This activity is all about celebrating difference – understanding that we all have different strengths, but that we are equally valuable. It is also a chance to reflect on how people are sometimes told they can or can’t do something because of their gender, or the colour of their skin, but that everyone can become what they want no matter their gender identity or ethnicity.
Before you start
- ‘Animal farm’ picture copied for everyone or in pairs (appendix)
- Scissors for everyone or for pairs
- Coloured pencils (optional)
What to do
Distribute the ‘animal farm’ pictures to every child or small groups of children and ask the children to cut out the
different animals and/or colour them in.
Ask the participants to put the animals in an order according to how well they can climb a tree. If you don’t
have scissors, they can do this by writing the numbers next to the animals.
Come together in a circle to compare the orders different groups chose. Ask the group:
- What does it say about the animals if they can climb a tree?
- Does it make them better animals?
- Is it fair to judge a fish according to how well they can climb a tree?
- Are there things that other animals can do well? What about your favourite animal?
- Can you compare this with humans?
After discussion, ask participants to pick an animal that has characteristics or can do things that they would like to have/do in their lives. They should not tell anyone which animal they chose.
Now sit in a circle. One after the other, the children can act out their animal and the others guess who they are.
Then they can briefly say why they chose that animal.
Discussion Questions
- Does it matter if you are a boy or a girl for what/ how you want to be? Why (not)
- How do you want to be?
- Do you think you can be like this in real life? Why (not)?
This activity is adapted from IFM-SEI Rainbow Resources, find more activities like it here.
