The basics of life: draw, tell or act it out!

Topic
- Society
- Citizenship & human rights
Learning skills
- Problem solving & decision making
- Critical & reflective thinking
- Creative thinking
- Communication & expression
Activity type
- Group discussion
- Drawing
Materials
- Basic
- Printable downloads
Age
- 6 - 11 years
- 12 - 14 years
>15 minutes
2 - 4 players
Intermediate
Medium
Small (office, pavement)

Contributors

Mobile School

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Everything you need to play this game

Poster ‘The basics of life’ Download survival-the-basics-of-life-small.pdf (3mb)
Chalk (to write on the blackboard or on the ground) / pencils to draw on a piece of paper
Bottle cap
Poster ‘The basics of life’ DE Download survival-the-basics-of-life-de-small.jpg (54.7mb)
Poster ‘The basics of life’ EL Download survival-the-basics-of-life-el-small.jpg (54.4mb)
Poster ‘The basics of life’ ES Download survival-the-basics-of-life-es-small.jpg (54.7mb)
Poster ‘The basics of life’ FR Download survival-the-basics-of-life-fr-small.jpg (54.7mb)
Poster ‘The basics of life’ NL Download survival-the-basics-of-life-nl-small.jpg (54.7mb)

A step-by-step guide to play the game

Prepare the activity by drawing a “pencil”, a “looking glass” and a “text balloon” on the ground and gather a group of children around these drawings.

One player with closed eyes throws a bottle cap to the drawings and sees where it lands:

Pencil: the player draws a specific situation on the poster and the other players need to guess which situation it is.
Looking glass: the player chooses a situation on the poster and mimics the situation to the others, while the others try to find the situation on the poster.
Text balloon: the player chooses a situation and tries to make up a story. What could be the situation behind this picture? What happened? The others try to guess the situation by listening to the story.

After each activity, try to ask some questions. These could be questions on what is happening, why this is a right, why the right is violated or respected and so on.

Extra game information

The 'Basics of Life' poster is the overview poster for the right to survival. This poster depicts different ways of access to basic needs like food, health or housing. It's one of the four storytelling posters linked to one of the dimensions of children's rights: survival, protection, development and participation. The storytelling poster is closely linked to the Basic Needs Bingo (see further).

All children's rights icons used on the posters are created by UNICEF for their child-friendly version of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Variations

Depending on the age of the players you can also give the situation yourself to the group.
Let the players practice explicitly how they would ask someone for help in these specific situations. What are important elements they should include in their help-question?

Specific learning objectives

Learn to explain a situation in a creative way.
Learn to use your imagination.
Learn about the right to survival.

What people said about this game

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