Here’s another team game that explains to children things such as: where misunderstandings and differences of opinion come from. After understanding this mechanism it will be easier for children to regulate conflictive situations in the future. The rules of the game are simple and depending on how advanced the group of children, they can be modified.
MATERIALS
- Sheets of white paper
- Crayons and marker pens (or) building blocks
Instruction
A lead child draws a simple sketch on a piece of paper. If it’s a younger child you can suggest using an image that was already made by someone else e.g. the one that’s on the left side. When the drawing is ready that child should explain what is drawn on the piece of paper to some classmates/children from a group, but they can’t show the picture to the rest of the group. The rest of the players must recreate this drawing, using only the describtion they heard.
Older children can try to recreate a picture just after the leader finishes the description. In groups of younger children the leader can give one hint after another and the rest of the group execute instructions step by step. This method is significantly easier, because the children won’t have to remember the whole description of a picture.
To simplify the task, instead of recreating a drawing we can use building block which children will have to arrange in the same order as the leader.
After finishing drawing or arranging building blocks the whole group can show the work they’ve done and compare it to the original. The results may be suprising, because it’s very probable that the final work will be very different.
It shows how we process information. Every person receives stimuli from the environment differently, because of their previous experiences and also some inclinations or skills. That’s why it’s so important to listen to every side of a conflict. It’s one of the basic principles of democratic nations where the judical system takes into account arguments of both sides and tries to resolve a conflict in a peaceful manner.
This post is co-funded within the framework of Polish developmental aid programme of Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland.
