Life Skills - Page 4 of 11 - Youth Workin' It

Grocery Store Scavenger Hunt – Life Skills For Teenagers

September 6, 2012 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

Last week’s session idea gave ideas on how to teach food shopping life skills to teenagers. This week continues the theme with a grocery store scavenger hunt.

The aim of this session is to help young people learn more about the cost of food. This is done by having them find various premium brands during the grocery store scavenger hunt and noting down their price, then finding similar products by other brands/store brands that cost less.

Resources

Scavenger hunt list (see below)
Pens
Clipboards (not essential, but useful)
Calculators (they should have this function on their phones)

Preparation

Put together the scavenger hunt list. This should be split into two columns – the left column should list some premium brands and have space for youth to write down the cost of the item, while the right column should be left empty so they can write down the alternative brands and their prices.

How To Organize

Take your youth to a grocery store – the larger the better, as this will mean they have a greater variety of products to choose from. Depending on how many young people you have, either split them into teams or have them go around the store individually.

As they’ll be out and about representing your youth group/project, remind them of any group agreement or behavior policy that you have. Set a location and time to meet up once they’ve completed the scavenger hunt.

Provide each team/person with a copy of the grocery store scavenger hunt list, along with a pen (and clipboard if applicable). Explain that they need to find all the premium branded items on the list and write down their cost; advise that this should be written down in the left column.

Once they’ve done this for an item, explain that they need to find a similar product of a similar size/weight, but which is cheaper. They should then note down the name of the brand (or if it’s a store brand) and the cost.

Evaluation

Once they’ve completed the scavenger hunt, get the young people to total up both columns. Next, have them calculate the difference between the two columns and get the teams/individuals to compare each others’ different totals.

Finally, facilitate a discussion about food shopping on a budget and get their observations on what they learned during this activity regarding the cost of food. Do they think that the premium brands are worth paying that much more money for?

Grocery Store Scavenger Hunt List

The list can be as long or short as you like; this will also vary depending on how much time you’re allocating to the scavenger hunt itself.

We know our readers are based all over the world, so it’s hard to provide a list of items as brands will vary by country. Here are some suggestions of items to list though given that they’re global brands (as far as I’m aware anyway!)

Heinz Tomato Ketchup
Newman’s Own pasta sauce
12 pack of Coca-Cola cans
Salt & Vinegar Pringles
Nutella
Nutri-Grain bars
Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes
Dannon Activia yogurt
Tropicana orange juice
Nacho Cheese Doritos
Green Giant frozen sweet corn
Ben & Jerry’s chocolate fudge brownie ice-cream

Tip

Contact the grocery store in advance to advise them of what you have planned. They’ll no doubt appreciate being given a heads-up as to why there’ll be a number of teenagers wandering around their store with no basket or shopping cart!

They may even be willing to have someone at their store offer advice about food shopping, coupons, meal planning, etc.

If you’ve found this idea helpful, check out our other scavenger hunt ideas on this site, plus our food label scavenger hunt idea on our sister site.

We’ve also published 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas – a book with all the scavenger hunt activities that you’ll ever need. Pick up your copy now from Amazon or direct from us.

Question: What other items would you include on the grocery store scavenger hunt list? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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3 Youth Unemployment Solutions (And Why It Matters)

September 5, 2012 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

We’re starting a new series on Wednesdays that compiles some of our previous posts. We’ve published hundreds of posts over the last year, so you may have missed some of these (shocking, I know!)

This first compilation covers some youth unemployment solutions by providing tips on how to help young people gain a job:

1. Youth Unemployment – Does It Matter? – This post from the early days of Youth Workin’ It’s blog looks at whether we should be concerned about the youth unemployment rate more than the unemployment rate that encompasses people of all ages (spoiler alert – we should)

2. Job Interview Attire For Youth – Before they go for a job interview, young people need to know what to wear. The first of our youth unemployment solutions has a number of activities to organize to help your youth identify appropriate interview clothing, including how to find cheap job interview attire.

3. How To Conduct A Mock Interview – Now that your young people know what to wear, it’s time to practice their interview skills. This youth work session idea on how to conduct a mock interview has suggestions on how to give your youth this essential practice, along with ideas of who to partner with in order to perform these mock interviews.

Mock interviews can be extremely useful in helping unemployed young people gain the confidence they need, while also providing them with vital feedback on what they need to change to become more employable.

4. The Retweetable Job Interview Resource – After conducting the mock job interviews, your young people may have received feedback that they weren’t concise enough in the interviews. If that’s the case, the third of our solutions for youth unemployment could be just the thing to help them.

The purpose of the Retweetable Job Interview Resource is to help young people practice being concise when being interviewed. This enables them to convey the main points of what they want to say without waffling on, or going off on a tangent and not answering the question they’ve been asked.

Question: What other youth unemployment solutions have you used to help young people get a job? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

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Life Skills For Teenagers – Food Shopping

August 30, 2012 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

In the past, we’ve covered many different life skills for teenagers, one of which was a session on meal planning. Another life skill that’s important for youth to learn is food shopping, so that’s what we’ll be covering in both this week’s and next week’s session idea.

There’s actually a lot you can cover when it comes to teaching young people about buying groceries, so we’re just going to focus on a couple of important areas these two weeks.

General Food Shopping Tips

Print off a list of these tips to give out to all the youth. If possible, laminate the lists so that they’re more likely to keep them afterwards.

Don’t go grocery shopping when hungry
Check use by dates, particularly on chilled items and bread
Buy chilled & frozen food at the end of the shopping trip so that they don’t get warm / defrost
Compare prices of premium brands vs cheaper brands/store brands
Compare unit prices (e.g. $1.35 per 100g for smaller pack vs $1.13 per 100g for larger pack of the same item)
Shop in the evening to take advantage of reduced price meats that can be frozen down
Look at products on all levels of shelves, as expensive items are often placed at eye level to encourage you to buy them, with cheaper brands on the top or bottom shelves instead
Consider buying in bulk so that you can cook in bulk and freeze down meals
Plan meals in advance and the ingredients that you’ll need to cook them
Make a list of items you need and stick to it (suggest using apps like Evernote if they think they’re likely to forget to take a paper list with them)
Check mail, newspapers, etc for coupons
Sign up for membership/loyalty cards if grocery stores have them (emphasize the difference between a membership/loyalty card and credit cards, as they may be encouraged to sign up for a credit card inadvertently at the checkout)
Check nutritional information on packaging
Don’t take advantage of promotions like “3 for the price of 2” if you only need one item
Take a calculator with you (or use one that’s on your phone)

Add any extra tips that you can think of. Next, allocate one of these points to each young person (or split them into smaller groups to discuss if you have a larger group).

Ask them to spend some time considering why their point is important to bear in mind when food shopping, then have them present their thoughts to the rest of the group. Alternatively, each point could be covered in a group discussion where the whole group considers each point together.

Finally, have your youth try to come up with their own tips of food shopping life skills for teenagers. If they come up with a number of additional ideas, make a note of them and give them an updated laminated list at your next session.

Question: What other food shopping tips would you give to youth? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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Flea Market Scavenger Hunt

August 23, 2012 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

Our youth scavenger hunt ideas always prove to be popular, so this week we have another one for you – a flea market scavenger hunt (for UK readers, think car boot sales).

There are a couple of ways this can be run:

With money – If budget is no issue, consider giving each team $10-$20 to buy as many items as they can from the list
Without money – To save money, this could be run as a photo scavenger hunt instead, whereby the teams take photos of the items instead of buying them

Resources

Money (if youth will be buying the items)
Cameras (if youth will be taking photos of items instead – cellphone cameras should be fine)
Flea market scavenger hunt list
Pens
Projector, screen & laptop to display all the photos at the end (if going down the photo route)
Prize(s) for the winning team

Instructions

Take your young people to a flea market / swap meet / car boot sale. Split the youth into teams and allocate a leader to go with them. Your group may be old enough to do this activity without leaders going with them, but it’s a great opportunity to spend time building relationships, so we’d always recommend having at least one leader per group regardless.

Each group should be given a copy of the flea market scavenger hunt list (see below) and a pen – this enables them to check off each item as they go along. If they’re to take photos of the items, make sure each team has at least one camera. If buying the items, ensure each team is given the money before they head off.

The youth will be representing your group while they’re out and about, so remind them of your behavior policy, group agreement, etc. Be sure to emphasize any boundaries of where they can and can’t go, as well as the need to stay together as a team.

Finally, arrange a time and location for them to all meet at the end – perhaps at a snack stand or by the exit. To encourage them to arrive on time – or so that they don’t cheat by trying to spend more time than other groups completing the list – consider warning them that their team will be deducted 1 point for every minute that they’re late.

Flea Market Scavenger Hunt List

The great thing about organizing a scavenger hunt to be done at a flea market is that you can make the list as weird and wonderful as you like – chances are someone will be selling it!

If you’re going to be having your youth buy the items on the list, bear in mind that you’ll need to list items that won’t prove to be too expensive. There’s no point listing a bunch of expensive items if they’re only going to have $10 to spend. Having said that, this could be a perfect opportunity for them to learn some life skills in negotiation and bartering!

Like I said, the list could contain anything but here are some ideas to get you started:

Postcard with a black & white photo design
Michael Jackson cassette tape
Book by Agatha Christie
Brown plate with a yellow flower decorative design
An item dated 1986
Green spoon

Also consider making a list of a few additional items that they can earn bonus points for. These items should be more subjective, such as:

Funniest T-shirt design
Vinyl album with the cheesiest cover sleeve

Cassette tapes…..vinyl albums…..this is going to blow the minds of the Spotify generation 😉

Winners

The winning team is the one with the most points at the end. If you’re going to give them a prize, consider buying something from the flea market – the more ridiculous the better!

If you liked this idea, check out our other scavenger hunt ideas, as well as our youth work session ideas. We also now have another site that publishes multiple scavenger hunt ideas each week.

Don’t miss out on our book as well – 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas – that includes lists for each of the 52 ideas. You’ll never need to come up with your own lists again!

Question: What items would you add to the list for a flea market scavenger hunt? Share your ideas in the comments below.

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Media Literacy Activities For Young People

August 9, 2012 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

Can your youth trust what they see on here?

“But Miss. Women like to be controlled by their men. It says so in that Mary J Blige song.”

This was an actual comment spoken to Shae at one of her groups this week. Ironically, it was while they were covering media literacy! We therefore thought that this week’s youth work session plan idea should provide some media literacy activities for young people.

What is media literacy?

Before you start running any of these activities, ask your young people “What is media literacy?” To help them define this, split the phrase into its two separate words and get them to define both “media” and “literacy”.

When defining media, get the youth to list all the different types of media they come across – music, TV, movies, newspapers, internet, magazines, billboards, adverts, video games, apps, etc.

Once they’ve defined what “literacy” is, get them to put the two definitions together so that they have a better understanding of the answer to “What is media literacy?”

Next, look at these different types of media and explore some of the messages that they communicate. Have the young people think critically about these messages:

Do they have some kind of bias?
What message are they sending?
Is their message true?
Why might this type of media not tell the truth about a situation?
Do you think they have any ulterior motives
Can you trust this type of media?

Media Literacy Activities – Music

There are all kinds of songs that you could use to explore media literacy. One example we thought might be useful is Poker Face by Lady Gaga, as you can use it to explore the issue of media literacy and sexuality due to the lyric:

And baby when it’s love if it’s not rough it isn’t fun

Ask your youth what message this lyric is sending about sex. Is it true? Go through the other questions listed above.

Media Literacy Activities – Internet

When Shae was doing a lesson on alcohol awareness this week, she told them that contrary to popular belief, alcohol doesn’t make you sleepy. One of the young people responded “That’s wrong – it does make you sleepy. Just check on the internet”.

Although we joke that “you can’t trust what’s on the internet”, to a large extent we do trust what’s on there. Here are a few ideas though of ways you can explore with your young people whether they can trust what’s on the internet:

Facebook status updates of friends
Twitter trends about celebrity deaths
Banner ads that say you’ve won a special prize
Blogs
Wikipedia

Media Literacy Activities – News

In theory, news can fall under all different types of media – internet, TV, newspapers, etc. – so this can be looked at from many different angles.

One suggestion for exploring this issue is using newspapers. Get copies of newspapers that provide a contrast to the political divide. For example, in the US you could use the Wall Street Journal for a right-wing outlook and the New York Time for a left-wing outlook. In the UK, you could use the Telegraph for right-wing and the Guardian for left-wing.

Find a story (preferably with a political slant) that’s reported in both newspapers. Have your young people identify what aspects of the story are the same in the papers and what aspects are different. Are opinions presented as facts? Is there emotive language used to make an argument to the readers?

To generate further conversation, ask your young people what killed Whitney Houston. Many of the early news reports stated that it was due to drug abuse, so this is what’s often believed. The coroner’s report though stated that although cocaine use was a contributing factor to her death, she died from accidental drowning. Ask your youth why news reports were so keen to suggest that her death was due to drug use rather than as an accident.

Media Literacy Activities – Advertising

There are so many examples that you could use with your youth, but here are a couple to get you started:

1) Nutella – There was recently a class action lawsuit against the makers of Nutella, as one of their adverts was deemed to have falsely given the impression that it was more healthy and nutritional than it actually is. I know, a chocolate spread with nuts in it isn’t healthy?! Here’s more about the story with a 2 & 1/2 minute video explaining what happened.

2) Smoking – Looking back, TV ads about smoking were ridiculous but at the time many people believed they were safe/had health benefits. Show the video below to your young people and see what they think about it. Can they think of any adverts nowadays that seem to espouse benefits that they think are untrue?

Media Literacy Activites – Movies

Again, there are all kinds of different movies that you could use to explore the messages that they send. Depending on the issues you’re working on with your young people though, this could be a good opportunity to address the issue of porn and how it affects their perception of sex and relationships.

Do they think porn movies accurately reflect relationships? If working with males, ask them if they think that women like to be treated the way that they are in porn.

Question: What media literacy activities would you run with young people? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments below.

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