Life Line

What we will be doing today: Working on our past and traumatic experiences, trying to recall past fights, challenges, fears, joys and pains and practise expressive tech-niques for coping with stress.

	Warm-up activity. Pupils sit in a circle and each of them says their name in the way they like best - very loud or quiet, slow, sing-ing, joyfully, gently.
	Travelling into the past. "Relax and close your eyes. Imagine you are a balloon. The balloon is your favourite colour. You are preparing for an imaginary trip into the past...slowly, you are leaving your chair and you are flying out of the window.....through the clouds and rain....you are coming across your toys and familiar faces from the past....you are the main actor in a recent event... Do you remember what this event is about? Look around, who else is there? Everything is just the same as it was when it really happened. How do you feel? Try to keep in mind your feelings. Now, go slowly backwards in your memory.... Remember something that was really nice and pleasant, some event that made you happy. Who else is there? Can you see the scenery?... Now, remember something that was not so pleasant, when you were sad or disappointed. Are you crying? Who is beside you? Who is there to help you, to give you support?... Now, a big wind blows... and you feel your balloon is climbing up, you are leaving the scene from the past, the wind is slowly taking you towards the window of this building. You are entering this room and again you are seated in your chair...Open your eyes slowly, you are here, in the present, with your peers."
	Drawing scenes from the past. Children draw either on a roll of paper or on similar small pieces of paper pictures from their memory as if they were scenes from a film. The first drawing is a recent event, the second is something that happened over the summer holidays, the third is something from the war or...? If they want they can imagine other scenes. Pupils choose the colours for their drawings. Finishing their drawings, they mark each drawing with a symbol of happiness (sun-face) or symbol of a sorrow (cloud-face). They each find a place in which to exhibit their "film". Conversation in a circle: Everyone shows his/her "film" and describes the scenes from his/her life. What type of events prevail? What or who makes us happy or unhappy?
	Sculptor and the statue. Pupils split into two groups. All pupils in one group become sad statues and in the other group each pupil becomes a happy statue. (Each child takes on certain expressions and gestures.) Statues stay frozen for fifteen seconds and then each happy child takes one sad child statue and tries to make it happy by making funny faces, by singing or saying funny things etc. This is done without physical contact.
	Puppet. A puppet is passed around. It speaks for the pupil who holds it in his/her hands. It speaks about things that the pupil gets punished for. For example. "I am a very difficult child. I don't listen when I am called, I climb trees and I know I am not supposed to. What's more I throw seed at passers by. I was beaten once because of that." Or: "I don't like cleaning my shoes. Why should I? I do not need shiny shoes. I don't understand why adults think I am untidy and blame me because of it."
	Final game MY ISLAND. We each define our own island using various means - one could get paper to put on the floor to denote his/her island, someone else could use string or chalk to draw his/her territory. Islands should not be bigger than 1 m in diameter. When the signal "Now!" is given everyone has to find a new island to get on. To be safe, they have to step inside the island with both their feet. We don't want anyone to be left in the rough sea. Do not run, there is a lot of time! The only rule is to be within the island's bound-ary with both feet. How we do it is up to us. But it is obvious that the whole group could fit on just one island with just a little bit of imagination.