No Outsiders – Learning that language is no barrier to friendship

Today, Year 4 were considering how we communicate with others when we might not speak the same language.

We read the story The Way Back Home, by Oliver Jeffers.

We then explored several problem-solving exercises but using no words at all, just our body language.  First, we had to get into height order….easy-peasy!

Then, it suddenly got trickier, we had to arrange ourselves in order of our birthdays – day and month! Just look at all the hand-gestures we tried.   We almost managed it though!

The final challenge was directly inspired by the book – without any words, we had to draw diagrams to explain to our alien friend just what we needed to do to fix our airplane! It was tricky but using the combined brain-power of our Kagan teams we managed it.

Our final reflection was on the power of body language and the impact that a smile or frown can have on someone that you meet.  We used the Kagan structure Simultaneous Round Table to make sure everyone could share their views.  A very thought-provoking afternoon.