Awareness Week Upper Primary School Activities

Transcription

1 Awareness Week Upper Primary School Activities Walking with Refugees Teaching Strategies and Resources

2 Green Children Simulation: Note: Teacher takes on 3 different roles mayor, Mr Brown and green child. It is a good idea to have 3 different hats to represent these different characters. A bell can be used to call the town meetings. It is effective if the teacher stands on something as the mayor when making the announcements/answering questions. This simulation is designed that the town members (students) get into their character with lots of gossip at the town meetings. It would be a good idea to prepare the students for the town meetings and what is expected of them after they have their roles. The idea is for them to ask questions or spread rumours in relation to their role no matter how ridiculous eg. Baker they had a bun from my bakery yesterday, does this mean that all my food is now contaminated as they have been in my shop? Video shop owner We have a DVD of some green people and they ate human flesh Teacher can circulate with the students to help stimulate conversation. Gossip sessions can last up to 5 min. On a large piece of butchers paper, construct a basic town plan. In one corner, locate Mr Brown s farm, on the opposite corner locate the caves/rocks. As a class collaboratively give the town a name and construct the town plan including everything a town needs eg. School, hospital, takeaway shop, supermarket, hairdresser etc. Students choose a role to play from the people needed on the map eg. Baker. The teacher (you) is the Town Mayor. Children get into character by writing short profile of themselves as their new character. Have children make and wear name badges indicating their new role. Prepare the students by telling them that you are going to call a number of meetings. Their role is to ask many questions and busily talk/gossip about the news that the mayor gives in relation to their role. Mayor (you) calls town meeting and town people gather greeting each other. Mayor announces that the meeting has been called to discuss the green children that were found on the rocks starving. Townspeople gossip. Mayor is here today to answer questions. More gossip and then question time. Mayor is undecided on whether the green children are harmful or not to the community. Continued..

3 Children reflect and draw pictures of what they think the green children look like. Mayor calls another town meeting to announce that one green child got sick and died. Gossip. Teacher puts on different hat and becomes Mr Brown. Town people ask questions of Mr Brown. (Mr Brown cares for the green children and is trying to help them.) Towns people create 2 lines. Green child (teacher with another hat) walks down the centre. As teacher walks past students they state a sentence towards the green child telling them how they honestly feel about him/her. Sit as a class and discuss feelings. Connect simulation to the plight of refugees. How might someone feel in a new country? What difficulties might they have? Discuss what is important to your identity, what makes up your identity and how important is it to have an identity. Draw and cut out silhouette faces of children. Stick on labels that give the children their identity. What happens if this or part of this was taken away? Students write a diary entry depicting how they felt during the simulation. Discussion Starters: Photocopy Discussion Starters included in pack (they can also be downloaded from the CD). These resources will enable you to discuss with your students a range of issues concerning poverty, refugees, and the Bhutanese refugee crisis in Nepal. Journal: Imagine you are one of the Bhutanese refugees in one of the seven Refugee in Nepal. Write a journal about your journey to Nepal? Why were you forced to go there? What were the conditions like on arrival? Have the living conditions improved since you arrived? What is moral like in the camp after so long? Do you have much hope of returning to Bhutan in the near future? What you and your family think about resettling in a third country (like Australia, USA or Canada) as a refugee until the situation is sorted out? What are your hopes? What are your dreams?

4 Symbolic Sculpture: Collect some items that the refugees would have had to leave behind. Arrange them on a table. Distribute tape, glue and scissors to the students. Create a sculpture as a symbol of what they think the refugees would have to give up include things such as photos, books, toys, cups etc. whatever you have available or is appropriate. Create a label for the sculpture and display in a prominent place. Debate: Children prepare and perform a debate about the refugee situation: Refugees should be allowed into Australia to enjoy the free life that is offered. Ethnic Origins: Have students research their family s ethnic origins. Develop a scenario where the family has moved back to their country of origin and been put in to a refugee camp. Students write about what it would be like to be in a country they know nothing about, but grossly restricted in what they are able to do. Relate the scenario to the Bhutanese refugees living in refugee camps in Nepal. Venn Diagram: Using the Venn Diagram provided (also available on CD), have students look at the similarities and differences between Bhutanese and Nepalese cultures. To make it even more difficult, add in India as a third country. Improvements Key: Using the Improvements Key sheet provided (also available on CD), have students think about the issues of receiving refugees in Australia. Students can consider how refuges are disadvantaged, and how their lives could be improved. Bone Diagram: Using the Bone Diagram sheet provided (also available on CD), have your students consider the present and what is in store for the future of the Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal. They will need to consider the positive and negative factors of the refugees life currently, and how their desired future could be achieved.

5 X-Chart: Using the X-Chart sheet provided (also can be downloaded off CD), have the students consider four scenarios for the refugees: Stay in the Refugee in Nepal until the governments of the Nepal and Bhutan reach some sort of conclusion. Return to Bhutan as citizens with rights as they had before. Re-settle in Nepal starting over as refugees. Accept Refugee status in a third country (such as Australia, USA or Canada). One group of students could look at the positive side of each of these, while another could look at the negatives. Have them discuss the outcomes for the people in each circumstance. What Can I Do?: Challenge students to consider if each individual person can make a difference to justice issues in the world. What do they think? Have students list things they can do to make a difference. Eg. Become aware of and involved in justice issues Millennium Development Goals; Make Poverty History; The Micah Challenge Value education Keep learning! Learn to read, reason and communicate to make informed choices and understand events Talk to people that are different from you Help refugees to resettle in Australia help with English skills and just being a friend Learn your rights and that of other people Find your voice Fundraise through ALWS towards he Awareness Week Projects in Nepal (See fundraising sheet.) Find bible verses that enlighten us on how God wants us to consider those affected by issues of injustice. (See worship sheet for clues! )

6 Boy Overboard by Morris Gleitzman Book Review: Take an adventure with Jamal and Bibi as they experience what it is like to leave their home and begin the journey of a refugee. Sometimes to save the people you love you have to go overboard. Chapter questions available for download on CD in Awareness Pack. For more teacher resources go to: SBN= &Author=Morris+Gleitzman Board Game/Maze: Design a board game writing in the plight of a refugee have the ultimate goal that the refugees are able to find their way home. Templates can be found at: puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/ Use the included maze to find the way home from Nepal to Bhutan for the refugees. Taken from: morrisgleitzman.com/books/ fst_intro_bo.htm Speeches: Students write a speech that they would like to deliver in parliament or at the United Nations about the plight of refugees. Include some positive solutions to the problems that refugees encounter. Share with the class Calendar: Make a calendar (available at using the photos available on the CD included in the Awareness Pack. Each time a person glances at it, checks a date, or writes something on it, the awareness of the Nepalese Refugees will be heightened. United Nations Teaching Materials Human Rights and Refugees: Print out four posters (colour is best) to complete the activities from the UNHCR website. Included is a black and white copy and the teachers notes to plan from. They are excellent. Go to

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