Confidence building games for students (Top 5)
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This blog focuses on the importance of confidence and the various confidence-building games suitable for students in an academic setting.
Confidence building games for students
- Proud of me
- Talent show
- ‘I am’ activity
- I am afraid to but
- The flipbook of mistakes
- Sentence completion
Confidence is the belief and positive regard an individual has towards oneself. It also refers to one’s ability to succeed and get past obstacles.
Confidence building develops at a very young age. Toddlers and preschoolers are often curious about everything around them and express their curiosity to know and learn by asking ‘why’ questions.
Through experiences and understanding how their actions affect their environment and the way they are being treated shapes the way they see themselves and builds their capacity to possess control.
When kids feel good about themselves and their achievements their self-confidence builds up.
When kids begin schooling they see how there are comparisons being made in class and how competitive the system is. They understand how others are good at things and vice versa.
They also see how teachers and their peers respond to them and all of this shapes how they see themselves and their level of confidence.
Students tend to develop self-confidence, not just but praises they receive from their parents, peers, and teachers but by their accomplishments.
As they go ahead and complete tasks and achieve goals they tend to feel accomplished and have the urge to do more when rewarded.
By encouraging them to enter new situations (like participating in sports and extracurriculars) students tend to get a sense of familiarity with how they need to prepare themselves and show results in activities that interest them.
They begin by trusting in their own capabilities and also develop how to handle situations where they aren’t successful.
This takes place when they develop healthy ways of building self-confidence and it can be done by introducing confidence-building activities for students from their primary schooling.
Parents do play a huge role in the confidence-building process. Children tend to model and imitate how their parents react to situations.
By modeling self-confidence and seeing parents tackle tasks with positivity and optimism children tend to build an idea of how to deal with new situations and obstacles.
This doesn’t mean that parents have to pretend to be perfect all the time. By acknowledging failures and the anxiety that kicks in and working around it helps children understand that failures are a part of the learning process.
By helping kids see that everyone makes mistakes and learns from them is another possible way of instilling self-confidence in them.
Rather than dwelling on mistakes, helping them see that it is a way of learning how to do the task might help them open up to you if they ever do make a mistake.
By encouraging them to try new things and not being hard on them if they make errors is another way of self-confidence building. This also helps in learning new skills and exploring the areas that they are good at.
Attaining new skills increases their capacity to tackle obstacles that might come their way.
Parents need to be open to their children trying new activities that are safe in nature. It is natural for parents to feel the need to protect their children from facing failure, but by allowing them to fail kids learn and even develop strategies to do better next time.
Sometimes all they need is some positive reinforcement and encouragement that they can complete the task at hand.
Learning not to give up at the first failure of pressure or frustration that may stem out of the task or activity is an important life skill. This helps in building resilience and self-esteem which is closely linked to self-confidence.
Children tend to build a sense of identity when they try to explore through activities and tasks. Building their identity and making sense of it and understanding where they stand is an important aspect of building confidence.
Kids tend to have desires and dreams that they might express and sometimes they might not. Finding these out and guiding them in converting these dreams to actionable goals and encouraging them to accomplish them helps tremendously in building confidence.
By assigning them tiny roles and giving them age-appropriate work (by asking them to pick up toys at home after play, and asking them to monitor the class or dust the blackboard in class) helps in building a connection with them.
At first, they might complain but when they are given tiny tokens of reward and praise they tend to feel valued and accomplished which also builds up confidence.
By letting them know that it’s okay to be imperfect and have flaws helps bring down the whole idea of being perfect all the time.
Children need to be taught that all the happy, successful, perfectly dressed they see on TV, magazines and social media is a fantasy and that people do have flaws and it makes them all the more unique.
Reminding them that being less than perfect is human and it’s completely okay to so reduce the urge for them to be hard on themselves when they do not succeed in a particular task and enables them to try again.
Validating their interests and letting them know that they have the capacity to achieve their goals does boost their confidence level.
Confidence building games for students
- Proud of me
- Talent show
- ‘I am’ activity
- I am afraid to but
- The flipbook of mistakes
- Sentence completion
Proud of me
Directions: This game can be used as an introductory activity/ icebreaker when students are in a new classroom setting.
Students should stand up and introduce themselves by saying, “My name is and I am proud of me because…” and state a possible reason or two as to something they are proud of themselves.
This might sound like students are bragging, but this confidence-building game for students does make space for them to look at themselves in a positive light.
This also enables students to see the value in the reasons they are stating and in themselves as well as in their peers and that they are all unique in their own way.
Talent show
Talent shows are a fun space for students to display an activity that interests them and something they are good at. Students can choose to perform individually or form groups.
Talent shows can take place for an hour every week at a designated time allotted to just games.
Students get the chance to show their talents in front of their peers and this might encourage them to take part in bigger competitions that take place in school and this can help in building more confidence.
‘I am’ activity
Directions- Ask students to list down words that describe themselves. The words can be positive or negative in nature.
Then ask them to focus on the positives that people have told about them and how it made them feel about themselves.
By asking students to list down positive words and adjectives that they feel about themselves and they have heard, they feel a sense of self-affirmation and that they have positives even if there are negatives that exist.
It also helps in reinforcing positive beliefs about oneself which is an important factor in building self-confidence.
“I am afraid to… but..”
Directions- Ask students to list out the things they are afraid to do.
The sentence should begin with “I am afraid to” and then the student must list a particular task or activity that they are afraid to perform.
The next step would be asking students to visualize themselves performing the activity.
The student is then asked to write down the possible outcomes if they perform the particular task or activity if they tried it.
Next to the negative outcomes, students are encouraged to list the positive outcomes that might come about after they perform the activity or task.
In this confidence-building game, students learn to address and face their fears and devise possible ways to work around the negative outcomes that they are afraid of by addressing the fact that they have positive outcomes to look forward to as well.
The flipbook of mistakes
Directions- Students are asked to list down the mistakes that affected them. Alongside the mistake from the past students need to list possible reasons for the failure.
Teachers can encourage students to come up with effective solutions and how they could have possibly coped better with the given situation.
This confidence building game enables students to help learn from their mistakes and turn those mistakes into accomplishments
Learning from one’s mistakes is an effective way of building confidence. Rather than dwelling on it, devising strategies to face similar situations can help students boost their confidence and feel accomplished.
Sentence completion
Directions- The stem/beginning of a sentence is given to each student. For example, “I am good at _____”.
Students are asked to complete the sentence with the first thing that pops in when they read the stem and share it with the rest of the class.
The main purpose of this confidence-building game is to enable students to feel comfortable and worthy of themselves while sharing how they feel with their peers.
By engaging students in these games to boost their confidence, they are reminded of their abilities and self-worth. Parents and teachers have a great influence in building a child’s confidence levels.
Using this influence in the right direction helps in bringing about positive affirmations and worth in a child.
Most importantly, recognizing, helping kids understand, and working through inevitable mistakes is the most effective way to build confidence.
Frequently asked questions
What are some confidence-building activities?
Confidence building activities include-
focusing on strengths and also addressing mistakes and working towards dealing with them,
rewarding and reassuring oneself for taking steps towards your goal,
expressing your feelings and needs,
taking some time off to meditate, and
then plan and learning about topics that are of interest to you.
How can a student build self-confidence?
A student can build self-confidence by practicing self-acceptance, being aware of one’s needs, focusing on accomplishments even if they are tiny, setting goals, seeking out positive experiences, reward systems.
What are some examples of self-confidence?
An example of self-confidence would be an artist knowing that he or she is good at the art they make. It’s being able to trust one’s ability to perform the activity and excel in the same.
What causes a lack of confidence in students?
Lack of confidence can be a result of poor academic performance, current stressful events such as relationship breakdown, or financial difficulty. Poor treatment from the caregiver could be another possible reason.
How do you show confidence?
Confidence can be shown by maintaining eye contact when necessary, allowing and being comfortable with silences, avoiding fidgeting, and speaking at a slow and clear pace.
References:
Sagari Gongala. (2015, June 17). 8 Simple Activities To Build Self-esteem In Children.
MomJunction.https://www.momjunction.com/articles/increase-self-esteem-in-your-child_00357511/
Child Confidence Building Activities and Games | Superprof. (n.d.). We Love Prof – IN. Retrieved June 24, 2021, from https://www.superprof.co.in/blog/games-activities-to-build-child-confidence/
Self Confidence Games | Synonym. (n.d.). Classroom.synonym.com. Retrieved June 24, 2021, from https://classroom.synonym.com/self-confidence-games-7878124.html
17 Best Confidence Building Activities and Games For Youngsters. (2019, July 30). Edsys. https://www.edsys.in/best-confidence-building-activities-and-games/
Logsdon, A. (2007, November 8). A Game to Boost Your Child’s Self-Esteem. Verywell Family; Verywellfamily. https://www.verywellfamily.com/develop-self-esteem-with-interactive-games-2162838
12 Tips to Raise Confident Children | Building Self-Esteem. (n.d.). Child Mind Institute. https://childmind.org/article/12-tips-raising-confident-kids/
Building confidence in children – Be You. (n.d.). Beyou.edu.au. https://beyou.edu.au/fact-sheets/social-and-emotional-learning/building-confidence-in-children
What is Confidence? A Definitive Definition. (2019, May 29). The Rediscovery of Me. https://rediscoveryofme.com/confidence-definition/
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