Keep hope alive

Activities by Topic

Choice and Consequence

Consequence Relay

Students brainstorm the sorts of choices they can make. The teacher makes note of these. Divide into two teams. The teacher reads a choice to the first person on each team who quickly decides whether the consequence of that choice will be happy or sad. The student then runs down to the opposite end of the room where two objects sit: one representing “happy” and the other “sad”. The student touches the correct object, then runs back and tags the next student in line on their team. That student then is given a new choice by the teacher, determines the consequence, and repeats the process. The team who finishes the list of choices first wins.

•  A variation to this game is for students to be divided into two teams and the teacher reads aloud the choice. The first person on each team must run to the blackboard and draw a happy face or sad face on the board depending on what they think the consequence will be.

Stick Balance

Ask a student to try to balance a stick on their hand while looking at the bottom of the stick. Then have the student try again this time looking at the top of the stick. They should be able to balance it for a little longer. Explain that looking at the bottom of the stick was similar to making decisions based upon the present without looking to the future. For example: choosing to drop out of school, choosing to do drugs, choosing to have sex before marriage. These choices are made by only looking at what someone wants NOW not looking to the future. Have students talk about goals they have for the future and discuss choices that might interfere with achieving these goals.

Perspective Puzzle

Roll a piece of paper into a narrow tube and have a student try to look through the tube at a picture they have not seen before (for example one of the Stay Alive curriculum pictures.) They should be able to see just one small section at a time. Next have them look at the picture without looking through the narrow long tube. Talk about perspective. Not until you see the whole picture do you really understand it. Making decisions based on a limited perspective might have serious consequences. Have the students think of examples from their lives in which they have made a decision without all the necessary information.

Building a Strong House

Ask for two volunteers. Give each volunteer a collection of small pieces of local building materials. Give one student material that is in good condition: i.e. sturdy blocks, small straight sticks or strong straw for thatch. Give the other student inferior materials, i.e. crumbling bricks, bent or broken sticks or thin thatching materials. Ask the volunteers to build a small hut or house with their items. After they are done ask the class which house they would rather live in. Which one looks stronger? Explain that the building materials represent the consequences of the decisions we make about our lives. Our carefully thought out choices are like the superior building materials: If we make good choices we have a strong, healthy, safe and happy future and life. If we make bad decisions we have only inferior materials with which to build our life house and it is not strong, healthy or happy.

The Stick Analogy

Have the students put a small prickly stick in their waistband or inside their shoe in a place that will be irritating. Have them walk around for a minute. Ask them how it feels. Making choices that have bad consequences is like putting that stick in your clothing. The stick is like the bad choice, the pain and discomfort are like the consequences. Although the consequences are uncomfortable, we must live with them every day.

Rock Guessing Game

Choose one student to be the leader. Have him or her stand in front of the class. Have all the students stand. The leader hides a small rock in one of his/her hands. The teacher asks the students to guess which hand the rock is in (students raise whichever hand, right or left, they think the rock is in). When the leader reveals the rock, all the students that guessed correctly get to take one step forward. Then they guess again and again until someone reaches the leader. Ask the students why they didn't all guess correctly every time. The reason was that they didn't have sufficient information to help them guess. Is guessing a good way to make choices? No, making choices based on knowledge is better.

Wise/Foolish Choices

Bring a hat, shoes and a shirt to class. Put the shirt on your head and ask, “Is this how we should wear a shirt?” It would be foolish to wear a shirt on your head because then it wouldn't protect your torso. Put the hat on your foot. Ask, “Is this how we wear a hat?” It would be foolish to wear a hat on your foot because then it wouldn't protect your head. Put the shoes on your hands and ask, “Is this how we should wear shoes?” It would be foolish to wear shoes on your hands because then they wouldn't be protecting your feet. Talk about how choices about what to wear can be wise or foolish. For example, it would be wise to wear shoes on sharp rocks, but foolish to wear those shoes while bathing in water. We make many choices each day. Foolish choices can harm us and make us unhappy or unhealthy, wise choices help keep us safe and make us happy.

Thumb Game

The teacher reads the list of choices generated in lesson one and as each choice is read, the students put their thumbs up if the choice has happy consequences and their thumbs down if the consequence is sad. If some of the choices do not produce clear happy or sad consequences, you may tell students to place their thumbs sideways to indicate caution or reflection before making that choice.

Finger Game

Everyone gets a partner and stands facing their partner. Have the students put their hands behind their backs. When you count to three each person brings their hands to the front holding up some combination of fingers. The object of the game is to add all four hands of fingers and yell out the answer before your partner. The winner of each round pairs up with someone else and the losers sit down until you have a single winner. Then, you have a discussion about the “tricks” of winning. The trick is to know how many fingers are on your hands already so that all you have to do is add the number of your partners' fingers to your own number. Deciding beforehand what number you will have (especially 10, 5, 2 or 0) makes it quite easy to win. The point to stress is that deciding before you are faced with a choice or decision makes making that choice or decision much easier. This can be applied to any choice. We should think about important decisions we will have to make in our future and decide NOW what we will do. Have the students come up with possible decisions that they can make now (stay in school, don't do drugs, don't steal, don't have sex before you are married, etc.)

I Choose To/I Choose Not To

Have the students sit in the center of the classroom. Have one side of the room represent “I Choose To”. Have the other side of the room represent “I Choose Not To”. Read a list of situations and choices and have each student run to the side of the room they feel best fits the situation.

Happiness

Happiness Tree

Pass out large leaves or pieces of paper cut to the shape of a leaf. Draw a picture of a big tree; be sure to draw the roots. Have the students write on their leaf something that makes them happy. Have them attach the leaves to the tree. Then talk about how HIV/AIDS and bad decisions like promiscuity, anger and violence, unhealthy habits, stealing, dishonesty, or forcing others' can attacks the tree at the roots. Eventually the leaves die and fall off. Making choices to protect happiness will ensure that their tree and all their happinesses remain whole and healthy.

Chant

Write a chant about what things bring happiness and how you can preserve it.

Family

Happy Family Pyramid

Make blocks that can be labeled with important attributes that make a happy family. Have the students make suggestions (i.e. respect, loving, cheerful, listens, trustworthy, responsible, honest, manners, chores, shares, etc.). Then have the students build a pyramid with the blocks, deciding which attributes are most important for creating a happy family on the bottom as the foundation. Then take away a few of the bottom blocks and talk about what happens to a happy family if some of those important attributes are gone.

Family Web

Have the students sit in a circle. The first person takes a ball of wound up string, wraps the end around their finger, and tells one way that a family can make them happy. Then they throw the ball of string to another person across the circle. That person wraps a bit of the string around their finger and tells one way a family can make them happy and throws the ball to someone else. This continues until everyone has caught the ball of string and shared a way a family can make them happy. Then have the students look at the “web” their string has made. Explain that they are all connected and the “web”is strong. If desired a light-weight ball could be bounced on the string “web” and a discussion can take place about how families are connected by the things they do for each other and that makes them strong.

Family Ball

Have students sit in a circle. Have one student hold a ball and say one way a family can make them happy, then throw the ball to another student and have them say one way a family can make them happy, they then throw the ball to another student. Continue until everyone has had a chance to catch the ball and share a way families bring happiness and safety.

Hand Help

Ask for a volunteer. Have them come to the front of the room and try to pick up some items using only one finger from one hand. Next have one or two more students come up and assist in the task, each using only one finger. The family is like a hand. When we all work together, things are better.

Creating

Think of ways your students enjoy expressing themselves creatively and ask them to represent things they have learned about families in those ways, such as:

•  Write a poem about how a family can bring happiness.

•  Write the letters of the word FAMILY (or the name of a loved one) going vertically down a page and fill in with loving thoughts about family. For example:

F–fun to be with

A–asks for forgiveness

M–makes me feel happy

I–isn't selfish

L–loves me no matter what

Y-yearns to be together

•  Write a song about the things healthy families do together

•  Write a chant about loyalty and respect within a family

•  Make a play about the things that have been discussed to present to the families of the students.

Love/Anger

Dramatizations

•  Divide the class into three groups. Have students look at the pictures at the beginning of the lesson and have each group pick a picture and act out what they think is happening. Have them demonstrate the picture using appropriate displays of anger or affection.

•  Have the students think of someone they love and have them write a scenario about a way they can show their love and then role-play it.

•  Write down different situations where students might feel anger or love. Have a student come to the front of the room and choose a situation, read it, and then act out that situation using appropriate expressions of anger or love.

Jar of Anger

Obtain a clear container of water (this could be a soda bottle or jar), and some mud or dirt. Show the students the jar and explain that the water represents someone you love. Have the students give examples of ways we can hurt people both emotionally and physically. For each example put some dirt into the water. Talk about how the water is getting dirty. If you stop throwing dirt in, the dirt will settle to the bottom, but it will still be there and can be “stirred up”. If we love people, we will try not to throw “dirt” on them and muddy the waters of their lives.

Burden of Violence

Ask for a volunteer. Have the student come to the front of the class. Have them hold a large rock (or other heavy object). Ask them if it is very heavy. Ask them if they could hold that rock for a long time. Then add another rock. Ask the same questions. Add another and another and another until the student says the pile is very heavy and that they would have a hard time carrying around the stack. Have the student sit down and tell them that each rock could represent a small (or large) act of violence toward someone we love. It is easy to keep adding one small act, then another, then another all the while thinking that it is not a very big thing, but soon the burden of violence is very heavy and hard to carry around. It is better to not have the pile of “rocks” at all. Stay away from violent behavior and avoid violent people.

Habits

Have a student volunteer. Have them stand with their two index fingers pointing up and about three inches apart. Wrap a length of grass or thread once around both fingers. Ask the student to try and break the grass or thread by quickly pulling apart their fingers. It should be easy to do. Then have them put their fingers up again and this time wrap the grass or thread around their fingers many times (about 10). Ask them to try to break the binding. They shouldn't be able to. Talk about bad habits (i.e. hurting people you love). The more you do them, the harder it is to break them. Try to change bad behavior now, not later. The same is true of loving behaviors, if you establish a habit of showing appropriate love now, it will continue with you in the future.

Guest Speaker

Have a guest speaker (preferably a man) come talk about how being peaceful and controlling his anger has made him happy. He might speak about how how he overcame the temptation to act out violently when he was angry. He can be asked to speak about how showing love and patience has made him happier, how he controls his anger, how he avoids violent people, etc.

Situations

Read everyday situations and have the students respond with what they would do to show love. Example: When you arrive home from school your mother is preparing a meal and your little brother is fussing because he wants your mother to play with him. What could you do to show love? Either the teacher or the students can come up with the situations.

Write a Letter

Write a letter to someone you love. Tell them why you love them.

Marriage and Family

Growth and Responsibility

Show the students some baby clothes. Talk about what it was like when they were a baby–how someone did everything for them. Is a baby happy if someone doesn't do these things for them? No. Then talk about how as they grew they had more responsibilities (i.e. feeding themselves, dressing themselves, chores, etc.). If you want to be happy you have to make choices that have happy consequences. This is being responsible. You are responsible for your own happiness now and the choices you make as you grow will have consequences for your happiness in the future.

Responsibility Chart

Have students fill out the following chart. This will help them identify areas in their life where they are or are not responsible.

My Ratings: Never Always

Action

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10

I am always on time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I take responsibility for my actions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I complete my school work on time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I help at home cheerfully.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have plans for my future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do not stay up too late at night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sacrifice/Selfishness

Selfish/Unselfish

Divide the class into groups and have them fill in the following chart and discuss what kinds of actions or choices would be selfish verses unselfish for each category. (For example, a selfish choice for education would be to play instead of doing homework, an unselfish choice for education would be to do schoolwork first and play later). Have one person from each group stand and tell one selfish choice and its corresponding unselfish choice.

Selfish

 

Unselfish

 

education

 

 

work

 

 

chores

 

 

disagreements

 

 

sex before marriage

 

Bridge

Have a race. Divide into two or more teams; give each team two large leaves. Each step of the race must be made on a leaf, so the first person puts down a leaf and steps on it, then puts down the next leaf and steps in it, then reaches back and picks up the first leaf and brings it around to the front and puts it down and then steps on it, and so on until he reaches the finish line, then runs back and hands the leaves to the next person in line and they repeat the process until everyone on the team has gone. Play the game again. This time assign a helper to each racer. The helper's job is to move the leaves for the racer. After the game, discuss how much easier it is if someone sacrifices their own game to help someone else play.

Piggy-back Challenge

Divide the class into two or more teams. Give them a challenge: tell them they must get from one side of the room to the other without touching the floor, the walls, the desks, etc. Each student that can do this will earn a point for his or her team. The solution is to have one team member sacrifice their point and carry the others across the floor. By sacrificing, he or she can help his or her team win.

Don't Trade It

Have the students think of some one thing that is very important or dear to them. Have them write it on a card or small piece of paper. Begin to ask a few students to share what they wrote on their card. After 3 or 4 students have shared, ask the next student to share and then have them trade their card for one that says Drugs, Stealing, Alcohol, or HIV/AIDS. Do the same with a few other students. Then ask the students who traded cards with you how they would feel if they really had to trade the thing they loved most for what was on their card. Explain that choices that we make to partake of drugs or alcohol, or have sex before marriage, etc. very likely will result in our having to give up those things that are most dear to us.

Service Club

Have the students choose a small natural object and find three of them (such as a shell, a seed or a flower). Have them think of three acts of service they can do for people they love without them knowing who did it (do a sibling's chore, help someone in need, express their love verbally, etc.) Have them leave their natural object as a “calling card” or sign that they have been there. Students who participate become members of the “Service Club”.

HIV/AIDS

Transmission

Obtain two clear containers of water and cover them with a leaf or some kind of thin membrane over the top. Make a slit in the covering of one container. Put dirt on the top of each container. The container with the slit will allow the dirt to fall into the container of water and make it cloudy. The water in the other container will remain clear. Talk about the ways HIV enters our body. (Needle sharing, blood transfusion, sex, etc.)

Telephone

Have the students sit in a circle. Have one student start by whispering in the ear of the student next to him/her some statement like, “Rabbits hop quickly and quietly to safety.” The statement can be anything you like. Then, the second student whispers the same thing in the ear of the next student and so on until the message gets all the way around the circle back to the first student. Usually, that student will laugh because the message has changed so much from the original. The student who started the message then says out loud what the original message was. You can repeat this as many times as you wish. Then talk about how information changes as people talk about it with others. Myths and misinformation can easily occur. This is true with HIV/AIDS. Talk about some of the myths your culture holds concerning HIV/AIDS.

HIV Relay

Divide the class into two or more teams. Prepare slips of paper listing ways HIV is or is not spread. Present the ways in question form from the following list. For example, “Can you get HIV by holding hands?” Or “Can you get HIV by having sex with someone infected with the HIV virus?” (or spitting, kissing, biting, being born with it, swimming, sharing cups, sweating, mixing blood, touching, sitting on a toilet seat, sharing a needle with someone else, being near someone with HIV, abstaining from sex, eating at the same table as someone with HIV, etc.). Have the first person from each team run (or hop, or skip, or twirl, etc.) to the other side of the room and take the top card. Have them return to their team, confer with their teammates concerning the correct answer, and raise their hand when they know the answer. The teacher then calls on them to give their answer. If they get the answer right, their team gets a point and the next person runs to the other side of the room to get a card. If they get the answer wrong, their team does not get a point, and a person from the next team runs to get a card. After the game is over, be sure to review all the answers so everyone understands how you can and cannot get HIV.

Danger, Caution, Go Ahead

Read out a list of specific behaviors such as holding hands, kissing, sharing needles, giving a hug, talking, having unprotected sex, having sex with a condom, playing together, etc. Your list will include other behaviors that are culturally appropriate or about which your students have a question (possibly from the question box.) The students respond to the reading of each behavior by putting their thumbs down to indicate it is a Dangerous behavior, thumbs sideways to indicate that one should exercise Caution in this behavior, or thumbs up to indicate that it is a Go Ahead behavior. Correct any misconceptions that may occur. Point out that there are many more behaviors which are “safe” compared to the behaviors that increase the risk for HIV transmission.

Plays

Create plays or presentations about the Stay Alive principles and perform them before other classes or in the community. Have a Family Night and share the students' creative work.

 

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