To be successful your bite must
- Be short, fun and engage interest – more than 10 minutes is too long for a drop in activity! 20 minutes is plenty long for a group activity.
- Suit the informality of the occasion – for fêtes etc. it must work for people dropping in and out for just a few minutes.
- Suit the people you expect – a specific age range, all ages, families working together – you need to predict the mixture
- Create a satisfying outcome – make something, learn a game, think something new.
- Give something to take away – something they have made (especially children), a handout about the global issue tackled, a cake recipe.
- Lead to discussion of your global issue – either through the activity or through background material – for example artefacts or photographs.
If it works, everyone taking part, including you and your volunteers, will CONNECT with your global issue, CHALLENGE their own preconceptions about it and in some small way CHANGE the way they think and act about the world.
Examples
The Whole World cake – everyone eats a slice and guesses what’s in it and how far it has travelled. It’s fun so long as you like fruit cake! People are offered as piece of cake as they drop in, and join in ongoing discussion about what’s in it, which brings in issues of fair trade, air miles etc. They can take away a recipe and information about fair trade.
Papel picado – everyone creates their own papel picado – even a three-year old with guidance and suitable scissors can do so, so it is very good for family occasions. It’s fun, it gives something to take away, you can engage interest by decorating a stall at a fete with commercially produced papel picado. Books, pictures, can inspire discussion about cultural issues.
On the line – suitable for a group after lunch. Everyone is on their feet thinking; people express an opinion by where they stand not what they say. Can lead to deep discussion involving everyone at the level they are at.
Your global bite should match the occasion and the issue you want to tackle.
See also our “Tips” pages for tips on crafts and making things, quizzes, maps and photos, artefacts and displays, games, songs and activities, and giving a voice.
