Hey, That's Not Fair!

It was a new week with a new aspect of Play It Fair introduced to the Senior OSC group: Fairness!

Last week we focused on fairness by playing the 'bead game'. Each player was given an envelope with beads in it and was told to go about the room playing rock-paper-scissors with other players. The winner was given a bead from the other person and both players moved on to play again. However, if at any point someone had no beads they were asked to sit on the carpet and were considered out of the game. Simple enough right? Here's the twist - the envelopes had varying amount of beads in them, so some players found themselves out much sooner than others. For every 1 envelope that had 10 beads there were 10 envelopes with only 1 bead. Though some kids noticed right away (some even shared their beads with friends) most had no idea why they had less than others. 

As Play It Fair is not complete without a discussion, when there was a small amount of children left (each with quite a lot of beads) we sat everyone down and had a quick but enlightening conversation. We started with the basics (did you like the game? etc) but soon kids were starting to pick up on the real point of the game - fairness. Nathan raised his hand and when called upon he simply stated, "Life isn't always fair."  This opened up a discussion about how some children have a different number of beads in their envelope compared to others. Rory commented that even when we are upset because our xbox was taken away, we should realize that there are other children out there who have much less than us. As fun as it is to play weekly games, it's always great to see the kids really understand the purpose of Play It Fair. 

The following is a review gathered by our own Johanna containing her own thoughts and some opinions from other kids about last week’s Play It Fair game.

 “I was one of the kids who had started with one bead and was out within a minute, but the life lesson (life is not always fair) taught me something and hopefully others too.”

-Johanna (JoJo)

                 

“I ended up having 11 beads. It felt great to not go to the carpet (the out zone). When Matt said that not everything is fair and explained some things, I felt bad for the people who are less fortunate.”

-Angel                

“I started with 10 beads and finished with 6. When I lost so many beads it made me think that I would end up on the carpet. What I took away from this lesson is that life is not always fair and that some people on the earth are less fortunate”.

-Annette              

That’s all for this week.

Until next time,

Brianna (and Johanna)

Just How Loud is "The Loudest Game In The World"?

Hello Senior OSC families,

As Monica mentioned last week, we have introduced an initiative called Play It Fair, where we play games that are themed around the human rights of children, and prompt discussion following the game. 

This week, our core value is respect. We played a game called "The Loudest Game In The World". Sounds exciting, doesn't it?! It was a game similar to telephone, where a message or phrase is supposed to be passed from one side of the room to other. One group of kids would try to yell or transfer the phrase "unicorns are awesome", to the group of kids on the other side of the room, while the remaining 35 kids in the middle would do everything they could to try and stop that message from being delivered. What ensued was loud yelling and big hand motions, and the large group of kids was successful in preventing the phrase from reaching its destination. 

We had a great discussion afterwards about how it felt to play the different roles in the game. We brought real life situations into the discussion, and talked about how sometimes there is so much going on that you might need to find other ways to effectively and respectfully communicate. 

We will keep rolling with a new core value next week!

 

 Cheers

Ryan

Can Your Child "Play It Fair"?

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