As I have already mentioned in my first post about this amazing British Council project we have been working on with my 5th graders, for some time now…..
We draw a human body on the whiteboard.
” about a month ago, I found out that I had to teach in ….Greek ,during the so called “Flexible Zone” of the greek primary schools, which has to do with projects oriented learning , for about 2 hours every week. I had to think hard before I made up my mind and finally decided to work on a British Council project, called “Life Skills”, which sounded both promising and challenging! I also decided ,to do part of the project, in english! ”
The right of education for all!
The right to religion! Haha
Br
Playing games to practice the rights vocabulary
Life Skills are not something new; they are a set of basic skills
that enable us to effectively manage the challenges and questions
we face in our daily lives. They include confidence, assertiveness,
decision-making, and the ability to stay safe
and healthy.
Schools are uniquely placed to play a key role in promoting
and sustaining young people’s emotional and social health,
as part of their role in providing a rounded quality education which helps pupils to gain the confidence they need to develop into successful adults.
The following second activity, is a copy from the British Council manual for trainers and teachers with recommended activities !
My students are getting more and more excited every day and ask me to keep working on this project for as long as possible! They seem to be highly enganged and happy working on it! I feel blessed that I was given the chance to work on something so creative with them, this year!…
In this second stage, students will create a Social Contract.
Students:
• will discover their rights and obligations through their
own need to live a happy life
• will feel personally responsible for upholding human rights and become committed to safeguarding and claiming them
A piece of cardboard cut into the shape of a tree
1. A piece of cardboard cut into the shape of a tree
2. Coloured paper cut into the shape of leaves
or fruit and tree roots
My students are getting more and more excited every day
• We draw a human body on the whiteboard.
• We ask the students to tell us the characteristics
and traits a person should have in order to feel fulfilled
and happy. We write down the words or draw them on or next
to the human body (e.g. education near the head, emotions
near the heart, food and water near the mouth).
• We discuss with the students which characteristics
and traits we need to survive, which to develop
as personalities and which to make our lives better.
Freedom of speech
• We draw a tree on a piece of cardboard and stick it on
the wall. We give students pieces of paper shaped like leaves
or fruit and ask them to write on them the human rights related
to the human characteristics and traits we have drawn.
When they have written them all down, we check to see
whether there is any right we may have missed.
• We then explain to them that in order to safeguard
our rights, we all need to fulfil certain obligations as individuals.
We give students pieces of paper shaped like roots and ask them to write on them the obligations that each one of us should have.
Learning the relevant vocabulary in english with the help of posters.
Using anagrams to guess the english words.
Deep thinkers!…
A bunch of highly motivated students!
The characteristics and traits a person should have in order to feel fulfilled and happy
Students feel personally responsible for upholding human rights
The human rights related to the human characteristics and traits we have drawn
• When our tree is ready, we ask the group whether
it is satisfied and agrees with the result. If the answer is Yes,
we ask each student to place their signature on the tree,
and show in this way that they are committed to respect
human rights, claim them and to undertake their responsibilities.
Actually, I decide to add a few activities to the original ones!
Fisrt, we played a guessing game using drawing and miming with the rights vocabulary both in english and in greek! It proved to be loads of fun!
Later, I taught them all the rights and responsibilities vocabualry in english and played a teams guessing game with them using anagrams!
Finally, we decided to make a collage using our rights vocabulary and simple drawings!
Placing our leaves on the tree!
We give students pieces of paper shaped like roots and ask them to write on them the obligations that each one of us should have.
The tree roots
We ask each student to place their signature on the tree
They are commited undertake their responsibilities
Our responsibilities are the roots of our rights tree!
They are committed to respect human rights
Coloured paper cut into the shape of leaves
Working on our Rights collage.
A beautiful collage!
ELT inspired 