Can Your Child "Play It Fair"?
01-02-2016, 02:44 PM
Back in November, Equitas approached us to see if
we are interested in participating in a 'Play It Fair' workshop. Equitas is an
organization that promotes the advancement of equality, social justice and
respect for human dignity in Canada and around the world. Thier mission is to
provide individuals with necessary tools to shape positive attitudes and
behaviours through transformative human rights educational programs.
West Richmond was chosen as one of the few
to be part of the 'Play It Fair' pilot. Part of the pilot includes a toolkit,
which helps to promote human rights, non-discrimination and peaceful conflict
resolution within non-formal education programs for children. The toolkit helps
reinforce the positive values that derive from the fundamental principles of
human dignity and equality contained in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. The 7 values promoted by the toolkit include:
● Cooperation
● Respect
● Fairness
● Inclusion
● Respect for Diversity
● Responsibility
● Acceptance
Each week, the kids will be introduced to a value
with a corresponding game or activity, followed by a discussion on
their thoughts, feelings and how they can relate the value discussed in the game into other aspects of their lives. Through these activities and discussions, we are hoping to get them thinking
about the world in a larger scale and give them a sense of empowerment.
For the first week, we touched upon the value of
“cooperation”. Matt introduced the game “A Thousand Hands Drawing” to our
group. The kids were split up into six groups. Each team was given a marker with
six strings attached to it and a large piece of paper. Each child was told to
pull on the end of one of the pieces of the strings. The child who didn't have a string was the “caller” and was tasked with providing directions for his or her team. When all of the strings were stretched out, the
marker created a “sun” shape. The object of the
game was to draw a picture or write a word as a team. The purpose of the
activity was for the children to experience solidarity and teamwork and to think
about how working together can help us achieve goals and how everyone succeeds
through cooperation.
The first task was to draw a circle. 
The second task was to draw a straight line.
The third task is to write “hello”.
The fourth task was to draw their interpretation
of art. Lastly, they were asked to write the word “cooperation”.
Afterwards, we followed the activity with a mini
discussion. Matt asked the kids how they felt about the activity and whether they thought it
was easier when they worked together. We had a wide range of results. Some kids
said it was easier when they worked as a team to achieve the objective.
However, Adrian mentioned that he felt he had a difficult time because of all
the strong personalities on his team; everyone seemed to have a different
approach and wanted the other team members to follow their own respective ideas.
Overall, the activity was interesting because we all had the chance to see
the different dynamics in play.
This will be a continuous project so be on the
lookout for other activities in the following weeks! Ultimately, we hope the
kids will be able to take away ideas and perspectives after the pilot is over.
If you have any questions about the toolkit or our activities, feel free to
comment below or talk to one of our staff members in person.
Until next time,
Monica
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