Primary 5

Personal and Social Development

PDF file: View pilot comments

Stage:
Primary 5 (adapted from plans from Glendale Primary)

Strand:
PSD: Consider what it is like to feel excluded

Purposes of the curriculum 3-18

• responsible citizens with acommitment to participate responsibly in political, economic, social and cultural life
• confident individuals able to relate to others and manage themselves
• effective contributors  with resilience and self-reliance

Title:
Don't Give it, Don't Take it

Today we are going to:

• Learn how it feels to be excluded
• Explore how we can include people

We will know we have been successful if we

• Understand what it feels like to be excluded
• Can talk about the kinds of feelings that those that are excluded share
• Have learned ways on how people are excluded because of their religion, belief, colour of skin, ability, where they live and so on

Resources

• United Nations Word search (included at the end)
• Scenarios typed onto separate sheets of paper to be given out to groups
• Big flipchart or clear black / white board and marker pens that you can use to jot down ideas from Step 1

Step 1: Warm-up / Round
If someone is new in this class, I could include them by ...
If someone is new in this class, we can exclude them by ...

This starter is used by every child as it goes round the circle. Children repeat the starter and add their own ending. Children can pass but they will be asked again later on. Children/teacher should not react in any way either to what they say nor in any other way to anything anyone says.

Teacher repeats some key ideas coming from the children to move to the main focus of the lesson.

Step 2: Opening up

• From there the teacher can proceed to divide the children into groups of 3.
• Ask two children to talk to each other in whispers so that the third child can't hear what is being said. Each child in the group should take a turn of being excluded.
• Then ask each threesome to discuss how it felt to be excluded.
• Now ask one group to role play a situation where 2 children leave another child out because of their religion / belief.

Scenario 1: Susan, Kirsty and Sonia decide to have a picnic. Kirsty agrees to bring the food. Sonia reminds Kirsty she does not eat pork because she is a Muslim. The next day, they go to the park. When it comes to lunch time, they discover Kirsty has only made ham sandwiches. Sonia is left out at the picnic because she does not eat pork. Sonia's religion teaches that she should not eat pork. Did you know that Islam is not the only religion that does not eat pork? Judaism does not permit the eating of pork or shellfish! Some Buddhists are vegetarians and all people who believe in Janism eat no meat.

Scenario 2: Declan and Aly are best friends. They are playing on their computer. Surjit,asks if he can play too. They look at him and tell him to 'buzz off' - saying they were not going to play with any geek that wore table cloths round their head. Surjit is Sikh and he is wearing a patka - a scarf or head covering. He does this because Sikhs believe hair should not be cut and Surjit wears his hear coiled up in a patka.

Scenario 3: Peter and a group of friends (both boys and girls) ignore the new child in the class. The new pupil is called Jamie. Jamie goes to a different church to Peter and their friends. Peter says Jamie is not a true Christian.

• Now ask the children who played the part of the person being excluded to each give a 'feeling' word to say how they felt as the one excluded.
• Ask the class to discuss why we exclude people. Today we looked at how we can exclude people because of their religion or belief. Now ask how those on the receiving end feel and how it could be stopped. Talk about different types of teasing including sectarian name-calling, being excluded because you are wearing the 'wrong' colour or wearing the 'wrong' football top.
• Talk about how everyone has a responsibility to not exclude people because of their religion or belief. Explain that when people exclude or are unkind to each other because of their religion or belief, that is what sectarianism and religious intolerance is about. Ask children to suggest how they can make people of different religions and beliefs feel welcome in this school.

Step 3: Cheering up / celebrating success
Now go round the class and ask each child to say what makes them feel included and good. After each child has spoken, encourage others to clap and acknowledge what they have said. If a child is too shy, return to them.

Step 4: Calming down / closing ritual
Finish with a word search of ten things which the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states children need.

For the teacher

Self-awareness - help children to explore their own values and develop tolerance for the attitudes of others.
Self-esteem - help children to consider how to cope in different situations.
Inter-personal relationships - children begin to appreciate faith / belief differences.
Independence and inter-dependence - children consider how to be inclusive within group situations.

Children's Needs

Word Search

The word search below contains ten things which the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states children need. The 'needs' are hidden amongst the letters, reading either forwards or backwards and up or down. To give you some help with spelling the words, the needs are listed below.

Children's Needs

Taken from the package Primary Values - a literacy based resource to support the Personal Development Programme in primary schools Published by the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, page 85