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Carly is an educational tool designed to tackle themes such as cultural differences and exile with children aged 5-8. It includes a 7 minute animated film, notes for the teacher, a handbook which provides the necessary teaching material (story, drawings).
Copies of the handbook can be ordered from HQPA00 [at] unhcr.org.
Working with the animated film
1. Show the video without any preliminary explanation in a calm and relaxed atmosphere.
2. After the animated film allow the children to express themselves freely. The teacher should only intervene if something has not been understood, and should facilitate discussions between the children.
3. Later, show the animated film again, drawing the children’s attention to Carly’s emotions. How does she feel? What are her innermost emotions?
To explore the issues more deeply
I) Studying the story
1. Suggest that each child draws a scene which he/she particularly liked or which particularly impressed him/her. Make sure that each drawing is the same size and uses the same materials. Also check that all parts of the story are covered.
2. Put the drawings on the wall in the same chronological order as the story. Comment on each episode. In this way everyone can see the story and is able to memorize it. Keep in mind that at this age it is difficult to see other people’s points of view.
3. Make figures of the characters with the help of the cut out-uts from Carly (see back of handbook). One child should tell the story by moving the figures between the drawings on the wall. In this way, the children can bring the story to life.
4. The teacher can also read out favorite passages from the text (see beginning of handbook).
II a) Emotions: facial and bodily expressions
1. Sit down in a circles in groups of maximum 5 children. This exercise requires calm and concentration. To make the children aware of how expressive the face can be, the teacher should ask the children to: frown, close their eyes, puff out their cheeks, smile, wink, raise their eyebrows… Noises and gestures are not allowed. Relax your face between each expression, and explain when each expression is used (e.g. I frown when I am unhappy, when I am doing something difficult…).
2. Do this exercise again with pairs of children face to face. One should make an expression which the other should then imitate. Ideally, the children should be able to work by themselves in front of a mirror in order to observe a wide variety of expressions.
3. Expand this activity to include bodily posture (e.g. hands on hips signifies anger).
4. Show the animated film again with the sound turned off. The children will be able to identify Carly’s emotions by the images alone.
5. Stick the emotion cards up in the classroom (see end of exercise book). Each morning the children should come and put a sticker with their name on next to the emotion that they are feeling at the time. Make new emotion cards each day as necessary. Make sure there is also a blank card so that a child does not have to reveal his emotions if he does not want to. This blank card can also be used to add a new emotion which has not yet been suggested.
II b) Emotions and feelings linked to exile
A word of warning for the teacher: keep in mind that the expression of some emotions can be difficult and unsettling. Ensure that everyone’s freedom to speak or to keep quiet is respected. If necessary, stop any activity which is making a child uncomfortable.
1. Based on the drawings, the children should discuss the possible reasons for Carly’s flight. Encourage the children to speak about their fears. Highlight the variety, but also the universality of certain fears (fear of monsters, fear of the dark, fear of thunder, fear of nightmares, fear of certain films, fear of being alone…).
2. Each child is asked to draw one of his/her fears onto a postcard sized piece of paper with his/her name on it.
3. Gather up the drawings and sort them by the type of fear (i.e. group 1: fear of the dark, group 2: fear of being alone) and the teacher should ask, “What do you do to calm your fear of …?” Each group should draw or write various ways of conquering fear (by talking to someone, by drawing).
4, Put up the drawing of Carly’s flight in the classroom. Place the drawings of the different fears on the left hand side (near the burning house). On the right hand side place the replies given by each group and being the discussion.
5. Create a “Fear-eating machine”. This could be made from a large cardboard box decorated by the children. If the children want to, they can symbolically get rid of their fears by throwing their drawings into this “machine”. More simply, the drawings could be torn up, thrown away or burnt.
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