NANO AS A TEENAGER

It’s easy to forget that Venerable Nano Nagle was once a teenager like yourself with hopes and dreams and a tremendous sense of fun.

Nano’s teenage years were spent in France where she received the education that she wasn’t permitted to receive in Ireland due to Penal Laws.Being from a wealthy family meant that Nano had all the benefits of an aristocratic lifestyle in France. She owned beautiful gowns and attended society balls and events.

Being from a wealthy family meant that Nano had all the benefits of an aristocratic lifestyle in France. She owned beautiful gowns and attended society balls and events.

But Nano’s love of God and sense of social justice was very strong and it was in France where she first noticed how difficult life was for those on the margins of society.

Her experience in Paris of seeing the poor standing in rags in the cold waiting for the church to open in the early morning stayed with her all her life. She was struck by the huge difference between the life she was living versus the experience of those with barely anything and that experience was almost certainly one of the pivotal moments which motivated Nano to devote her life to those on the margins of society.

In honour of Nano’s love of fun and games we’ve prepared some games for you to try out. If you have any fun group games you’d like to share with us please get in touch at the email address below.

Games & Fun things to do

We’d be delighted if you would like to try some of these games in the classroom or at yard time in your school. Feel free to send photos of your group playing these games to communications@pbvm.org and we’ll add them to our gallery.

Back to Back

This game is a great way of demonstrating teamwork and assisting each other in times of need

What you need: A group of people

Start with two people sitting back to back on the floor with arms linked. Get them to work together to stand up without using their hands to touch the ground. Add one person to the group every time the group is successful, let us know what your record is or take photos and send them in.

Text Tag

This game shows how easy it is to misunderstand information being communicated and how quickly misinformation can arise

What you need: A group of around 10 people and paper and pens for everyone

Everyone playing forms a line roughly two feet away from the next person. Appoint an ‘instigator’. The instigator writes a sentence of between 10 and 15 words in block capitals on their page such as: John said he saw Peter in a red car at noon yesterday.

The instigator shows this to the first person in line as the whole group counts loudly to 15. On the count of 15 the next person writes a copy of the message and indicates when they are ready to show it to the next person in line, the count continues down the line making sure that nobody sees the message for longer than 15 seconds before writing it out themselves. This continues until the end of line is reached – the final written message is compared to the message written by the instigator. The final message writer becomes the next instigator.

I am… I like

This game is a great way to help groups and classes get to know each other a little better and promotes listening and sharing amongst a group

What you need: A group of 10 or more, paper, pens and a box to draw names from, some treats or rewards.

Ask each person to write down a designated piece of information such as their middle name, names of favourite dog breeds, favourite foods or their favourite character from a book the whole class has read. After placing all the pieces of paper in a box everybody stands and each pupil draws a piece of paper from the box, checking and returning it if they receive their own. Each pupil in turn tries to guess which pupil’s name they have drawn and those that are correct can pair off and share a treat or reward.

Selfies through the Ages

This game is a great way to promote teamwork and guesswork!

What you need: Teams of two – a blackboard, whiteboard or somewhere visible to draw, a box with the names of historical characters written on pieces of paper such as Nano Nagle, St Brigid, Marie Antoinette, Cleopatra etc. The characters should have some defining features such as Nano’s lantern, Brigid’s Cross etc.

One team member picks a name from the box and gives their team mate clues to draw the historical character without naming them out loud. Those in the room (and the person drawing) has to guess who the team is attempting to draw.

 

Why not form small groups and create interesting games for this section of the website – you can send them to communications@pbvm.org – let us know which school you go to and the names of all the people in your group – you can include a photo if you like