
Who are you going to give a moment of happiness to today?
Giving someone a moment of happiness. It is often very simple, but powerful at the same time. Sending a card to your sick aunt. Visiting that lonely neighbor. Doing groceries for your grandmother who has difficulty walking or just having a conversation with a local homeless person on the street.
Today you are going to make someone happy. And you decide who this is and what you are going to do for him or her. For this, the class is divided into groups of 4 to 5 pupils/students. In these groups you share your ideas with each other (everyone writes down his or her idea first), you make action plans (with the whole team or split into 2-3 groups) and you share your intentions with the others in the class. If the teacher thinks it is a good idea, you can get started and you have permission to leave the school.
Points of attention are:
- Be respectful, even if it's not your own idea!
- Take pictures/video (if people don't mind)
- Keep an eye on the time. The teacher will indicate at what time you are expected back at school at the latest.
- Divide the tasks among all team members (someone who takes the photos/video, someone who keeps track of the time, etc.)
Learning objectives
The learning objective of this lesson is threefold.
- Developing empathy by putting yourself in someone else's shoes (who can you make happy in a simple way?).
- Being open to initiatives from others (everyone can share his or her idea).
- Learning to work together.
Program (4 lessons)
The program of this lesson covers a total of 4 lessons.
- In the first hour, you will work in teams to think about what you are going to do and with whom. You will think in teams of 4 - 5 about which action(s) you are going to do (alone or with a maximum of 2 or 3 at a time). This works best if everyone in the team first writes down his or her own idea and then shares these one by one with each other, after which the best idea is jointly chosen and briefly elaborated in an action plan.
- In the second and third hour you will perform the moment of happiness. You have permission to leave the school for this (with permission from the teacher!). Come back on time.
- In the fourth hour, the results are shared with each other. The lesson is concluded with an evaluation/reflection based on the set learning goals. Everything is described in the personal mastery diary.