IndyKids Teacher’s Guide: Issue #23, January/February 2010

Pages 1 & 2: UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

Activities:

1. Hold a debate and think about some of the reasons people might be for and against the United States ratifying the Convention.
2. Brainstorm and write a list of rights that you believe that children should have.
3. Go to this UN site to read the full Convention: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm

(It is also easy to find the Convention text by doing a Google search.)  Underline the key point of each Article, as IndyKids did on the cover. What rights are most important to you personally and why?

1. Go to the UNICEF website: http://www.unicef.org/voy/ and post an opinion to the “Join the Discussion blog. This is a forum where kids discuss different topics related to children’s rights.
2. Ask an older relative or a person from another country about how children’s rights are/were protected. Write about whether or not you have these rights in the U.S.
3. Discussion: What rights should children have? Where do rights come from? How are rights protected?

Page 2:

Meet Jermaine from Guam

Activity: For students with family or friends living in other countries, have them create a similar profile of a person they know abroad.

Activity: What is the official language of your classroom? What other languages are spoken? Take a piece of paper, fold in half lengthwise, cut in two. Lay the two strips on top of each other and fold in two to create a small 8-page book. Staple at the crease. Create dual language dictionaries, using alphabetical order and definitions students create on their own.

College Students Say No to Fee Increase

Math Activity: If tuition were $10,000 per year, how much would it increase if it went up by another 32%?  In how many years would the price double?

Discussion: In the United States, K-12 schools are generally free for any student who wants to attend.  What about college? Who should pay for college? What can be done to make tuition free?

When School Food Fights Lead to Jail

Activity: Interview one of the police or security officers at your school.  Find out if s/he is a police officer, how s/he was trained, what are the most important parts of the job, etc.

Discussion: What do you think would be a fair consequence for a food fight? How can food fights be prevented? Are there police in your school? How do they make you feel? If there are no police in your school, what would you think about having them? Referring back to the cover on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, is there a connection between children’s rights and police in schools?

Page 3:

Environment Summit

Definitions: What do binding and non-binding mean?

Activity: Have a debate between a rich country and a poor country that explores the positions of the rich polluting country and the developing country.

Discussion question: Watch the Annie Leonard short film, “Cap and Trade,” http://www.storyofstuff.com/capandtrade/

What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of cap and trade agreements?

Briefs

Hunger Rising in the U.S.: Calculate the percent increase in hunger from 2007 to 2008.

Schools Shut Down:

Find out what is the school closest to you to be shut down. Research and find out why it is being closed and who made the decision.  Interview students there and find out what they think about the decision.

Pages 4 and 5: Berry Blues

Activities:

1. Math: Find out how much blueberries cost at a store. How much would a gallon cost? What percentage of this cost is paid to the workers?
2. Math: If the average income of a migrant worker is $15,000 and the tuition for one year of college at the University of California is $10,000, what percentage of their income will they spend on tuition?
3. Based on the quotations from In Their Own Words and other information from the article, create a chart with pros and cons for working in the farms.
4. Watch and discuss the “Children in the Fields” short video at: http://www.afoprograms.org/?page_id=281

Resource: Rethinking Globalization, Teaching for Justice in an Unjust World, Edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson, is a packed with information and classroom activities on the topic of child labor: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/publication/rg/

Page 6:

Book Review: 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth

Activity: Find this book in the library and see if there are any activities that you and classmates could do.

School Lunches

1. Interview kids in other classes about what they think of the school lunch.  If you could change it, how would you?  If you feel your school lunches should change, research how you would you go about making changes to the lunch offered at your school.
2. Analyze your menu for the week.  What percentage of each meal is meat, dairy, grains and vegetables?

Chinese New Year

1. Compare and contrast Chinese New Year vs. New Year in the United States
2. What foods would you eat in the New Year to symbolize good luck?  What traditions do you follow about luck?

Page 7:

Someday you could be a…

1. Can you think of anyone who fights for people’s rights?  Conduct an interview with that person.
2. Discuss who Armando organizes. What is a union? (For an additional resource on unions, see the IndyKids centerspread on labor and unions from issue # 21, September/October 2009.) Can you think of reasons why the people Armando organizes would want to join a union? Why might they not want to join a union?

Page 8:

Who Am I?

1. What issue do you feel strongly about enough that you might hold a sit-in?
2. Students have been activists in history for a long time.  What is it about being a student that makes them what to make social change?

What’s for Lunch?

1. If you have relatives in school in other countries, ask them to photograph their school lunch and send photos.
2. Which of the school lunches on the page looks the tastiest to you? Which looks the healthiest?  What about the cultures where these lunches come from reflect what you know about the culture?  (For example, who eats more bread and who eats more rice?  Why?)
3. Reflect and write an essay about how what you eat reflects your culture, family or personal values.  What would you eat if you could?

Secrets of Congo

Read the full cartoon at http://indykids.net/main/2010/01/secrets-of-congo/, (Or type in “Congo” in the search engine at www.indykids.net.) Then make your own graphic novel like these kids in the Democratic Republic of Congo did.  Some topics might include topics from this issue of IndyKids: working in the blueberry fields, kids rights, etc.

Have your students write their own letters to the editor to IndyKids.  Letters on any topic are welcome.  Please mail letters to indykids@indymedia.org or to PO Box 2281, New York, NY 10163