About this activity
Twelve habits sorted into healthy and harmful: drinking water all day, taking a voice break, moving closer instead of shouting, resting after singing, clapping instead of shouting and telling an adult when your voice hurts are healthy; yelling across the playground, clearing your throat over and over, talking over loud music, whispering for a long time, cheering at the top of your lungs and coughing hard on purpose are harmful.
How to use it in a session
Spend the time on whispering, which almost every student places in the healthy column. It is the single most useful correction on the board — whispering brings the folds close without vibration and costs more effort than a soft voice. Notice that the healthy column is full of substitutions rather than prohibitions: clapping instead of shouting, moving closer instead of raising the voice, which is the shape every recommendation should take.
What to listen for
Watch which harmful habits the student recognises in themselves. Sorting the cards is easy; naming the one they do at break time is the useful step and where behaviour change starts. Notice telling an adult when your voice hurts, which is a self-advocacy item hiding in a hygiene list and is often the one that has never occurred to them. Habits are worth changing and they are not a substitute for finding out what is going on. A student hoarse for more than about four weeks should be examined by a physician, ideally an ENT, first.
Carrying it home
Families can supply the substitutions rather than the prohibitions. A water bottle within reach, and a rule about coming closer instead of shouting between rooms, are both easier to keep than an instruction to be quieter.
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Kindergarten through eighth grade, which is a wide range because the habits are the same at every age.
- Do I need an account?
- No, all twelve items play free.
- Why is whispering in the harmful column?
- Because it is not resting the voice. It brings the folds close without full vibration, which is often more effortful than speaking softly with voice — which is the substitution to offer instead.