– The PLACES Stories
In this compartment you will find eight stories created especially to create learning and engagement around the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the European Union as an active player to create a sustainable development.
The stories are suitable for working with various aspects of UN’s global goals no. 3, 4 and 10 with a particular focus on well-being, cooperation and inclusion. Some of the stories also touch upon issues related to other SDGs or the importance of collaboration between countries in the EU.
Each story has been tagged with some of the topics that we think the story invites to talk about. These tags are only for you as a teacher to get a quick overview and an idea of how to use the stories in your teaching. Revealing them to pupils in advance is often fatal, so we do not recommend that you do that. It can have a negative influence on both their spontaneous listening and experience with the story, as well as their motivation and success in including their own experiences, as well as in using playful activities to arrive at the perceptions each story is a possible entry point to.
The stories are designed for different age groups and the videos are available in two versions; one with and another without an ending. This makes it possible to work with the stories in many different ways, beyond the methods suggested on the activity cards you find here (link).
In the classroom – or elsewhere – you can use the stories in many different ways.
Here are a few proposals for different ways you can use the stories.
You can watch the stories yourself and tell them to your pupils in your own way. If you feel like it, you can make them longer or shorter or modify details, so they fit your specific pupils and school context.
One or more of the pupils can watch one of the stories and tell it to the rest of the class.
You can watch the story without ending together and then go into groups to imagine the ending.
Elder pupils can watch the stories for the younger age group and tell them to the younger ones.
Elder pupils can modify them to better suit an audience of their own age.
Next to each story we have given concrete examples of how each story can be used in teaching together with different playful activities that you find in the third compartment of the learning toolbox.
The playful teaching activity cards that are called “STORY BONES” suit all the stories. The same do activities called “Playful Story Building”, “Stories into Movement”, “Storytelling Theatre” and “Playing with Variations of a Story”.
We hope that you will like the PLACES stories and enjoy using them in your teaching
#performance anxiety #collaboration #inclusion #process versus test
Only once a year do they come. The dragons. And they stay only one night in the caves on top of the mountain. Then it’s time for the dragon dancer test.
You can only succeed if you get hold of a dragon scale, so throughout the year pupils in the two villages at the foot of the mountain have been practicing the art of net and knife. But in the two cities they prepare the dragon dancer test in completely different ways …
In one village, the children train solely in attacking with nets and knives. In the other, they explore alternative uses for these tools—collecting resources, cooking, and crafting TOGETHER.
When the dragons arrive, the children from the first village rush up the mountain. Since they only know how to use their tools for a single purpose, they grow hungry and cold on their journey. They are terrified of the dragon in the cave they enter and attempt to collect its scales individually. Some succeed, while others fail and must return home empty-handed.
The group from the second village helps one another to find food and stay warm as they climb towards the dragons. They use their provisions and tools in multiple ways, working together with each other and the dragon to gather scales as a team. They return home jubilant—with scales for everyone.
#economic inequality #social inclusion #collaboration
The sun shines on an ordinary small town. You know, the kind of town where most people know each other, but many keep to themselves. But on this day, a strange van stops in the town park, and a small family comes out with a very special stone …
A girl greets them and sees them start making soup with only water and a stone.
Can you do that? The father of the family replies that it would be better with a little salt and herbs.
The girl helps them collect various additional ingredients from the inhabitants in the village.
Some villagers are happy to share more ingredients, some don’t give away any ingredients, and some have no food to share but can share musical instruments or bowls and spoons.
In the end, everyone participates in different ways, shares what they have, and together they create a wonderful soup that everyone shares in the park in the middle of the village.
This story is a variation of a traditional folk tale that can be found in different versions throughout Europe. The stranger or strangers coming to town, are in some stories a group as is the case in this version, but in other stories it is a lone monk, soldier or vagabond. In Northern Europe, the stone is most often a nail, while in other countries it can be completely different things. But we share the tradition of the basic story.
#conflict resolution #understanding different perspectives #the social function of the class
Blue-eyed Bianca and green-eyed Gregor never agree on anything. And to collaborate? Forget it! But on the class school trip, something very strange happens …
Bianca and Gregor both think the other always wants to take control of everything. The class goes on a cabin trip to a big old lodge near a forest. Here, they are tasked with doing teamwork exercises in groups, and the teachers pair Bianca and Gregor together. It doesn’t work at all.
In the evening, during a night run, Bianca and Gregor encounter an old lady with a cat. They make her angry, and she says some strange things.
The next morning, they discover that each of them now has one blue eye and one green eye. They also realize that they better understand each other’s perspective.
When they leave the place, their eye colours return to normal—except for a small trace that stays with them forever.
#non-violent conflict resolution #peer-to-peer learning #mental health #capacity for change
14-year-old Michael is called ‘Stunner’ because he ‘stuns’ his classmates. He hits them very hard on their shoulders. In a way, it has become part of his role in the class. And he plays it well. But one day, by mistake, he has been called to be a substitute in the 2nd grade, and there is a conflict between 2 younger boys in the classroom. What to do? Should he stun them?
He shouts, but the boys continue to fight. They offer opposing explanations for the conflict, and Michael makes them listen to each other and repeat what the other is saying. This helps them to understand each other, and soon, calm is restored, allowing him to start teaching.
When the teacher comes back to the class, everyone tells her how well Michael managed as a substitute.
During recess, younger pupils ask Michael for help to sort out their quarrels and conflicts. Both Michael himself and his classmates are positively surprised, and he actually enjoys his new role. He even makes a new friend.
#self-image #self-esteem #social comparison #self-acceptance #peer pressure
“Max life”. That was the name of Max’s Instagram profile. And everything on the profile looked super nice and expensive. It was all very well arranged, edited and “filtered”. Because it is of maximum importance how life looks from the outside. Isn’t that true….?
Max’ mother is managing his Instagram account. She filters reality, making it look much better than it really is, to gain more followers for both Max and her.
At school, the other pupils and the teacher are interested in Max, but only because he has so many followers and gets to eat great food.
“Max Life” reaches its peak when the world-famous influencer “Starfish” starts following Max.
But then, Max and his mother lose access to the account. A hacker has taken control of it and removed all the filters from the photos. Max’ mother is furious. The number of followers descends rapidly.
The classmates and the teacher turn their back on him, mocking him.
Except for one girl who shows that a normal life can also be something truly special, and she even posts pictures on her account without editing them at all!
#social inclusion and exclusion #self-esteem #learning process #fear of failure #mental health
Do you know that “noisy silence” that can descend when the teacher has asked a question out in the open? When there isn’t even the sound of fabric against fabric as a sign of pupils raising their hands? Tops raised her hand. There were signs of relief from all the others. Yes! Way to go, Tops! But her answer is wrong …
Her 2 best classmates, who had just cheered her on, as well as the teacher laughed at her. Tops was let alone for the entire school break and got her shoes wet in a big puddle. Once again, the other kids laughed at her. Tops went home upset and found her mum laughing at her too. Tops swore she would never leave her room again!
But from the window in her room, Tops witnessed how a young child learned to walk by trying, falling, getting up and just keep on trying.
She began investigating how both nature and businesses adapt to the fact that it takes many attempts to achieve a breakthrough—and that one learns from mistakes, as well as from acknowledging them.
Tops returned to school and suggested to their teacher that the class should celebrate mistakes with an Olympics of mistakes.
If you want to further explore this story with your pupils, we think that for example the PLACES Playful activity card “The Olympics of Mistakes” works particularly well.
#peer pressure #self-esteem #support #understanding different perspectives
You know the classic image of a person having a little angel on one shoulder and a little devil on the other? Which one should we listen to and believe? One day Anna wakes up and can see creatures on her own shoulders. But they are not only caricatures of good and evil; they are miniature versions of her parents, and other people who allow themselves to have an opinion about who she is and what she does.
At school, they discuss the upcoming dancing lesson in gym class at the end of the day. Both Anna and her friend Sophie want to dance with Benjamin—definitely not with “Smelly Pete.”
In the reflection of the classroom window, Anna notices that Pete also has figures on his shoulders. Several, and none of them look like they are kind. She realizes that all her classmates have figures on their shoulders—some are supportive, while others weigh them down with fierce criticism.
In the end, the teacher forces Anna and “Smelly Pete” to dance together, despite Anna’s protests.
In the gym’s mirror, Anna sees that Pete now has a new figure on his shoulder: Herself, rejecting him.
This prompts Anna to reflect on whether she wants to be someone who drags people down or lifts them up. She chooses the latter.
#environmental pollution #active learning and citizenship #empowerment of pupils
Anna lives in the southern town and has just started her summer vacation. Recently she heard about “Rainbow bubbles,” that was said to be the best shampoo in the world—and it certainly feels good!
After her shower, using “Rainbow bubbles”, she heads down to the river to swim with her friends. When she gets home, her skin starts itching terribly. In the following days, she notices how the reeds along the river are drooping, and the water smells awful.
She follows the river northward and, near the northern town, she sees a large pipe dumping sludge into the river. She meets Robert, who is fishing and coughing. He says his coughing is caused by the large factories in the southern town, while Anna believes the now-polluted river in the south is due to the pipe in the north dumping sludge into the water.
Together, they walk along the river, meet two other young people, and see how the river is treated by themselves and others. They film it and discuss what they can do.