Tapestry of Faith: Moral Tales: A Program on Making Choices for Grades 2-3

Alternate Activity 3: My Partner's Shoes

Part of Moral Tales

Activity time: 3 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • A box or bag large enough to hold one shoe from half of the participants

Description of Activity

When you use this method of forming pairs of children, you increase the chance of each child to work with someone that they do not know well. It also strengthens the metaphor that we are using in this lesson of building empathy by walking in another's shoes.

Show the group the bag or box. Ask one half of the children to remove one of their shoes, put it in the bag or box, and return to their seats.

Then, invite the other children to reach into the box or bag of shoes and pull one out without looking. When each child has a shoe, invite them to find the child who is wearing the matching shoe. That child will be their partner for the Alternate Activity 4: Empathetic Listening.

Including All Participants

Some children may not yet know how to tie their own shoes. Offer help to children who seem reluctant to take their shoes off or have difficulty putting them back on again.