. This hilarious story shows readers the extremes of sharing and why it is not always necessary. Check out the link below for other great children’s books about sharing.
Learn More: 22 Children’s Books About Sharing
19. Equal Sharing Worksheet
Learning to share also means learning how to divide! This division worksheet will support your students’ basic math skills by requiring them to equally divide items.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
20. Play a Trivia Game
My students love good competition! You can try a team game, like Trivia, to entertain and teach your students why sharing and collaborating within a team can be so valuable. Everyone will need to share their knowledge for a better chance at victory.
Learn More: Parade
21. Pros & Cons List
Sharing is an important social practice but it is not always good. You can try creating pros and cons list about sharing with your class. This can act as a helpful resource for students to decide when it is best to share or not.
Learn More: Noisy Classroom
22. Shared Writing
Shared writing is a collaborative activity where the teacher writes the story using shared ideas from the class. The complexity of the story can be adapted to different grade levels.
Learn More: Read Write Think
23. Play Connect4
Why play Connect4? Connect4 is a simple game appropriate for all grade levels. This is one of many games for sharing that requires your students to take turns.
Learn More: Rainy Day Mum
24. Learn Songs About Sharing
Listening to music in the classroom is a stimulating activity for children. This is a great sing-along you can use to teach your kids about why sharing is important.
Learn More: Affies4Kids
25. Watch “The Duck Who Didn’t Want to Share”
Watch this short story about a duck, Drake, who acted selfishly to keep all the food to himself. By the end of the story, he learns that he is happier when he shares the food with his friends.
Learn More: Latter Day Kids
Activities On Responsibility For Elementary Students: Roleplays, Games, Discussions, And Resources