The Rainbow Flower
Our Rainbow Flower is a training tool that is used in workshops focused on children’s participation in health education.
The tool contains seven concepts which distinguishes a participatory model from a ‘traditional health education model’. It is specially designed to be used with children, defined here as children under 10 years old and young adolescents between 10 and 14 years old.
The 7 main concepts are:
Within each concept, there are 3 key ideas to remember:
ROLES
The roles of the children.
That in this work children dance between 3 ROLES of learner, leader and activists.
WHEELS
The three stages of a project.
That the 3 learning WHEELS include: understanding, taking action and reflecting on what has been done.
SKILLS
The skills that children will develop.
That children develop and improve the 3 key SKILLS of listening, speaking and planning.
WORDS
The words that guide the spirit with which the activities will be done.
That all activities are important, relevant and fun!
PLACES
The places that the learning and sharing will happen.
That the activities move from PLACES where smaller groups of children learn like a club or a class and to larger groups such as entire schools, and then on to the home and community. The activities will therefore reach ALL children.
VALUES
The values that are at the heart of this type of activity.
That all involved VALUE working together with originality and creativity with a sense of community and with clarity of purpose and shared understanding.
CONNECTIONS
The connections that ensure healthy habits are effective and long-lasting.
That it’s not enough for children just to know something! Real and lasting changes happen when connections are made between what they know – head; what they do – body; and what we feel – heart.
Download the Rainbow Flower
How to Use the Rainbow Flower
In our training workshops each of the 7 concepts are introduced separately using a variety of methods including discussions, games, movement and choral speaking. The challenges of implementing this new approach are tackled one by one.
After the seven sessions, the get combined together into one unified piece, which participants love. Then the participants work in pairs as they cut out and assemble a craft version the Rainbow Flower, reinforcing their leaning. The Rainbow Flowers made by the participants are then displayed in the workshop and taken away by the participants at the end.
Now have a look at our training tool for teachers:
Please share the Children for Health website with anyone you know who is interested in health education, participatory teaching methods and innovative training and monitoring methods.
Contact Clare (clare@childrenforhealth.org) for more detail on our training or any other aspect of our work.