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Tutor Time Activity Ideas: 7-11 Years

Tutor Time Activity Ideas: 7-11 Years

Activity 1: Exploring Solange's World

Students can explore Solange's world – where she lives, her life and her feelings by studying her photographs.

What you need:
  • A selection of Solange's photos (available in the Resource Bank)
  • A3 paper
  • Pens
  • Post it notes (optional)

Students look at two or three photos in pairs or groups and do some detective work, in finding out as much as they can about each photo. Suggested themes for photos to use are:

  • Solange and her family working on the dump
  • Solange and her family
  • Solange and her sister at Passage House

Put up a list of questions on the board to help guide them in discussion. Here is a suggested list:

  • Where was the image taken?
  • What is Solange doing?
  • Who are the other people in the photo? What are they doing?
  • What are they saying to each other?
  • How do you think they are feeling?
  • What is the environment like?
  • Are there any difficulties or problems in the image, and what action could be taken to tackle them?
  • What might happen next?
  • How does the image make you feel?

Students write or draw their answers and share with the class. Highlight any interesting points that are raised and put them on the board.

Adding captions

Students can write their own captions for each photo, highlighting what Solange or whoever is in the photo could be thinking or feeling.

To round up, highlight what students have learnt in this exercise. If you asked students to discuss question 7, remind them of the actions they suggested that could help Solange and her family and explain how raising money for Sport Relief is an action they could take to help a child like Solange.

Interactive Brazil Map

To further the exploration of Solange's world, students can go to the interactive Brazil map, by downloading an interactive whiteboard or by clicking here.

Solange's film

Students can also watch Solange's story on the Schools' DVD or online.

Activity 2: Challenge Tree

Students look at what Solange or Jack's biggest challenges are. They then think about what their own challenges are and how they can overcome them. To further explore this, they can make a ‘Challenge Tree' as a class.

What you need:

Explain to students they are going to hear or watch a story about a child who is facing serious challenges or difficulties (using either Solange or Jack's story). Once they have seen or heard one of the stories, ask them to list all the challenges or difficulties they faced. Write answers on the board.

Students then share in pairs what their own challenges or difficulties are – e.g. certain subjects they find difficult, learning how to play a sport or instrument. Ask students to think about how they can try and overcome their challenge.

Students draw around their hand, cut it out and write their challenge and how they think they can overcome it on their paper hand. Once they have made their paper challenge hand, students can put them altogether to make a ‘Challenge Tree' where the tree shape is drawn out on a large piece of paper and the hands are stuck on to form the leaves.

Activity 3: Exploring Jack's World

Students can explore Jack's world by studying his photographs.

What you need:
  • A selection of Jack's photos (available in the Resource Bank)
  • A3 paper
  • Pens
  • Post it notes (optional)

Students study two or three photos in pairs or groups and discuss each photo.

Put up a list of questions on the board to help guide them in their detective work. Here is a suggested list:

  • What is Jack doing?
  • Who are the other people in the photo? What are they doing?
  • What are they saying to each other?
  • How do you think they are feeling?
  • What sort of responsibilities does Jack have?
  • Are there any difficulties or problems in the image, and what action could be taken to tackle them?
  • What might happen next?
  • How does the image make you feel?

Students write or draw their answers and share with the class. Highlight any interesting points that are raised and put them on the board.

Adding captions

Students can write their own captions for each photo, highlighting what Jack or whoever is in the photo could be thinking or feeling.

To round up, point out what students have learnt by looking at a photo, and how images can express lots of things. If you asked students to discuss question 7, remind them of the actions they suggested that could help Jack and explain how raising money for Sport Relief is an action they could take to help a child like Jack.

Jack's film

Students can also watch Jack's story on the Schools' DVD or online.

Activity 4: This is your life!

Students can make a journal or scrapbook of their lives, using photos or drawings, imagining they are describing their life to a child, like Solange, who lives in Brazil.

What you need:

Students either watch Solange's film online or on the Schools' DVD, or look at Solange's PowerPoint.

Encourage students to consider the following questions when watching the film or looking at the PowerPoint photos:

  • What is the weather like?
  • Where does Solange live?
  • What kind of clothes are people wearing?
  • What is it like where they live?
  • What are Solange's hobbies?
  • What are Solange's likes and dislikes?
  • What kind of pets or animals does Solange have?
  • What kind of food do they eat?

As a response to Solange's story, students are challenged to create their own story in drawings or photos, and imagine that a child in Brazil is going to see them. Students can use the above questions as guidelines to draw or take colour photos of different parts of their life and put them together in a scrapbook or journal.

The drawings or photos students take can be of objects, places, other people, or themselves.

Activity 5: Carnival Fun!

Get students to get creative and design their own Brazilian carnival costume!

What you need:
  • Samba music
  • Interactive Brazil map
  • Photos of Brazilian carnivals can be found by seraching online Students to look at photos of Brazilian carnivals, either on the interactive Brazil map, on the Rio de Janeiro page or look at photos online. Ask students to find out why Brazilians have carnivals, and what sort of festivals they are celebrating, by looking on the interactive Brazil map or by using online search engines.

Play the samba music and ask students if they know what type of music it is. Explain that it is Samba music and is usually played at carnivals in Brazil.

Photos of Brazilian carnivals can be found by searching online.

Students to look at photos of Brazilian carnivals, either on the interactive Brazil map, on the Rio de Janeiro page or look at photos online. Ask students to find out why Brazilians have carnivals, and what sort of festivals they are celebrating, by looking on the interactive Brazil map or by using online search engines.

Once students have found out why Brazilians have carnivals and have seen photos of carnivals, ask them to think about something they would like to celebrate at their own carnival, such as Christmas or their birthday. Once they have decided what they want to celebrate, students design their own float or carnival costume.

Activity 6: Sports Quiz

Get students set for Sport Relief 2008 with this fun and interactive quiz. Students can even organise their own quiz to raise money for Sport Relief!

What you need:

Students get into teams, or you can play as a whole class. There are 5 rounds to this quiz, so you can either play it all at once, or stagger each round across a number of lessons.

If you are using the Interactive Whiteboard version, download it on to your desktop and open it from there. Download the vote cards (PDF’s) and print some for each team. Go through each question, asking each team or the class for their answer. Each team holds up a voting card to show which answer they have chosen (either A, B or C). Click on A, B or C (depending on which answers have been chosen) where the answers will show up on the screen. Each team (or the class) needs to keep track of how many questions they get right. The team with the most points at the end, wins!

For the PDF version, read each question aloud, allowing for each team or the class to hold their voting cards to show which answer they have chosen (download the vote cards PDF and print as many as necessary). Then turn to the back pages of the Sports Quiz PDF sheet for the answers. Each team or the class needs to keep track of how many questions they get right. The team with the most points at the end, wins!

Solange
Jack
Camera
Carnival
Quiz