By Johanna Lay
The topic of wish-making and wish-granting really is suitable for all ages and lends itself well for religious and spiritual discussions as well as searching for connection with other religions. Thus subjects such as Art and Religion/Ethics (in Germany) would nicely combine for a cross-over lesson.
My personal idea for teaching this topic in a creative way and also expanding on the ritual aspect would be getting the whole school involved. I would let students from all classes document their wishes and desires anonymously. Then those papers could be collected and displayed as a collage at the school, for everybody to read. I think especially in a Secondary school the age difference could be interesting to observe by reading those wishes. At the end of the Year, there should be some kind of event, that brings the process to an end, maybe creating a paper-mache boat or something similar, that can be let to water would be a nice symbolic conclusion. Of course, the conclusion should proceed with environmental aspects kept in mind.
Also, if getting the whole school involved is a little to ambitious, theres always the possibility of keeping the project on a smaller scale, that just spans over one or two lessons.