KAPOK TREE
Ceiba
Group 5 (12-14 year olds)
THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS CYCLE ARE:
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Use appropriate conversational and other communication skills.
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Be responsible for the execution and maintenance of the structural rituals of the class.Interact with the concepts of past, present, and future.
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Be responsible for the execution and maintenance of the structural rituals of the class.
When you see that there is progress in these areas, you can move on to the next cycle. Check the rubric that will help you know if the group is ready to move forward!
WE SUGGEST YOU CHECK THE EVIDENCES WITH WHICH YOU WILL OBSERVE IF YOUR STUDENTS HAVE ACHIEVED THESE OBJECTIVES
CLASS PLAN
3. HANDS-ON
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This is the main activity that will follow the narrative in our classes. There are surveys, creative projects and activities around the school (if that's a possibility).
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The hands-on! activities are always inspired by the narratives, so make sure you check them in advance in order to choose the best.
2. NARRATIVE
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Everything starts with the narrative. It may be a written text, a short movie, a speech, a scene from a documentary, a comic strip, etc. Our classes begin here, and we will be constantly referring back to it in our activities.
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Always try to generate curiosity in your students by eliciting from them any kind of speculation
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The narrative will always be followed by a simple discussion, in which you will ask specific questions about what they’ve heard or seen.
4. MOVE!
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These are activities that require body movement. They may be learning brain breaks or music videos for kids to sing and dance along.
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These activities may be done in any part of the class, especially if kids are too distracted or have been seated for too long.
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When choosing the “Sing along” activity, try to have students choose the music videos. You may select a student to be responsible for that in each class. This will help build their autonomy and develop their active participation.
My class is 25 to 30 minutes long!
Remember that if your periods are shorter than 50 minutes, you can try out these shorter plans!
To ask your students about the video experiences (jornadas), ask them how they did them, if they are liking them so far, which were their favorites, etc.
Remember
1. STARTING SONG
As usual, we will begin the class with the starting song.
We suggest you let the kids start this activity by themselves, even with a bit more autonomy than in previous cycles. Once you see they’ve started singing and dancing, you can join the fun.
OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES
CONCENTRATED MODE
If the kids are concentrated, we propose a few activities that will help you manage the energy of the group.
MIRROR DANCING
Ask the children to get in pairs.
One of them will be the dancer and the other will be the mirror.
The idea is that the dancer moves freely to the rhythm of the starting song and the mirror has to imitate the dancer’s moves.
You can tell the children to switch roles halfway through the song so that they all get to act as dancers and as mirrors.
FOUR WORDS EACH
In a circle, start the song by singing the first four words.
The student sitting by your side should sing the following four words, and the next student the four words after that, and so on.
The idea is that the kids listen and pay attention to the words they have to sing out loud.
They win the game if they manage to sing the whole song in this manner!
EUPHORIC MODE
If the kids are euphoric, we propose a few activities that will help you manage the energy of the group.
ADJUSTING VOLUME
Open your hand and raise it as high as you can. While your hand is up and the starting song is playing, sing the lyrics in a loud volume and encourage the kids to do the same.
Then, as your hand goes down, slowly lower the volume making them understand they should lower the volume too. Once they understood the game, play with the volume of the kids singing of the starting song with the use of your hand.
*you can use this resource anytime to adjust the volume of the class by raising or lowering your hand.
CHANGING PLACES
Choose a few of the words that are repeated during the starting song, for example “room” “English” and “Vivadí”.
When the children listen to these words they should switch places with another student or just move to another place in the classroom.
This activity will require an active listening of the song, which will help with the general concentration of the group.
ORCHESTRA
Tell the children to sit in four separate groups. During the starting song, you will be an orchestra director. This means that you decide which group has to sing in different parts of the song.
So, you will point at the group that has to sing and the others will have to remain silent until they are pointed at.
![Max Frost - Good Morning [Music Video]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/N5xMlDeGFBU/maxresdefault.jpg)
2. NARRATIVE
After the starting song, you will introduce the narrative moment
In this cycle, we will always begin with the narrative. We will be constantly referring back to it in our activities. When reading them, make sure you use your body language so that the meaning is clear.
The narrative will always be followed by a simple discussion, in which you will ask specific questions about what they've heard or seen.
READ 1
Pre Reading:
If someone asks you “Who are you?”, what answer comes to your mind? How much do you think you know about yourself? Self-knowledge is important for one central reason: because it offers us a path to greater happiness and fulfillment. A lack of self-knowledge leaves you open to accident and mistaken ambitions.
Use chat stations technique: Video
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How do your friends describe you?
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What kind of person are you characteristically attracted to in love
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What are your talents at school – what problems do you have around win/lose?
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How are you about feedback – what do you do when you have been frustrated by life?
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What kind of taste do you have?
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Is the first thing that crosses your mind a body description or a personality description?
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What traits of your personality do you like the most?
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How does what you do with your life affect others?
After asking these questions to your students, play the videos:
1. Who Are You?
Post reading questions:
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Is it possible to live a really lonely life?
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How do your actions affect others around you?
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What do you understand by “being a good person”?
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Is it being a good person a worry for you?
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How can you be a better person every day?
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List three things you do every day to make the world a better place (separate organic garbage, help others in need...)
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According to the video, how is it possible to maintain our own identity?
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What gives your life the most meaning?
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What types of goals do you have in life?
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How can we differentiate from our past identities?
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List 3 things about you that makes you unique
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Is there anything expected of you that you really want to do? (Ex: go to college)
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Is there anything expected of you that you don’t want to do? (Ex: my family expects me to be a doctor, but I want to be a teacher).
READ 2
Pre Reading:
Sometimes people can be mean when they don’t value the things that make us unique.
Some of our greatest characteristics might not be that great to others. Although it might hurt, it is our choice to internalize or ignore others' mean comments about us.
Ask your students if they already feel something like that and encourage them to talk about
the theme:
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In what situations do you have mixed feelings?
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Think about a moment when you were criticized and you felt really bad. Describe it.
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Is it easy to say who we truly are? Why?
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How do you deal when people make snide comments about you?
To finish the conversation, ask your students to answer the quiz below to know how well they
know about themselves. You can make it individually or with all the class asking them to write
the answers that look like them.
1. How Do You Define Yourself?
Lizzie Velasquez is a woman who suffers from a rare disorder, and because of that she can’t gain weight and also caused blindness in her right eye. She was cyber bullied as “the world’s ugliest woman”, but flipped the table and made her own definition of beauty and happiness. She asks the audience to think about what defines them. Is it your family? Where did you come from? Your friends?
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What difficulties did she face in life? How was she treated in school?
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What does she use as positive traits?
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How does she demonstrate that “beauty is on the inside”?
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Who supported her the most?
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Imagine that Lizzie studies at your school. How can you help her as a classmate? How can the school help her feel included?
READ 3
Pre Reading:
Ask your students to answer the quiz below. They will have the opportunity to think about their personality traits in a more objective way. They can discuss in pairs or trios about themselves. After that, they have to compare and contrast their answers, searching for similarities and differences.
1. Who You Are
3. HANDS ON
This section is the main activity that will follow the narrative in your classes. There are different formats to choose from.
*It's important to know that these activities are always inspired by the narratives, so make sure to check them in advance to choose the best fit for your students!
ACTIVITIES
Game: 2 Truths and a Lie
The main instructions of the game are that each member of the group introduces themselves by stating two truths and one lie about themselves. The statements don't have to be intimate, just simple hobbies, interests, or past experiences that make each person unique. The lie can be outrageous and wacky, or it can sound like a truth to make it harder for the other participants.
Instructions:
One at a time, each person shares their statements. The group has to guess which statements are true and which statement is the lie. You can keep score to see who correctly guesses the most lies, or just play for fun to get to know one another.
Tips:
A good lie is one that's ultimately believable: it'll sound like something you might have done or might want to do. Try to think of lies that are similar to truths to make them as plausible-sounding as possible. For example, don't say, "I can speak 22 languages." This statement is clearly a lie (unless you're a famous polyglot!). Rather, say, "I can speak three languages fluently." This statement is just plausible enough to make people doubt whether you're telling the truth or not. And a good truth will sound like something you usually wouldn't do or wouldn't want to do (but have actually done). In the link below, you have ideas for your students.
Adapted from PrepScholar
ACTIVITIES INSPIRED BY "Read 3"
Game: Who I am
After the story, put on relaxing music and ask students to think, eyes closed or not, and, if
necessary, write down what defines them, leading them to reflect on who they are. Then ask
to record a video talking about what they discovered about themselves, their personality, defects and what they want to change about themselves, about their dreams and goals for the present and the future.
You can ask them to make a montage with all the videos and present them to the class. It will
be a very exciting and emotional time. This material can be saved in a time capsule and opened
in the future, comparing if they remain the same or if something has changed.
Instagram class
Instagram is great to engage kids to use technological tools for academic purposes. The class’ instagram can be a project for all of you. You can register important moments that you shared together, starting a class account. Make sure the account is private, and only the students and teachers can follow.
Now it’s time to feed the instagram, with class and individual photos and videos, important moments, different school projects or random pictures.
Game: Where we came from
The main goal of the activity is to open the students' minds about their classmates: they are people like me, they’ve come from somewhere, they have a family and a life outside of the classroom.
Instructions:
Tell the students to bring baby pictures to class, collect them and tell everyone to guess who it is. Remember to warn them to not show the pictures to their friends previously. They also must share something about their family or childhood, something that makes them or their families unique.
Game: Starting Positive
The main goal of the activity is to share good things and thoughts among them. To realize that the classmates have qualities and perspectives, and also that other people can see good things in you.
Instructions:
Have each student tape a sheet of paper to their back and walk around the room. The other students must write positive things about their colleagues on their backs. You can also do this activity sitting down, and the paper sheet passes through the classroom, one by one. Instead of writing positive things, they can also write things they wish for their peers in the future (“I wish you go to college”, “I wish you travel the world”...).
Related video: Know Who You Are
With this video you can talk with your students about how sometimes we don’t see good things about ourselves and when we look at the mirror we see a bad person, but when we know who we are we can see our real appearance and change what we need to change. Is there anyone entirely good or bad? Is there anyone who is perfect?
Game: Craft Time (A Digital Student Infographic)
Instructions:
Encourage the students to create an infographic about themselves. The infographic may have information about their likes and dislikes, how do they spend their free time, their favorites, their qualities (and defects! Why not? Everybody has them), their goals in life…
Make sure they have enough time to create, it’s a lot of work! Split it into steps:
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Pick the information
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Organize the information
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Create the infographic layout
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Put the information into the infographic
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Print it and share with the class
Inspirational Link
4. MOVE!
Use Move! activities when you feel students are too distracted or have been seated for too long. The idea is to move and refresh the body, always through learning, and it can be used at any moment of the class. Below you will find some ideas for your age group.
COREGULATING AND RYTHMINIZING
In pairs or groups, start to lead the percussion with a heart beat, or drumming on the desk. The others must follow the lead, using another rhythm, but always matching. Then switch the leader or change partners.
SHARING MOMENT
The students will write down or draw a worry, problem or celebration they want to share with their classmates. Folding the paper, they hand it off to a partner, who responds with another image or word. You can also randomly pick the paper, and without saying whose paper it was, discuss and empathise with the problem.
DIRECT ME
This game is perfect to develop trust in others and teamwork as well as practicing giving directions, and prepositions of place and movement. To play, come to class a little earlier (we know, but trust us, it will be worth it!) to rearrange the furniture into a maze of sorts. In pairs, students lead their blindfolded partner through the maze. They have to give clear instructions like: “Take three steps forward, then crouch down and crawl…”, “Go under,” “Walk past,” “Step over”.
DUAL DRAWING AND JOURNALING
Partners share a sheet of paper for one to two minutes. When the time starts, one partner draws a line or shape and then passes it to the other person so they can add a line, shape or a picture (a house, a sun...); they keep doing this for a short period of time without talking to one another. When the time is up, they can talk about what they drew together, giving it a title and any description that feels appropriate to both of them.
LISTEN AND MOVE
This is a great tool for working on students; auditory perception, concentration, focus and
attention. Put the video so that they dare the songs and movements that represent them.
Then they should perform actions according to the music played. It will be a fun and enjoyable
time.
5. HARMONY
Choose one of the following videos to do with your students.
6. ENDING SONG
Finally, as always, you will sing our well-known Ending Song.
Make sure everyone sings it out loud together. Encourage, especially those kids that don't participate much in class, to see if they can repeat the song phonetically.
Do not forget to put the class back in order while you sing.
To remind your students to access the platform and do the jornadas.
Don't forget