Lesson Plans

Being both teachers we often try to incorporate some of the ideas of helping others into our classroom activities.  Below are a few of those ideas that you may find useful.  They are not all specifically about Nepal or the Orphange, but they all emphasise topics such as peace, sharing etc...

Elementary or High School

1.  Arm wrestling Game

Ask another student to sit across a desk from you, and demonstrate an arm wrestle.  Explain that each ‘win’ (getting the other person’s hand on the table) will be rewarded with candy, stickers, points, or whatever you have available.

Form the kids into pairs, and give them 30 seconds to play.  (get them to remember the amount of points they each score.) 

Then demonstrate again with the teacher, this time showing a ‘win win’ solution – simply touch your hand on the table, then swap, continuing until the 30 seconds is up.  This way you both receive an equal number of candies.

After this, you could write two words on the board, maybe WAR and PEACE, or PEOPLE WHO HAVE and PEOPLE WHO HAVE NOT.   You could then brainstorm on the words and see what ideas the kids come up with.  Emphasising that it is better to have a win-win situation where everyone is equal, rather than a win-lose struggle where ultimately one side/one person/one country gets more than the other.

2.  Simulation Day/Class

There are a variety of ways you could approach this.  Get the whole school involved or just your class.  The aim is for students to directly experience a little of what it feels like not to get as much as another person, or to feel hungry or to get food that is bland.

Organise a party and tell students to bring in different items.  Some kids bring in candy/chocolate/pasteries (any yummy stuff),  others bring in plain boring food (stale bread/ water/old fruit) whilst others bring in nothing.  You could do a raffle with each kid either getting a lot, a little, nothing, bland etc..

If you keep it a secret and watch the kids reactions it will provide great material for discussion.  It would also be a good idea to do it when the kids are feeling a hungry already.  And probably its a good idea to hold back a few things a nd share them out when the class is finished.

You could also pre-warn parents and students and try to do it for a whole school day.  You would be sure to get a lot of discussion and reaction out of it.  maybe the parents could come in for the day as well.

3.  Origami

A great way to explore the message of peace and helping is through listening to the story of Sadako (a Japanese girl involved in the Hiroshima bombing) and making cranes with the children.  (instructions at www.sadako.org)  You could even ask each child to write a message of peace on their crane and send it to Hiroshima.