Filler Activities
Making Each Moment Count
www.martyswatch.com expresses gratitude to the author of the booklet “Making Each Moment Count”, Dr. Margaret Taplin, for granting permission to include it in its resources.
The booklet, a collection of short 5-minute value-based activities, reminds us that time is precious and should be used wisely. This becomes even more important in an educational context. The activities have been designed to elicit discussions and reflections on values for healthy, happy living. They can be used to fill in gaps between lessons, to stress a leading concept or make a change of pace, or to begin or end the day with Value!
Life is a game. Play it! Life is a challenge. Meet it!
Life is a song. Sing it! Life is Love. Enjoy it!
Sathya Sai
“Teachers usually agree that values education is essential in these times of moral decline, breakdowns in family structures, inappropriate use of money and natural resources, misuse and abuse of drugs, lack of individual peace and loss of culture. However, most teachers are under so much pressure to meet so many goals and deadlines that few have time to add values education to their already overcrowded programmes. Nevertheless, there are often spare minutes throughout the day that require some kind of “filler” activity. This can provide an ideal opportunity to focus on some values education by encouraging values talk and especially values questioning, to encourage children to think and talk about their own values.
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While this kind of activity is only one small part of a total education in human values approach, we believe that if you do this often enough, the cumulative effect over time can be powerful – particularly as you are sending the message to your pupils that this is a topic important enough to devote some time to regularly.”
