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Objective:
To facilitate teamwork and discussion while students experience the planning that goes into moving.
Materials:
• Chart paper and markers
Directions:
• Group students into partners or groups of four.
• Explain that each group needs to imagine that they are moving to a new country and will need to pack a suitcase.
• Together, they need to develop a criteria for what they would include, up to a maximum of ten items. Give students one or two sample criteria like “a favourite piece of clothing to wear” or “something to remind you of your friends back home.” As a group, they need to agree upon the criteria for what to include.
• After they have reached a consensus on their criteria, they can individually select their items according to that set of criteria.
• Once the students have selected their items for inclusion, they can get back into their groups and share their choices and rationales.
• Discuss some of the choices that students have shared and note the similarities and differences in which things are most important to all of us.
Debriefing Questions:
• What might help someone to adjust to their new life without the people, places and things they have had to leave behind? Do you know someone who has done this?
• How could you make someone feel welcome when everything is strange and unfamiliar them?
• What would be the hardest thing for you to leave behind? What could make it easier for you to accept living without that person/ place/thing in your new home?
Extension:
• Students can be asked to write a reflection on the item they have selected that is most important to them, to explain why it is significant.