新年快乐 (xīn nián kuài lè).
Happy Chinese Rat Year to one and all! Circle time and the classroom this week has been all about Chinese New Year. We have read the story of the 12 animals lining up to race across the river. The winner – the rat – had the 1st year named after it (even though he jumped on the Ox’s behind, ran up his back and jumped onto the river from the Ox’s head. Cheating?! Or genius?!). We decorated the classroom with seven lanterns (a coincidently lucky number in China), we made our own lanterns and masks, and looked at and talked about pictures of Chinese New Year Celebrations. We agreed that wherever you are and whoever you are, everyone can join in the fun of celebrating Chinese New Year. One girl had brought in a Barbie from home. She was carrying her around in a carrier and I asked if Barbie was going to celebrate Chinese New Year. The girl replied she wasn’t sure if Barbie likes to celebrate the Chinese New Year. ‘Well how old is Barbie? Has she been to any other new year celebrations?’ I asked. The answer was surprising; ‘Barbie is 110.’ Wow! Barbie is doing really well for 110. She must have been to plenty of celebrations. Then the girl told me ‘Barbie is young.’ At this point I scrunched up my face. 'How can she be young at 110? Are the life spans of Barbies incredibly long?!' The girl explained and put me out of my quandary. She is young because I have to look after her and dress her and wipe her bottom.’ The penny dropped. Barbie – although looking remarkably good for her age – was actually in receipt of social care. This is how delightfully and brilliantly a conversation can veer off on a tangent – but we came back full circle. ‘So really then Barbie must have had a lot of birthday parties.’ ‘Yes I think she was born in the year of the pig.’ ‘It was the year of the pig last year! I’ll bet she must have celebrated Chinese New Year at some point.’ The girl nodded ‘Yes I think so too.’ It is always a real treat when a child recalls a topic or a story a significant amount of time after the initial introduction. This happened on Wednesday when one of the children asked if I could be Guy Fawkes. I think the memory was triggered as we had been discussing kings and queens and the wearing of crowns.
It was the mention of the crown I believe which started the ball rolling. One of the children immediately ran and got the candle (which had been our gunpowder prop) and asked if she could be King James and I could be that ‘bad man’ trying to blow him up and ‘can so and so be the police that caught you.’ I thought that was a marvellous idea and was more than happy to oblige to be the ‘bad’ Guy Fawkes. In November we had spent a week acting out the story of bonfire night. We positioned King James I wearing his crown on his throne and had two men – Guy Fawkes and Robert Catesby (who it turns out actually masterminded the whole plot) sneak in quietly to the Houses of Parliament tiptoeing their way to hide behind the throne. They were discovered by the police (modern terminology for the King’s guards who had had a tip off!) and dragged to gaol. We stopped it there and omitted the gory fate of the schemers! So last Wednesday we revisited this little scenario and joyously the children adapted it again and again to include more and more characters. King James was joined on his throne by princess Elsa (there ended up being about three or four Elsas at any one time) and princess Anna (from Disney’s Frozen), Rapunzel (from Disney’s Tangled), and Sleeping Beauty – there were two of those (again a signpost to Disney). The boys got involved too and represented; two were King James, one wanted to be Olaf (the snowman from Frozen) and one didn’t care who he was as long as he was in mortal danger! As the re-enactments continued, Fawkes' and Catesby’s rabble grew as did the police throng. Whilst hiding behind the royals and Olaf I asked a member of staff to get the camera and she quipped ‘to show how Guy Fawkes nearly blew up the Disney Princesses?!’ I smiled; reinvention is a wonderful thing. And they still all lived happily ever after! :-) We have been reading ‘The tree’ this week by Neal Layton. This has been partly brought on by laying the context down for the topic of The Story of Everything (based on a book by Neal Layton – spot the fan!) where we will spend the best part of the term digesting and discussing the life of our universe with a focus on our very own planet.
With the current state of our planet, the fires consuming Australia, and David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg voicing their concerns about the changing climate, it seems like a good idea to jump on the bandwagon and start a discussion with the kids. ‘The tree’ is a gorgeously simple book about a tree which stands serenely whilst effortlessly providing a home for different animals. A couple want to move onto the land and plan to cut down the tree to make way for a grand home for themselves. However they soon realise the impact on the animals and so change their plans, and instead build a tree house. The children loved the book. They all looked really concerned when the birds nest fell out of the tree when the couple initially tried to cut the tree down. At this point I asked what would they do. They all answered with the aim of conserving the tree; ‘I would find another place to build a house’. 'I would use bricks to build my house’ said another who thought that the tree was being cut down to provide wood to make the house. ‘I would live in a tent’. ‘I would go back to my old house’. Naturally the children were relieved and happy with the ending of sharing the tree. I asked one of the children later, 'which is your favourite picture in the book?' The girl immediately turned to the last page; ‘this one because they are all living together. I like the tree house.’ So I asked ‘Would you like to live in a tree house like that?’ She was quick to reply, ‘No, because I don’t like big ladders.’ Happy New Year to all as we enter into 2020!!
As we are about to start the new term, I have been taking yet another look at the work, philosophy and wisdom of Maria Montessori. I came across these insightful words of hers: 'If education is protection to life, you will realise that it is necessary that education accompany life during its whole course.’ I appreciate this truth and realise that as time marches on our absorption of learning is not finite. My eldest daughter (19 years old) reminded me of this during the holidays when I tried to organise her social life and she was having none of it! Lesson in life about letting go! Much like the tower in the picture our lessons in life are a series of building blocks which can at times collapse under the strain of thinking we know it all (picture 2)! The children don’t pretend to have all the answers as they are ambassadors for imagination and love discovering, learning and absorbing all the lessons that life has to offer. We naturally see a tower in the pictures but when I asked the children what they saw the answers were diverse and brilliant. They saw a person, a plant, a tooth, a rainbow and best of all some saw simply a process; a process of balance, weight, size, shape and wonder and fun – especially when it toppled over. What could be more joyful?! So here’s to continuous discovery and learning! Happy 2020! |
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