Duration: 10 – 15 minutes
Primary SPIRIT Skill(s) focus:
- Flexibility
- Valuing people and nature
Brief description
Upon arriving at the location, the children sit down in a pile (on their raincoats).
- Close your eyes! What do you feel? What is the weather like now? (Temperature, sunshine, wind, freshness of the air)
- How did you know what the weather was like with your eyes closed? How (with what) did you sense it?
- It is currently ___ °C. Who feels cold? Who doesn’t feel cold?
- How is it possible that we felt differently even though we are in the same place and the temperature is the same? What does this depend on?
- Can people perceive different things? Can people feel differently?
- How do we actually know what the temperature is? Does it depend on who observes it?
We can measure and observe certain properties of the things around us.
How does this develop particular SPIRIT skills?
Resilience fundamentally requires understanding how our own perceptions work and how they relate to reality. This way, we will be able to determine how to interpret the effects that impact us.
What do we want to achieve regarding SPIRIT skill development (student understanding and/or behaviour)?
Students experience the subjective and objective interpretation of things. They should realize that what they perceive subjectively can also be viewed objectively, and this objective perspective reinterprets our subjective perception without questioning the reality of that subjective experience.
Academic/Curriculum Objective connection
- Observation and conscious use of the senses
- Measuring temperature
- Observing elements of the weather
- Developing debate skills
Materials and tools needed for implementation
None
Preparation notes
Not necessary
Guided Questions
- How do you react when the weather or environment suddenly changes, and you need to refocus?
- What can you do if others perceive the same situation differently, and your opinions don’t match because of that?
- How can you calm yourself down or concentrate when your perceptions are confusing or conflicting?
- In what ways can you use others’ observations to reassess your own?
Stage Debriefing Questions (Optional)
- Was there a moment when you experienced something different from what you expected? How did you handle it?
- Were you able to change your opinion after one of your observations? What helped you do that?
- What was difficult about this task, and how were you able to overcome it?
- Was there a situation when you thought differently from the others? How did that make you feel?
- How did it feel when you had to reinterpret something you had originally thought differently about?
Tips and Tricks for dealing with stage challenges
- Children at this age tend to interpret the world very subjectively. They may have difficulty accepting their peers’ opinions. In such cases, gently guide them, as they still need time to be able to accept different viewpoints. However, they can only develop this ability if they encounter perspectives different from their own, so it’s okay to provoke these situations.
- Pay attention to when to close a possibly arising debate, even if they haven’t reached an agreement. For example: “I understand what you’re saying, but we can’t agree on this right now. We can talk about it later, and everyone can think about it until then… Now let’s move on, because there are still interesting things to discover.