Activity Box

The Activity Box includes useful tools and resources to help you as you work with adolescents. These range from in-depth guidance and instructions for running activities, to quick and easy ideas to motivate participants.

Use and adapt them to make your sessions engaging and fun!

Search the Activity Box

The Activity Box includes:

• Activity Guides: 50 step-by-step guides to activities that you can adapt to adolescents’ needs and interests within sessions in each of the Four Phases, as well as Circle Building activities that can be used in any of the phases. Corresponding Portable Activity Cards provide a quick reference for each activity.
• Energizer Cards: 20 cards with instructions for short, fun games or restful activities with adolescents in the middle or at the start of sessions. These are designed especially for the Starting Our Circle phase but can be used as warm-up activities in other phases.
• Inspiration Cards: Inspiring ideas for quick activities to keep adolescents motivated and interested.
• Facilitator Tools: Useful tools for planning and facilitating sessions with adolescents, including a topic bank with a list of additional ideas that can be integrated into activities and emotion cards to help adolescents identify and communicate their emotions.

How to use the Activity Guides

Choose activities based on the phase that you and adolescents have chosen for their activities. Each guide indicates which phase the activity will work best in. The phases are:

Circle building activities can be used in any phase and may be especially helpful as adolescents get to know each other, begin projects, and take on other challenges together. These activities help adolescents collaborate, set and pursue their own goals, and prevent and positively transform any conflicts that arise as they work together.

Tip: Look through all of the Activity Guides, not just the ones related to your Adolescent Circle’s current phase, to get new ideas as you plan. You can adapt activities for phases other than the one indicated.

Choose activities based on adolescents’ goals for the competencies they want to develop. Each Activity Guide indicates at least two competency domains that adolescents will learn, practise and use when participating in that activity.

Consider the sequence of activities as you plan. Vary energetic and quiet activities, especially for adolescents in the Starting Our Circle and Knowing Ourselves phases, to support their psychosocial well-being. For adolescents in the Connecting and Take Action Phases, use the Before and After section of the guide to understand how to create a sequence of activities for adolescents to work together on group projects carried out over several sessions.

Select and adapt activities for adolescents based on their circumstances and context. Choose activities that can work well for adolescents based on their level of literacy and readiness to take on complex challenges. Consider the type of space (e.g., indoor, outdoor) in which adolescents participate in sessions. Adapt activities so they can work for all adolescents, including those with disabilities.

Use the information in the Activity Guides to prepare for activities. Be sure you have the materials you need. Prepare to follow up after the activity and give adolescents more time to practise competencies they have learned, or to use the ideas and materials they generated in future sessions or projects.

Be creative! Improvise with the ideas offered in any Activity Guide. Invent a new activity using the template, or challenge adolescents to create their own activities! Contact us to share your experiences

Ideas and activities database

Search here to find guides and ideas for simple and complex activities for adolescents with different interests, including easy games, ways to practise new skills, and steps for young people to plan and lead projects themselves.