South Asia
Map
South Asia
Challenges & Millennium Development Goals
Despite the tremendous culture and the beautiful geography, people in South Asia still face many challenges. There are many different countries in South Asia, so we’ll look at Sri Lanka and India as case studies.
Bring South Asia Alive in Your School and Classroom
School-Wide Activities
Lunchtime Games
Have students add a few South Asian games to school games over lunchtime. Instead of the regular volleyball and soccer matches, have them introduce Cricket and Kabaddi (you’ll find descriptions of these on the student sites).
Juice Stand
Making India’s famous mango lassis only requires a few ingredients and a blender. On a hot day, have students bring in the required ingredients and whip up these tasty treats to share with students during lunch hour. Creative students can design small cards to go with them explaining what the drinks are and where they come from. If they want to also address some of the issues in the region, the back of each card could have a statistic about some of the problems people face in South Asia.
Living Stories
A lot of different factors contribute to South Asia’s poverty. War means children are forced to fight as child soldiers, natural disasters leave kids without schools to attend and children are forced to work as child laborers. Have each student pick an issue and then learn one child’s story who is affected by that issue. (The story can be found by reading newspapers, going to the library or reading some of our stories on the student websites.) The story students learn can be a combination of stories, as long as the facts they use stay true to the overall picture. Once they have a story, they can commit one lunch hour to remaining silent unless someone prompts them for their story. Once prompted, the student could tell the story in the first person. For example, if asked, they could say: “My name is Munilal. I am seven years old. I have never been to school because I have to work to help my family.” Someone could make an announcement at the beginning of lunch hour that this is going on, and each participant could wear a label that indicates they are a Living Story.
Subject-Specific Activities
Language Arts or World Religions:
Divide your class into three groups and have each group research one of the three main religions in South Asia: Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. Suggest some areas of these religions that they might want to focus on, like what each religion says about helping others. Have students write a speech and present it to the class. At the end of the presentations you could have students write a page on the similarities and the differences that exist between the three religions. Students might then realize that there aren’t major differences, yet wars are still fought because of perceived differences.
Visual Arts
Hindu mythology includes hundreds of legends about the religion’s deities. Lord Ganesha, for example, removes obstacles and has human form but the head of an elephant. Goddess Saraswati rides a swan as the goddess of learning, knowledge and wisdom. The stories are endless. Share some with your students, and encourage them to find others on their own. Have them depict one of the stories in a storyboard format as if they were going to create a short film about it. If they want, post the storyboards in the hallway outside their classroom so other students can learn as well.
Physical Education
Teach students how to play Cricket and then get a game going during an outdoor phys-ed class.
Read and Teach the Student Websites
We’ve also created websites especially for your students, each of which provides additional information about West Africa. Visit these sites, specific for elementary and secondary schools, to see West Africa from a student’s perspective and to absorb the information yourself.
Website for Elementary Students—focus on South Asia
Website for High School Students—focus on South Asia
Teaching South Asia Here are some ways you can use the student sites to teach about South Asia:
- For the “History” section, break the class into groups and have each group represent a historical period. Each group’s task is to convince the other groups that their time period is the most important in all of South Asia’s history. Each team gets a chance to present and can use any form of style they’d like, from skits to debate panels to poems. Award points for creativity.
- For the “Sounds” section, bring in a Bollywood movie for students to watch. After, discuss what they saw and what they learned.
- For the “Play it” section, teach students how to play both Kabaddi and take them outside on a nice warm day to get their blood flowing and their energy pumping.