actividades.gif

Sensitivity can be understood as the faculty to experience physical impressions, and this is a function that corresponds to the nerves, and it is related directly to the psychic process of perception, but also with the faculty to feel vividly, and in this case it is connected with emotions, the feelings of humanity and compassion, and directly with all the manifestations of art. From this point of view sensitivity is very much linked with the affective processes.

The child must have feelings about the things around him, because this is the first step to be able to feel about more complex aspects of the human activity. If the child is taught from a very early age to be fond of a pet, a dog or a kitten, the foundations for the development of an attitude of care and protection of the animals are being laid; if he is taught to cultivate a rose, we instil in him the love for nature; if we guide him to help a disabled person, the bases of human compassion and cooperation are laid.

Also the love for music, for a plastic work of art, for a literary story, among other many manifestations of the human conduct, have in their base the possibility of feeling, of being touched before something seen. They can all demonstrate the sensitivity of a child towards the things of the world that surrounds him.

Sensitivity, as a value or human quality, therefore, cannot be worked directly in a pedagogical way, but through activities that in their base promote and bring up basic feelings and not only knowledge, activities that are to be very diverse but in which affection is always prioritized.

The child has to be taught how to be touched by beautiful things from the earliest age, this constitutes the base on which sensitivity, in its more general sense, is formed. In addition, what distinguishes a pedagogical activity focused to form the sensitivity from any other cognitive, is that positive experiences are developed and the child is touched vividly with what is taught to him.

ACTIVITY No 1
"HOW AM I?"

Summary of the activity: The activity consists of the initial narration of a story by Solomon, the puppet, to arouse sensitivity in the children, in the second part there will be a description about the story and, later, the children will draw on what was described and related, and finally, there will be a group eevaluation.

Objectives:
• To teach the boys and girls to value themselves in comparison with the characters or little animals of stories, poems, etc.
• To explore the children’s sensitivity before touching situations.

Procedures:
• Narration
• Description
• Questions and answers

Material Resources: Serialized pictures with the development of the story, temperas, brushes, and other plastic art materials. Solomon, the puppet.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator gathers the children and he tells them that Solomon, the puppet, is going to visit them because he has an extreme interest in knowing how they are like. He handles the puppet in the way that he wishes: on the top of a table, leaning behind a fabric, in his own hand. Later Solomon addresses the children:

"Hello, little friends. I have come to tell you a story to know how you feel when you listen to it. It is a very pretty story and you must pay a lot of attention in order to understand it. It is called “The Blue Bird ".

The Blue Bird

In a lost village in the forest there lived a very young couple, in an old cabin that had belonged to the grandparents of the villager. Although the man had everything he needed, he did not feel very happy, because he thought that he was not happy, in spite of the love of his wife. One good day he got up and told his wife:

"I have had a wonderful dream. In it, the blue bird of happiness appeared to me, and I felt tremendously happy to have it. It also told me that if I found it I would always be very happy".

The woman felt very sad, because she loved her husband very much, but she did not say anything to him when he, packing some clothes in a rucksack, said to her:

"I am going to look for the blue bird of happiness. And when I bring it back we will be both very happy".

And like that, one good day he started to walk along the ways of this world. And he walked, and walked, and walked, looking for the blue bird of his dream, which he never found. He travelled through many places for many years, and little by little he was getting older, until one day, tired of walking so much, he returned to the lost village in the forest, very sad, because he thought that he was going to find it alone and abandoned, without that woman whom he had loved a lot.

And here it is, that when he arrived at the cabin he found a sweet old woman. The years had not managed to erase her charm and her innocence. It was his wife who had waited for him all those years! And it was then that he realised that true happiness was not in the blue bird that he never found, but in that cabin where her wife had waited for him all those years.

After the story is finished Solomon will ask questions, such as:
Did you like the story of the blue bird?
How did you feel when you listened to it?
Have you been touched?
What would you have done: would you have travelled like the villager or stayed at home like the wife?
How would you like to be when you get older?

2nd Part
The educator shows the pictures with the main scenes of the story "The Blue Bird", such as:

1. The cabin of the forest and the couple doing their daily chores.
2. The man dreaming about the blue bird.
3. The farewell, when he leaves to look for the bird, the wife saying goodbye to him at the door with a sad face.
4. The old villager returning to the cabin.
5. The couple embracing each other after so many years.

The children will describe the images, in which the educator has to try that the children do not focus in the objective details, but in describing the feelings that the characters show in each scene.

3rd Part
This is an art activity in which the educator will ask the children to draw scenes about the story that Solomon has told. With the drawings the class will prepare an exhibition called "How am I?”, where, based on the story of the Blue Bird the children reflect everything that caused them a lively emotion.

4th Part
In a meeting in the classroom, the educator will bring up the story of the Blue Bird and will develop a conversation where the children can express their experiences, make self-evaluations and talk about their feelings on any aspect of their daily life.

Once it has been verified that they have understood and know how to describe the negative and positive qualities, and to compare them with the previous reference, the educator can ask each boy or girl:
Which characters of the story do you look like, and why?
Which character would you portray?
Do you know what happiness is?
Why do you think the villager went away if he was happy?

The educator has to make sure that each one of the children expresses freely, helping them to verbalize why they think that the character acted in that way, and how they would act, making sure that everybody participates, but if it is necessary he can work with half of the group at a time.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They had at the beginning of the activity some notions about being happy.
They knew how to make an acceptable analysis about the villager.
They showed interest in following the story that was told to them.
They declared to feel moved during the different activities done.
They managed to make a simple self-evaluation of their feelings.

ACTIVITY No 2
"I AM GOING TO DRAW HOW I AM"

Summary of the activity: It consists of an art activity; in the first part the children will draw a self-portrait, in the second part they will talk about their work, and in the third part the works are placed in an album.

Objectives:
• To reinforce the children’s self-evaluation.
• To teach them to explore their feelings and experiences.

Procedures:
• Analysis
• Questions and answers
• Practical Actions

Material Resources: Art materials (brushes, pencils, highlighters, temperas, sheets, fine cardboard), photo album. A large mirror.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator places the art materials on the tables and explains to the children that they are going to draw themselves. For this, they can look at themselves in a great mirror. The children must work individually if possible.

2nd Part
The educator asks each child to describe his drawing, helping those who were not able to do a complete picture of themselves. When they have all expressed their criteria on themselves, the educator will create a new situation and introduces it through the following activities and questions:

"Very well, you have expressed and drawn in those drawings how you are, but until now you have only said how you are on the "outside". Now we are going to do another activity saying how you are in the “inside." If the children have difficulties to understand the objective, the educator will give them examples, such as:
"I am calm, I like listening to music and fairytales"
"I am very sentimental, whenever I hear a sad story, I am touched"
"Sometimes I get angry when they ask me to do things that I do not like"

The important thing of this activity is that the children make a self-exploration and description of their internal experiences and feelings. The educator will insist on the fact that there is an “outside” and an “inside” for each person, and that the children must learn to know how they are in both aspects.

3rd Part
In this part the children, together with the educator, will place their drawings in the "Group Album", where we can also add photos of each one. This album has to be shown in some activity with the parents, and can be left in the classroom.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They had some notions on how they are when they begin the activities.
They were able to make an acceptable description of their external characteristics.
They could make a simple analysis of their internal qualities.
They showed interest in the activity and they demonstrated to feel moved in its accomplishment.
They managed to make a simple general self-evaluation at the end of the activity.

ACTIVITY No 3
"LET'S SEE HOW WE ARE"

Summary of the activity: In this activity there is a game that introduces several stories about different human feelings: love, friendship, understanding, in it the children will have to describe those feelings and relate them to themselves, finally by means of a conversation, they will analyze these behaviors.

Objectives: That the children learn to critically analyze the feelings expressed in stories.

Procedures:
• Game
• Stories
• Questions and answers
• Conversation

Material Resources: Texts of several stories, a cassette recorder.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator will explain the game to the children and he will organize the group in the following way:

A red team, formed by three or four children, which will describe the main feelings that are in the first story.

A blue team, also of three or four children, which will describe the feelings of the second story.

The rest of the classroom will be "the jury" or "the judges", who will evaluate the performance of the teams.

The rules of the game are:
1. - If a team does not know how to express well a story, the opportunity will go to the other team.
2. - The team that expreses in an ampler and well founded way the feelings that are in the stories will be the winner.
The educator will select stories known by the children, and that were used in other activities with different aims, and he will add parts to them so that they generate diverse feelings. For example he can select these two:

"Maria always pretended to be ill when her mother asked her to wash up the dishes, or to sweep the house. Little Maria was a girl who was not sincere with her mother. But her mother, although she knew that sometimes Maria deceived her, ignored it, because she loved her daughter very much.
One good day, Maria became really ill, but her mother thinking that she was pretending again did not pay attention to her, and the girl suffered for a long time until her mother realized that it was true and gave her some medicine."

"One day, Jorgito was playing with his pet cat and broke his mother’s beautiful porcelain vase. When he told his little friend Daniela, she advised him to tell his mother that it was the cat that broke it, but when his mother arrived Jorgito told her all the truth and she forgave him.
Daniela was very impressed by Jorgito’s conduct, and she promised that she would never tell a lie to her parents."

These two stories are only examples taken from other activities, but the educator can create others, according to the characteristics of his group, but always making sure that it is possible to analyze the sensitivity of the characters.

2nd Part
Once the winners are selected, the educator will play the recordings of the previous activity and there will be a conversation to analyze the attitude of Maria, Jorgito, Daniela and of the mothers of Maria and Jorgito. The educator will let the children express their ideas freely, and later he will emphasize that to be sensitive it is necessary to show the most positive feelings, because sensitivity always implies love, kindness, sincerity, understanding and help.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They were able to identify several feelings in the stories that were told to them.
They needed help to identify the most important feelings shown in the stories.
They knew how to analyze the positive aspect of the conducts and to relate it to some aspect of their daily life.
They needed help to be able to analyze the conducts shown in the stories.
They managed to relate some feelings to the fact of being sensitive.

ACTIVITY No 4
"LET'S MAKE UP A STORY"

Summary of the activity: The activity begins with a conversation during which the educator will remind the children the story of the blue bird, and later they will make up their own stories on the people they know that are sensitive.

Objectives: To develop in the children knowledge about sensitive people.

Procedures:
• Stories
• Questions and answers

Material Resources: Cassette recorder.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
In an informal meeting of the group, the educator will remind the children of the story "The Blue Bird".

Do you remember how the villager felt about leaving his house at the beginning of the story?

Indeed, the villager felt sad, in spite of all the love that his wife felt for him. He did not have, then, a sensitive behaviour, because he did not notice the immense affection of his wife, and he only thought about himself.

He describes again the behaviours of the villager (non- sensitive) and the wife’s (who is an example of great sensitivity).

"Now I invite you to make up a similar story, in which the people are sensitive, good and understanding. You can think about people you know or about characters from stories or cartoons, or it can be a story completely invented by you."

To achieve this task, the educator has to divide the children in as many groups as he considers convenient, each one can use the recorder in turns to record their story, which must not exceed three minutes. He can use the help of other people to handle the cassette recorder.

2nd Part
The children listen to the stories recorded by each small group, and together with the educator, they analyze and evaluate them.

The educator has to reinforce what being sensitive consists of at the end of the activity, and what it is that defines a sensitive person.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They created stories that demonstrated knowledge about sensitive people.
They needed help to create stories that demonstrated knowledge about sensitive people.
They were able to evaluate in a simple way what a sensitive conduct is.
They showed difficulties to be able to evaluate the sensitive behaviours although they are able to create them in the stories.

ACTIVITY No 5
"LET'S PUT ON A PLAY"

Summary of the activity: It consists of putting on a play with several characters in it, in this case the well-known story of "The Three Little Bears", which can be made using costumes or materials to allow for a greater portrayal of the different characters.

Objectives:
• To teach the children to dramatize a literary play, with the intonation, emphasis, and changes of shades in their voice.
• To express the emotions and feelings that the play transmit.
• To sensitize the children towards a beautiful artistic expression.

Procedures:
• Dramatization
• Conversation
• Questions and answers

Material Resources: Text of the story “The Three Little Bears", which is a universally well-known play; accessories, scenery and clothes typical of the story.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
The educator reads the story until the boys and girls learn it, giving them a correct model of expression, with the intonation, expressiveness, and emotion required.

Next the characters are distributed; the stage is prepared. The narrator’s role for the situation of the scenes will be assumed by the educator.

2nd Part
Presentation of the play, it is possible to invite children from other groups.

3rd Part
It consists of the analysis of the play, as much of its putting into practice (although with little emphasis) as basically the feelings that are expressed in it, the sensitivity of the characters, etc.

The educator has to try to emphasize the emotion and the beauty of the play, as a way to form the sensitivity in the children.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They made the dramatization in a coherent and touching way.
They needed help to carry out great part of the scenes of the dramatization.
They were able to evaluate in a simple way the feelings expressed by the characters.
They had difficulties to be able to evaluate the characters’ sensitive behaviours.
They related the characters’ sensitive behaviours to their own ones.

ACTIVITY No 6
CRITICAL EXPERIENCE FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE BLOCK
"AM I SENSITIVE?"

Summary of the activity: This is a critical experience to evaluate the block. In it each child will do a self-analysis, assessing his conduct in relation to the quality that has been presented in all the activities made (sensitivity).

Objectives:
• To verify if the children know what sensitivity is.
• To value if they know how sensitivity is shown in them.
• To determine if they prioritize sensitive actions in their conduct.

Procedures:
• Analysis
• Synthesis
• Comparison
• Conversation

Material Resources: Pictures used in previous narrations, cassette recorder.

Development of the activity:
1st Part
In it, the educator will explain to the children what they have to do to carry out their self-evaluation. One has to have the precaution to control that there are no negative comments when a child is doing his self-evaluation, to avoid damaging his self-esteem.

As it is usual that the children generally evaluate themselves in comparison with another person or character, one will take advantage of the characters of stories and dramatizations used for this purpose. It is for that reason that the analysis can be done based on comparisons. For example: Do you think about the people who surround you or you do as the villager that only thinks about himself? Do you think that the father Bear protested because it was very sensitive?

The indicators to evaluate their sensitive behaviour will be the following ones:
• If they observe the feelings of their parents, grandparents, neighbours, little friends.
• If they do not worry about how the others feel.
• If they are touched before a pretty work, or a beautiful song, or a well-done drawing.
• If they are not attracted by flowers, animals, and other natural things.
• If they feel pity for disabled people, ill children, abandoned animals.
• If when they do some activity in which they help somebody they feel moved.

The educator will lead the self-analysis explaining to each child the indicators on which he will speak, in such a way that the child knows that he is going to speak, and he can give examples to make this purpose easier. The educator will summarize this part emphasizing the positive feelings that the children have mentioned, and making them see that sensitivity has to be present in all their actions.

2nd Part
The educator will listen to the children together with the recordings done during the self-analysis, and he will promote a dynamic session to stress the positive aspects related, and to diminish the negative ones. The important thing is that the child acquires the notion of what a sensitive behaviour is, and not that the concept of what sensitivity means dominates him.

CRITERIAL ASSESSMENT
Observed conduct	YES	NO	Comments
They knew how a sensitive person acts.
They needed help to know how a sensitive person acts.
They knew how to evaluate themselves elementarily as far as the presence of sensitivity in their conduct.
They needed help to evaluate themselves in an elementary way as far as the presence of sensitivity in their conduct.