Hot Chocolate River

Fun and games out in the open can offer a far deeper and meaningful learning than being always stuck inside the classroom, as we recently reconfirmed. About 20 children from classes 3-5 were split up in two teams for this activity called "Hot Chocolate River".

Each team had to cross this boiling river of chocolate without letting any of their body parts touch it. Instead, they had some paper plates on which they could step on and navigate their way with the condition that each paper plate had to be in human contact at all times, failing which it would "dissolve" in the river, leaving the team one less plate and so making the crossing tougher. The real catch in all this is that any one member of the team failing to cross the river means the whole team loses. 

The kids began in a predictable way, i.e. looking out only for themselves and not for their teammates. Some kids were seen celebrating upon 'crossing the river' and had to be reminded that it meant nothing if the all others are not able to do the same. Soon enough, after a few false starts, the kids began to grasp what was really going on- i.e. if one fails, then everybody fails. Then began the strategies, team-work, motivating each other, watching over their mates and so on. 30 minutes into the game, both teams were finally able to 'reach the other shore'. 

Later on, we had a discussion on the the visible inter-connectedness and inter-relationships between all things and beings using simple examples. The hope is that the kids were able to think beyond the usual framework of competition, self-centeredness, envy etc. and perhaps catch a glimpse of the possibility of there being another way of living. 

Fingers crossed!