20 • MODULE FIVE: DECISION-MAKING
Directions
ACTIVITY ONE
What Should I Do?
- Ask the children to observe what you are doing:
Action Ask What children may say
Pick up a book What is it? Book
Sit and pretend to type What am I doing? Typing
Sit and pretend to play the harmonium What am I doing? Playing the harmonium
Make a fierce face, showing teeth and What am I? Different answers such as a devil, a
make hands tightly clenched. bear, a witch, angry
- Discuss why there was an agreement among the children in their answer to the first example.
It was because they could see what the object was.
Why was there an agreement on the first two? Because they had seen the same thing and
could remember.
Ask why, although the actions were similar (working on some instrument) in number two and
three, the children could tell the difference? Because the body posture and hand movements
were different.
Why was there a difference in the last action? Because children used their own imagination
and different memories. - Discuss how experiences in our past influence how we make decisions.
Inform the children that we will be doing another activity. Ask children to sit in a circle. Give
each a cloth bag filled with some objects. The facilitator goes to each person and asks her/
him to feel (not look) inside the bag. Give each child a very short time, say 15 seconds, to feel
the bag. - After everyone has finished, ask the children what was in the bag. The facilitator then shows
the contents.
Review
Though all the children handled the same objects, were there differences in their answers about
what the bag contained? Why was it so? Do our past experiences influence our decisions or the
way we look at problems? Discuss the need to look at problems in many different ways.