A New Planet

Topic
- Society
- Citizenship & human rights
Learning skills
- Empathy & social awareness
- Cooperation
- Critical & reflective thinking
- Creative thinking
- Communication & expression
Activity type
- Group discussion
Materials
- Basic
- Printable downloads
Age
- 12 - 14 years
- 15 - 17 years
>15 minutes
+5 players
Difficult
Calm
Medium (classroom, square)

Contributors

ARSIS- Association for the Social Support of Youth

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Everything you need to play this game

Blackboard and chalk
Paper & marking pens for each group
Poster 'General Overview of Children's Rights' Download en-general-general-overview-of-cr.pdf (8.1mb)

A step-by-step guide to play the game

Start by telling the storyline or act it out in role-play (see additional game information).

Divide the players into groups of four or five.

Instruct them to give this new planet a name and have them identify ten rights that their group can agree on and have them write down these rights on chart paper.

Each group presents its list to the others. In doing so, make a "master list" showing all the rights the groups name and combine similar rights. This can be done on a large piece of paper or a blackboard.

When all groups have reported their lists, review the "master list":

Do some rights overlap?
Can they be combined?
Is a right on only one list?
Should it be included or deleted? Why?

Start a discussion about the exercise (see additional game information for examples of discussion questions).

Extra game information

Storyline:

A small new planet has been discovered that has everything to sustain human life. No one has ever lived there. There are no laws, no rules and no history. You will all be colonists here and your group has been chosen to draft the bill for this brand-new planet. You don't know what position you will have in this land.

Discussion questions:

Did your ideas about which rights were most important change during the activity?
What would life on this planet be like if some of these rights were excluded?
Are there any rights you would like to add to the final list?
Why is making a list like this useful?

This game is part of the 'All Children, All Right(s)!' toolkit, which focuses on promoting children's rights.

Variations

Personal preferences:

On the "master list", ask players to tick the three rights that mean the most to them personally. The facilitator can then count the points to see how much each right got.
Start a discussion about the players' personal preferences:

- Why do you think certain rights got so many points from this group?

- (For older children) Are there special circumstances in their community or country that make some rights more important than others?

Linking with the UNCRC

Once the "master list" is done, participants go back to their groups and try to link their listed rights to articles of the UNCRC. Some rights may include several articles. Others may not be in the UNCRC at all. To save time, you can give each group-specific rights from the "master list" to examine.
When the group is ready, ask a representative to write down the numbers of the articles they have identified to the right of the "master list". You may need to add an extra sheet next to the "master list".
Review each entitlement on the list. If participants identify a right with a particular article of the UNCRC, ask them to read the article aloud. Resolve any inconsistencies about which right belongs to which article.
Start a discussion on this exercise:

- Were some rights on the list not included in the UNCRC?

- How can you explain this omission?

- Were some rights in the UNCRC not included in the group's list?

- How can you explain this omission?

Specific learning objectives

1. Learning how to make decisions and cooperate in group.

2. Discovering what you find important and what others find important regarding certain rights.

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