2 METERS LATER

To illuminate this period of social distancing and offer you meaningful activities, Equitas has adapted some of its activities to offer them online.

Here is the online version of The curtain comes down, drawn from Building Inclusive Communities.

This activity can be facilitated in-person, in a small group, while respecting social distancing.

• Age: 6+
• Time: 20 min
• Purpose: To get to know more about each other; To experience teamwork and to think about how working together can help us achieve our goals and how everyone succeeds when we cooperate; To learn to communicate while respecting physical distancing.

You can download the instructions of this activity as a PDF to share it more easily: 2 METERS LATER activity - PDF

Material:

• No material required

How to play:

1. Ask children to form 2 lines facing each other. Indicate to children in the 1st line is line A and that the 2nd line is line B. Make sure that there is a distance of 2 meters between all children that are on the same line and that there also is 2 meters between the lines A and B. Each child in line A has to be facing another child on line B.
2. Upon your instruction, children should address the child in front of them, on the opposite line, and give them:
   1. Their name
   2. Their favorite color
      
      Careful! Children do not have the right to move towards their partners. Invite children to be creative if they are not able to hear their partners speaking because of the distance or the noise.
3. After a minute invite 2-3 children to share their partner’s answer to the whole group.
4. Have the children in line A turn around to turn their backs to the children in line B. Invite the children in line B to change place among themselves so that they face a new partner in line A. When everyone is in place, have the children in line A turn around to face line B.
5. Upon your instruction, children should address the child in front of them, on the opposite line, and mime to them:
   1. Their favorite animal
   2. Their favorite meal
      
      Careful! Children do not have the right to move towards their partners.
6. After a minute, invite 2-3 children to share their partner’s answer to the whole group.
7. Inverse step 4. Have the children in line B turn around to turn their backs to the children in line A. Invite the children in line A to change place among themselves so that they face a new partner in line B. When everyone is in place, have the children in line B turn around to face line A.
8. Upon your instruction, children should address the child in front of them, on the opposite line, and find:
   1. A thing they both love
   2. A thing they both hate
      Careful! Children do not have the right to move towards their partners. Invite children to be creative if they are not able to hear their partners speaking because of the distance or the noise.
9. After a minute, invite 2-3 children to share something they have in common with their partner to the whole group.
10. You can repeat these steps as many times as you like by asking the children age-appropriate questions: their favorite character, whether they have siblings, their country of origin, etc. You can add additional challenges by asking them to communicate in a variety of ways. (e.g., with feet only, eyes closed, dancing, etc.).

Group discussion:

Feel:

1. Did you like this game? Why?
2. Was it hard to understand each other because of the distance between you?

Think:

1. Did you learn that you had some things in common with others?
2. What did you learn on people in your group?
3. What strategies did you use to get to understand each other despite the distance?

Act:

1. How can we get to know each other?
2. How can we make sure to collaborate, communicate and play together, while respecting physical distancing?

Human rights education for building welcoming and inclusive spaces.

This activity uses our 3-step participatory approach to promote learning about human rights and human rights values leading to action:

1. Children and youth participate in activities that promote learning about human rights and human rights values (e.g. inclusion, respect for diversity, responsibility).
2. Children and youth discuss how an activity made them feel, what it made them think about, and what they can change (act) in their own attitudes and behaviours and those of their peers.
3. Together children and youth take action to promote respect for human rights values and children’s rights, and greater understanding, acceptance and inclusion in their classrooms, school playgrounds and communities.

Creative Commons Licence

Except where otherwise noted, content in this document is licensed under Creative Commons, Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Where material is attributed to a copyright owner other than Equitas, this material is not subject to the Creative Commons licence.

• If you have not modified the material in anyway, use the following: Equitas – International Centre for Human Rights Education. Speaking Rights: Human Rights Education Toolkit for Youth is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
• If you have modified, adapted or remixed the material in anyway, use the following: This work, [NAME OF YOUR PUBLICATION] is adapted from Equitas – International Centre for Human Rights Education’s Speaking Rights: Human Rights Education Toolkit for Youth used under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. [NAME OF YOUR PUBLICATION] is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.