Let your students know that making a difference in the world is much easier when there’s a whole team to share the task. Create a sense of teamwork among your students with some of these teambuilding games and ideas. These activities will get students thinking about global issues as they work together to create solutions.

Team Time: The Silent World of Girls

Lead the following simulation with your students:

Split your class in two groups of equal size—one group will get to talk while the other group must remain quiet (flip a coin to decide). Each group must now arrange themselves in a line from oldest to youngest by birthday. The “talking group” is allowed to speak among themselves to complete their line. The “silent group” must form their line without making a sound. The group to complete their line first is the winner.

After the task, discuss how the activity made you feel. How was the task different for people in each group? Is it fair that one group was allowed to speak and one was not?

In the developing world, millions of girls don’t have the chance to go to school simply because they are girls. In some cases, those who are attending school don’t have the same learning opportunities as boys. Girls and women are more likely to suffer from poverty because they don’t get the education they need. Without an education, they are always at a disadvantage, just like the silent group was in the activity.

Now ask the group how they would feel if they were never allowed to talk in school. What if they never got the chance to go to school at all?

Talk It Out: Imagine…

Lead your students in this art activity:

As a class, Imagine that a young person from Africa, Asia or Latin America is about to visit your classroom. Make a collage that will help this child understand what has motivated you to be O Ambassadors. What inspires you? What do you hope to change in your world? Get creative! Convey your thoughts and ideas through words, pictures and more.

Share your page with your friends. Consider putting all the pages together and displaying this scrapbook at your school.

Brain Builder: Surviving On $2 A Day

Lead the following simulation with your students:

Many people in the world live on less than $2 a day or $14 a week. Imagine that you spend all $14 on food. Could you buy enough food to eat for the week? Use a flyer from a local supermarket to asses your options. As a class, discuss what this would be like.

Team Time: A Dangerous Bug

Lead the following simulation with your students:

Imagine you are a young person living in a tiny village in Africa. This morning you woke up with a headache, feeling feverish and weak. You’re scared because a lot of people in your village have also been sick. Some have even died. You’ve heard your parents talking about something called malaria, but you don’t know what it is.

Break off into groups of four and act out a scene using the following characters:

The sick child – The child is scared and not sure what is happening. He or she remembers being bitten by a mosquito.

Two parents – The parents have to decide between taking care of their child themselves or walking to the closest doctor, a day’s journey away. They worry about their child, the time spent away from work and about the money they don’t have to pay for medicine.

The doctor – The doctor is busy with hundreds of patients. The doctor knows that malaria is spread through mosquito bites and that most people cannot afford the medicine they need to get better. The doctor also knows that a lot of people in this part of the world do not know how to protect themselves against malaria.

What happens to the sick child? Consider performing your skit for others. Now imagine the child, the parents and the doctor live in your part of the world. In your large group, discuss how this scene would be different.