What makes me happyResources

Introduction

These short films are from the new What Makes me Happy series by The Ragdoll Foundation and follow a day in the life of five children living in Vietnam, Uganda, South Sudan, Columbia, Bangladesh and Netherlands.

The following suggestions for discussion and activities are designed to be used with children aged 6 - 8 in lessons, circle time or assemblies and tap into children’s natural curiosity and fascination about each others’ lives.

They can be used within your school or in collaboration with a partner school in another country. They link to the Connecting Classrooms themes, skills and outlooks and so are ideal for use within Connecting Classroom partnerships

Global themes Global skills Global OutlooksIdentity and belonging Collaboration and

communicationPositive sense of identity

Fairness and Equality Creative thinking Desire to make a difference

Self-awareness and empathy Sense of interdependence

Starter activities

Pass or roll an inflatable globe around the classroom asking questions such as:

• Can you think of a country beginning with C?

• Can you tell me the name of a country in Africa?

• Can you find where we live on the globe?

• Can you point to and name a cold and hot place?

Encourage the children to help each other and talk about countries they have travelled to, have family links with or would like to visit one day. Go through the alphabet, can they find a country for every letter of the alphabet? If they get stuck, move on, but at the end of the topic, review the list and see what can be added.

If you watch a number of the films over a period of time, you can extend the children s geographical vocabulary and locational knowledge asking more complex questions such as:

• Can you find the country where Tung lives?

• What continent is Vietnam in ?

• Does it lie above or below the equator?

• Can you find a major city or river in her country?

Encourage the pupils to use maps, atlases, globes and if you have access to computers - digital mapping software, such as Oxfam`s excellent Mapping Our World resources (http://www.digital-week.info/education/mapping_our_world/)

Before watching each film, show the children the location of the country, discuss what continent it lies in and record anything they know already or would like to find out .

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Discussion and follow-up activities

As you watch the films, pause to allow time for discussion and the pupils own questions about the lives of the children and what makes them happy.

You might discuss what we learn about the children s homes and localities, how they help their families and communities, and react when things don t go to plan. You could talk about how their lives and surroundings are similar and different to your own and ask open questions about the individual children s stories such as:

• Why do you think Jose is pushing that sound system? How does he react when the wheel comes off the trolley? What would you have done?

• How do you think Angelina and her friends feel when the cows go missing? Have you ever lost something you were looking after- how did you feel?

• Would you be as brave as Tung walking home by herself or Angelina sleeping in the tree in the dark?

• Do you think all children in the country lead similar lives to those portrayed in the film?

Be sensitive in these discussions and avoid issues of stereotyping and giving the impression that these children are emblematic of all the children living in this country.

Talk about the jobs and tasks being carried out by the children such as looking after animals, sewing, cutting down vegetation and going to the market. Why do they think the children are not shown in school? Discuss why school is important and what the consequences of not going to school might be.

Introduce the concept of universal primary schooling for all, advocated by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, to be implemented by 2015. Although progress has been made, 57 million children of primary school age were still out of school in 2011.Perhaps take part in the global campaign Send my friend to school which helps to raise awareness of this issue with activities such as creating paper buddies with messages about the value of education Examples of these and other activities from schools around the world can be seen in the image gallery here.

Activity OneEach film in the series tells a story about a day in the life of one of the children.

After watching the film, use the storyboard template in Appendix 1 to draw the sequence of the main events shown. Invite your pupils to add speech and thought bubbles to show what the children might have been thinking or saying at each moment; then write a brief summary of the child`s day. Model and encourage the use of time connectives such as first, next, then, finally, soon, afterwards and eventually.

You could also repeat the task to record a day in their own lives. Encourage the pupils to take photographs recording what they do in a typical day, add captions and exchange with your partner school as books or using software such as Photo Story or iBooks.

Activity twoEach film begins with Wendy Cope’s short poem:

• What makes a growing girl or boy

• Smile or laugh or jump for joy?

• What makes you happy?

Ask the children to write out the poem and add their own final line or another verse about what makes them happy. Add illustrations or paintings to create a vibrant display.

The recent hit song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams was written for the Despicable Me 2 film soundtrack in 2013. He came up with the idea for the lyrics by asking himself what being in a good mood truly feels like and came up with suggestions like ‘a hot air balloon that could go to space’ or ‘a room without a roof !’ Can your class come up with even better similes to describe that happy feeling?

The song was accompanied by a video showing different people dancing to the happy music all over Los Angeles. Since then thousands of people have made their own versions in which people from different cities throughout the world dance to the song. Perhaps you could make your own music video dancing in your locality and exchange with your partner school along with your poems and pictures.

Suggestions for further development

In Tung`s story we see how she loves to read and will read whenever and wherever she can. Set up a school Extreme Reading Challenge for pupils to find the most interesting and entertaining place to read and take a photo of themselves. Perhaps staff could also join in. Display the photographs around the school, and swap with your partner school if you have one.

Children taking up the Extreme Reading Challenge. Images from Flickr and Alison Willmott.

We see how music makes Jose happy in his story. Ask your class to bring in their favourite pieces of music to share with each other. You could also try listening to and learning a song from another language from the World Songbook on the World Voice website at: https://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/classroom-resources/world-voice/world-songbook

Information on additional resources:• Information about the UN Millennium Development

Goals can be found at: http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

• Find out why millions of children are missing out on school around the world at: http://www.sendmyfriend.org/about/education-facts/

• The World Songbook from The British Council World Voice Programme contains songs from around the world which you and your partner school can explore in the classroom: https://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/classroom-resources/world-voice/world-songbook

• ‘Children just like me: A unique collection of children around the world’ by Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley published by Dorling Kindersley has information about children s lives in different countries

• If you do not have a partner school but would like help to find one and set up an online collaboration space to work together go to: https://schoolsonline.britishcouncil.org/find-a-partner

Resources written by Alison Willmott

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Choose one of the children in the series and draw the main events in their day. Add thought or speech bubbles to show what you think they might be thinking or saying at different points in the day.

Appendix One - Storyboard Template

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