CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES

CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES

CONTENTS

1 – Story time for younger children

2 – Game for ages 6–10, with discussion questions

3 – Drama for ages 8–12, with discussion questions

4 – Simple background notes on Sina for children’s workers

Although the story time activity is aimed at the younger children in your church, and the other activities are aimed at the older age groups, please use these ideas among your children’s groups however you see fit!


There once was a puppy. He was small and brown, and he was very naughty.

[Show image 1 of puppy]

[Isn’t he cute? Does anyone here have a puppy or a dog at home?]

One day, the puppy saw a bucket in the corner of his family’s house. Inside the bucket there were some fish.

[Show image 2 of fish]

The puppy thought it would be lots of fun to take one of the fish to play with. So he reached in and pinched one.

[What a naughty puppy! Are your pets ever that naughty?]

The puppy ran out of the house with the fish, down the path and into the field. He ran here, ran there and even rolled around on the floor.

The puppy and the fish got quite grubby, but he was having so much fun. Until... the next-door neighbour spotted him. Oh dear!

[What do you think the neighbour said to the puppy?]

‘Naughty puppy!’ said the neighbour.

Just then, the mummy from the puppy’s family came out to see what was happening, and she saw the puppy with the fish.

[Show image 3 of Sina]

‘That’s my fish!’ said the mummy, and she took the fish away from the puppy.

[What would your mummy do with the dirty fish? Would she just let the dog keep it? Or maybe she’d throw it in the bin? Let’s see what this mummy did...]

The mummy took the fish back to the house and cooked it for dinner!

[Show image 4 of Sina preparing fish]

[Would you want to eat the fish after the puppy had been playing with it? I’m not sure I would.]

Sometimes, the puppy’s family didn’t have anything at all to eat for dinner. So they were all very happy that there was a fish to eat at all.

In lots of places in the world, people don’t have enough food to eat. This story is true. In this photo you can see the puppy’s family – they live in a country called Cambodia, hundreds of miles from here. The little boys are called Yuth (he’s ten years old), Bunton (he’s eight), and baby Den (he’s five months old).

[Show image 5 of Sina, the boys and the puppy]

[Shall we say a prayer for these little boys and their mummy and daddy? What shall we pray for?]

Example prayer: Dear God, we pray for Yuth, Bunton and Den, and for their mummy and daddy, because they are very poor. We pray that things will get better for them, and that in the future they will have enough food every day and won’t be poor any more. Thank you for the food that we will eat today. Amen.

Optional: if your group enjoys colouring-in, you can print out the following picture and finish by colouring it in or decorating it.

1. STORY TIME – THE NAUGHTY PUPPY

Please use this script to tell the story, and show the following images (printed or shown on a screen) to the children as you go.

THE NAUGHTY PUPPY

- 1 -

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- 3 -

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- 4 -

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THE NAUGHTY PUPPY: COLOURING SHEET

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Ask how the task felt for the team who had a choice.

Ask how the task felt for the team who had no choice.

Point out that those in the ‘free’ team could have offered to carry the items over for the others. Was that something they’d thought of?

What would have been the result if they had helped?

WHERE IN THE WORLD?

Explain that the group is going to think about a family in Cambodia. Get a map or a globe and ask: where’s Cambodia? What’s life like in Cambodia? Does anyone know?

MEET THE FAMILY

Use photographs of the family (see storytime resource) to talk through the life of Sina and the children and ask the children whether they think the family live the life they live by choice. For example, do you think they would live here if they had the choice to live in a different house? Do you think they would go to school every day if they could? (NB Children in this country might think the obvious answer is no! But going to school means they will have a better chance of getting a good job and will grow up to live lives free from poverty.)

FOOD

Explain that sometimes there isn’t very much to eat. Sometimes their mum doesn’t have food so that the children can eat.

Do you think that’s the way you would choose to live?

The mum, Sina, says she would like things to be different for her family, so they can be safer and well fed and grow up to live a better life.

The church in their village is trying to help. Ask why they think Christians want to help, and talk about how Jesus cared for poor people and how he loves them very much.

SINA AND US

Ask whether they think they are like the people with choice or like those with no choice. Is there anything they can do to help Sina and her children?

Suggest they could help by praying or by collecting pocket money that can help Tearfund to help the project. If your group is in the habit of taking a collection, consider donating it to Tearfund, who are helping the church in Tonle Batie to help families to help their village.

Pray in groups for Sina and her children. Pray for the church as they help families like Sina’s grow up to be strong. End the session on a high note – we can be happy because we’ve been given a choice, and we can help people like Sina and her family choose a better life too.


2. GAME

This is a game with discussion questions to unpack the theme of choice and poverty and to discover what life is like for one family in Cambodia.

Place a large empty container at one end of the room, and another container full of items at the other end of the room. Split the children into two teams, and task them with transferring as many of the items as possible to the other container within two minutes. This is a race against the clock.

Restrict one team by telling them that only one person can transfer the items at a time. Allow the other team complete freedom to transfer as many items as they can, as quickly as they can, however they can.

IT’S YOUR CHOICE!

The scene: A game show host sits at a desk with a clipboard. Two contestants sit by the host – one on either side. Beside them is a numbered display, similar to the letters on ‘Blockbusters’.

Characters: Game show host with lots of bravado; two contestants (1 and 2).

Host: Hello, and welcome to ‘It’s your choice!’ The best Saturday-night game show on TV! Where we say…

Audience: It’s your choice!

Host: Contestant number one, are you ready? Remember, it’s your choice!

1: I’m ready!

Host: Okay, choose away.

1: I’ll have number one, please.

Host: Great choice! Contestant number two. Where would you like to start? Remember, it’s your choice!

2: I’ll start with number one, please.

Host: You can’t.

2: But I thought it was my choice.

Host: It is your choice; you just can’t choose number one. Would you like number two?

2: (Defeated) Okay, I’ll take number two.

Host: Great. Contestant number one: what will you choose on your next turn? Remember, it’s your choice!

1: I’ll take number four, please.

Host: Fantastic! Number four. And contestant number two, what about you? Remember, it’s your choice!

2: Well, I suppose I can’t have number four.

Host: That’s right, but you can have any other number, because – tell him, audience…

Audience: It’s your choice!

2: (Sighs, rolls eyes)

1: (Looks smug)

2: I’ll take number six.

Host: And again, contestant number one.

1: I’ll take number five, please.

Host: Number five for contestant one. And for you, contestant number two?

2: Well, I wanted to choose number five, but it’s already been taken.

Host: That’s the way it works.

2: But I thought this was the ‘It’s your choice!’ show…

Host: But not if another contestant has already chosen.

1: Er, sorry about that.

2: So it’s not my choice?

Host: It’s your choice! But only if you choose anything not already chosen.

2: So I can’t choose five?

Host: That’s right.

2: This is ridiculous. I’m going! (Storms off)

Host: But you can’t leave!

2: (Exasperated) But I thought it was my choice!

Host: Now it’s time for a commercial break!

THE END

DRAMA DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Did both contestants really have a choice?

What do we have choices about in life?

What can we do with these choices?

What choices do you think God would like us to make?

INTRODUCING SINA

Use the drama and the theme of ‘choice’ to introduce the group to Sina and her three boys, a lovely family in Cambodia who are also struggling with a lack of choice in their life. Tell Sina’s story using the background notes to help you.


3. DRAMA

A drama introducing the theme of ‘choice’ for ages 8–12, with follow-up discussion questions.

Sina lives with her husband and three sons in Tonle Batie village, Cambodia.

Cambodia’s government gives the poorest people ‘poor cards’ rated between one and three – one being allocated to the poorest of the poor. Sina has a poor card number one.

Sina’s family can’t afford to buy a ‘proper’ house or land, so they live in a one-roomed shack built with their own hands using scrap materials. There’s no electricity, no running water apart from the dirty tributary outside the house, and no sanitation – Sina and her neighbours use a nearby field as a toilet.

Sina’s husband Bora is poorly educated, so there aren’t many options for jobs. At times, he must work away for weeks at a time, leaving Sina and the children alone.

Sina strives to provide healthy food for her growing boys, but she can’t afford much. On the good days, they’re able to catch some fish or snails in the dirty river. Sina often goes without food so there’s more for her children.

But Sina has strength and determination, and for the sake of her children she holds on to the hope that the future can be better than the present. She’s powerfully motivated by the desire to build a safe and secure life for her children, and she has some ideas about how this might be achieved.

She would love to have land so she could grow vegetables to sell and cook for her children, and maybe raise some chickens to sell at market. But even these simple things are beyond Sina’s reach at the moment. Although she knows the way to go to improve things, she feels powerless to take this path.

A BETTER PATH

With Tearfund’s support the local church in Tonle Batie has started an exciting new project to facilitate villagers to work as a group to identify some of the reasons they’re poor and think of fresh ways to start tackling their poverty. Then, group members start learning new skills, as well as sharing the time and resources they already have, to make these ideas happen.

People are already benefiting. For example, people with no land have managed to borrow spare land to start growing vegetables together: a very new way of doing things in Tonle Batie. Others have started a chicken-breeding project, helping increasing numbers of people as more eggs are hatched and shared with others. Like Sina, those involved used to think they had nothing, but now they’re starting to see that they have more than they thought.

The church is piloting the project with 21 families, so they can show the wider village and its leaders that this way of beating poverty really works. After that, in the next year, their plan is to roll it out to the rest of the village. But to expand successfully, projects like this need long-term committed support – both prayers and finances.


4. BACKGROUND NOTES

Background info for children’s workers to use with any of the children’s resources.

Registered Charity No. 265464 (England and Wales) Registered Charity No. SC037624 (Scotland)

Documents

CHILDREN’S ACTIVITIES