Short description of the topic
In the hours before the group activity, the mentors photograph the children's faces – but only halfway: from the chin to the nose or from the nose to the scalp. The printed photographs will then serve as a base for the guided recognition game at the group meeting.
Learning outcomes
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Competencies
- Social-emotional competence: better concentration
- Visual competence: an eye for details
- Social competences: group social connection
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Target group
4 years and up- In groups
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Required materials
- Camera
- Computer
- Printer
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Materials
- In a previous session, you may show the children a series of photos of well-known public figures: singers, athletes, actors, etc. Then, half-cover these images. The children, in turn, try to guess the names of partly obscure celebrities.
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Description of the activity (step by step)
Preparation:
In the preparation stage, photograph the children’s faces but, as mentioned above, take pictures of only a part of their faces. Print the photographs and bring them to the group meeting.
Implementation:
The children should be seated in such a way that everyone can see you well. Inform the children that they are about to see the photographs you have taken with them in the previous days. Explain that you will play a guessing game. The children’s answers and remarks are sure to be quick and spontaneous. If necessary, guide the participants with further questions unobtrusively.
Reflection:
Once the creative activity has been completed, ask the children about their impressions. Ask children if they would like to repeat this game with a different set of images.
Variations and additional ideas
You can diversify the initial meetings by making the children guess the identities of people in half-covered photographs. This time, however, the pictures are of kindergarten staff, be it teachers or technical personnel.
Background information and didactical perspective
Many times, a tiny detail is enough for the human eye to guess the whole. In our activity, we want to focus precisely on this aspect of the cognitive process. This visual exercise strengthens the child's ability to see a "bigger picture" in a given context. In all of this, interaction and social connection between children are equally important.
Experience from kindergartens:
The children named the parts of the faces of strangers without much difficulty. They then determined which peer was in the cut photo. They easily recognized their peers by their eyes and hair; however, it was more difficult to identify peers only by photographs of an individual part of the face (eg nose, ears, eyebrows). The children then arbitrarily composed whole faces from the photos of the parts of the face and laughed at the same time, as they created “new friends”.
Photos of the activity
