Community & Civic Education
Election Talk-Optional by Group Decision (5-10 min)
Decide as a group if people want to express anything about the results of the 2024 presidential elections. If people have something they want to say everyone can speak to the group for about a minute. This is not a question and answer or discussion. We are just hearing one another, listening.
- Staff can watch the clock and let people know when their time is up
- Each person will have a minute or so to state their thoughts or feelings.
- When it’s your turn just say what you are thinking or feeling. Don’t comment on anyone else.
- When those who had something to say have spoken, continue with the content.
Theme Activity—Songs for Special Occasions (12-20 min)
Occasions and rituals are a little different—rituals are usually formal and relate to spiritual practice or important transitions in life like reaching adulthood or having a child.
Special occasions can be part of rituals, like holidays or birthdays, but they can also be more casual or personal, like celebrating a new job or an anniversary.
In the first link below you'll notice that the birthday song is so well known, nobody has to sing the words. We just know it's the conductor's birthday because his musicians say it with a song.
- Birthdays--Happy Birthday Orchestra
- Feasts and celebrations--Christmas Wedding March (familiar bride's march starts at 2 min mark on the video)
- Sporting event--National Anthem
- Personal event like promotion, big achievement
- Rare events like end of a war or celebrating a hero
If you speak a language other than English, do you know a special occasion song in that language? Would you share it with us?
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Show and Share (5-10 min)
Show and share a special occasion you attended. Wedding? Quincinera? Bar Mitzvah? Retirement party?
How many people came? What was the music like?
Did people dance?
Tomorrow's Show and Share: a poem you like. Can be one you wrote or someone else's.
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Skill Builder 01
Planning an Outing (15-25)
Planning an outing for a group means making a lot of different decisions. Pretend your group is planning an outing. Collect the information you need to make decisions that work for everyone.
You have a pretend budget of $20 per person and 4 hours to travel to the location, do the activity, and come back. You are going in January so it will be winter time.
As a group choose from these destinations and identify or find a place near your location that works. Think about the weather.
- Beach
- Indoor Ice Rink
- Movies
- Bus Tour of your town
- Musical concert
Making decisions with good information
Use the worksheet to find out everyone’s needs and what they like.
People can fill it out, or show/tell, about themselves, and the group can use the shared view to note any special requirements
- What kind of clothes will we all need for the event we chose?
- How will we handle lunch? Is anyone on a special diet?
- Does anyone have mobility needs? Be sure the destination is accessible.
- What do people want to know about the outing? What information do they, or their families, need to have?
- What schedule are we following? When do we need to leave? How long will we be there? When do we need to leave to get back in time?
OPTIONAL LEVEL UP-- figure out the budget for the outing. (Entry fees, parking costs, gasoline, etc.)
Collaborating on details
- Confirm with each person that their NEEDS will be met by the plan.
- Negotiate PREFERENCES and WANTS.
- Examples: If you are going to the beach and one of your party uses a wheelchair, will there be a way to get the person and their chair to where everyone else is going to be? (this is a NEED) OR
- If someone has a visitor coming and wants to leave an hour early that day. Does the outing have to end early? Or is there another solution? (This is a PREFERENCE/WANT so compromise) OR
- Someone doesn’t like to bring a lunch and prefers fast food to other choices. (This is a PREFERENCE/WANT so compromise)
How is planning an outing similar to planning a party, which we did in a previous week?
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Skill Builder 02
What’s our city council doing? (12-18 min)
Go to the link for your nearest city and find out about city council meetings.
PRESENTERS: If the city you are interested in is not linked, do a search for "<city name> city council meetings"
- When does the council meet?
- Can you attend this meeting?
- Can you find recordings of past meetings?
- Can you find a recent decision the council made?
- City council members usually represent districts. What district do you live in?
- Do you know of any recent decisions your city council has made?
Review/Planning
What did we learn today? What are we doing this afternoon?
