Cover lesson · Health and Well-being · Year 2 · Intermediate

Sending kind messages online

DCF: Citizenship → Online behaviour and online bullying

Cover teacher: you need no subject knowledge

What this practises: noticing how online messages make other people feel, telling kind messages from unkind ones, knowing what to do about unkind messages, and writing a kind message of your own. Tasks 4 and 5 are real literacy: pupils spell and write words and a short sentence, and you can mark them from the sheet.

Print: the activity sheet (page 2 of this file), one per pupil, and the stimulus sheet “Alys’s pretend tablet screen”, one between two, or show it on the board. No computers are needed. Alys, her classmates and the drawing wall are invented. Do not ask pupils to share real unkind messages they have had; if a pupil tells you about one, pass it on to the class teacher or the school’s safeguarding lead in the usual way.

Run: 5 min Step 1, kind and unkind · 8 min Step 2, read the screen · 8 min Step 3, Task 1 · 8 min Step 4, Task 2 · 8 min Step 5, Task 3 · 8 min Step 6, Task 4 · 12 min Step 7, Task 5 · 3 min Step 8, share. Total 60 minutes.

Collect: the activity sheets. Tasks 1 to 3 show the digital skill. Tasks 4 and 5 are the literacy evidence: the copied words and the kind message pupils write themselves. Quick checks: kind messages are 1, 3 and 5; unkind are 2, 4 and 6; the good ideas in Task 3 are the 1st, 3rd and 5th.

Teacher script

Read the words after Say aloud.

  1. 5 min Kind and unkind. Say: “Words can make people feel happy, or sad. That is true when we talk face to face, and it is true when we send messages on a tablet or computer. The rule is the same: be kind.” Ask: “What could someone say to you that would make you feel happy?”
  2. 8 min Read the screen. Show the stimulus sheet. Say: “This is a pretend screen. Alys is in Year 2. She put her dragon drawing on her class’s drawing wall, and other children wrote comments.” Read each comment aloud. Message 5 ends Da iawn, which means “well done” in Welsh.
  3. 8 min Task 1: kind or unkind. Say: “For each message, circle the happy face if it is kind and the sad face if it is unkind.” Read each message again slowly. For message 6, ask: “Is leaving someone out kind?”
  4. 8 min Task 2: how does Alys feel? Say: “How would Alys feel after Ffion’s message? And after Mabli’s? Draw her face and copy a feelings word.” Read the word bank aloud.
  5. 8 min Task 3: what should Alys do? Say: “If someone sends you an unkind message, it is not your fault. Do not send an unkind message back. Tell a grown-up you trust.” Read each idea aloud and let pupils tick the 3 good ones.
  6. 8 min Task 4: kind words. Say: “Trace each kind word, then write it on your own. Say the sounds as you write.”
  7. 12 min Task 5: write a kind message. Say: “Write a kind message to Alys about her dragon. Start with: I like your dragon because. Remember a capital letter at the start and a full stop at the end.” Pupils who finish try the challenge.
  8. 3 min Share. Say: “Who would like to read their kind message? How do you think Alys would feel?”

Activity sheet · Health and Well-being · Year 2

Sending kind messages online

Name: Class: Date:

1. Kind or unkind?

Listen to each message. Circle for kind or for unkind.

1
F Ffion: I love your dragon! The colours are great.
2
D Deio: That is the worst drawing ever. Ha ha.
3
C Cai: Well done Alys. Can you show me how you did the fire?
4
M Mabli: Nobody wants to see your silly pictures.
5
H Hari: Your dragon looks friendly. Da iawn!
6
O Osian: Don’t let Alys play with us at break.

2. How does Alys feel?

Draw Alys’s face. Copy a word from the word bank.

Word bank: happy · proud · sad · worried · cross

After message 1 from Ffion
Alys feels
After message 4 from Mabli
Alys feels

3. What should Alys do?

Tick the 3 good ideas.

Tell a grown-up she trusts, like Mam, Dad or her teacher.
Write something unkind back.
Show the message to her teacher.
Keep it a secret and feel sad on her own.
Do not reply to the unkind message.

4. Kind words

Trace each word. Then write it on your own.

kind
happy
great
friend

5. Write a kind message to Alys

Look at Alys’s dragon. Write a kind message about it.

I like your dragon because

Challenge: change Deio’s message 2 into a kind message.