Herb of life

October 29: (As reported by Renee)

Ms E read a story of how Rama was injured by one of the demons and Hanuman was to save him... if only he was able to find the right herbs from a faraway mountain, and could return before sunrise.

The children tested the herbs . . .















Then proceeded to act out the narration.

Here lies Rama (B) dying...


















As Hanuman (O) could not decide which herb was the correct one, he picked up the whole mountain to take back to Rama! Just then the Sun (C) began to rise, which he tucked into the dark under his arm so that he may finish his quest before daylight...















After saving Rama, they completed an outdoor sun salutation before taking on the task of finishing construction of the 10 headed Demon King, Ravana!

Shadow Puppets

Last week, Miss E and the kids started off by exploring maps of India and the globe. They felt the Himalayas on the globe. They noted how many cities they saw in India and talked about how many people must live there. They studied Sri Lanka and recalled what they knew about Sita's kidnapping - that Ravanna stole her away to an island. 

The kids recalled how, during her abduction, the clever Sita dropped her jewels to leave a trail for Rama. 

Miss E asked them about how Rama got to the island to save Sita. Among other speculation, some remembered that Rama and Lakshman, with the help of the an army of monkeys and bears, built a bridge to the island by dropping stones into the water. The kids pointed out where they thought the bridge to Lanka would have been. 

Then Miss E read the story of Sita's abduction and the beginning of the quest to find her. She read about Ravanna's trick golden deer and the death of the trusted eagle, Jatayu. Followed by the the meeting of Hanuman and the king of the monkeys. 

Like in many great narratives, the unexpected happens. The smallest monkey, who does not seem fit to be a great warrior, grows and grows into the superhero Hanuman. The rescue team is joined by Hanuman's army. Together they enlist a clan of bears and set off on their journey to find and rescue Sita. 

The kids did a few quick performances of the story. Then they stretched a sun salutation before getting into the art project. 

Miss E brought out some pictures of shadow puppets and without much delay, the kids went to town. R and J used hole punches and fancy scissors to cut decorative shapes. L and B worked diligently on versions of the 10 headed demon, Ravanna. C wielded her scissors very carefully. O used a skewer to poke small holes in the puppet. 

They hung a sheet, turned out the lights and took turns working the lightbulb and puppets. They played with distances between the puppets and sheet and bulb to find the clearest balance. The results were mesmerizing. Well done!

Holi deer

Everyone arrived eager to read and discuss the next section of the Ramayana with Ms. E.

This week, the story resumes in the forest where despite their banishment Rama, Sita and Lakshman are living happily.  Trouble lurks when they encounter a woman who tries unsuccessfully to seduce Rama.  We find out that the woman is Princess Surpanakha, the sister of Ravana (the demon king).  She tells Ravana, who decides to punish Rama by taking Sita from him.  Ravana magically changes Maricha, his uncle (or was it servant?), into a golden deer which he sends into the forest to allure Sita and distract the men. Before hunting the deer at Sita's urging, Rama draws a magic circle around Sita to protect her in his absence and asks Lakshman to stay with her.  Rama kills the deer, but before it dies, the deer (the evil Maricha) imitates Rama's voice, which lures Lakshman away from Sita. While Lakshman and Rama are away, Ravana transforms himself into an old man and offers fruit to Sita, luring her from the protection of the magic circle.  The old man reverts back into the demonic Ravana and captures Sita.  He summons his golden chariot, which takes them away to Ravana's kingdom. During their ascent, Sita tears off her golden necklace, drops it to the ground hoping Rama will find it and rescue her.

Most of the crew thinks Rama or someone will rescue Sita from the evil Ravana; some speculate this will happen "at the last minute" which happens commonly in stories with heroes and villains.

It didn't take long for the kids to decide which characters they wanted to portray in the "30-seconds" role-play game.  They took turns acting out the scene as Ms. E loosely directed and prompted them.

Next, Ms. E shared a short video about the Indian festival Holi, which is the colorful celebration that marks the beginning of Spring/renewal and the triumph of good over evil.  Just like the people in the video, the kids were eager to participate in a colorful Holi festival of their own!  They examined the dried, vibrantly-colored dough that they made last week.  The kids loved using a blender and coffee grinder to pulverize the dough into dust -- but the best part was getting to use the dust on one another.  Handfuls of the colored powder were tossed and dodged, and they even managed to get Ms. E in on the action!

After the dusty fun, the group gathered again to learn more about Holi and other Indian festivals, then used sidewalk chalk to draw pictures from the scene in the story.

 

 

 

 

The Impossible Challenge

Last week, E and the children read about the marriage of Rama and Sita. It all started with an impossible challenge: whoever could lift Shiva's golden bow would win the right to marry Sita. It took hundreds of men just to drag the bow to the competition.

Over and over again, the strongest and bravest challengers failed.  Of course, not only did Rama succeed in lifting the bow - he broke it! 

The children recognized this narrative and remembered where they'd heard it before: Odysseus as an old man, Gilgamesh, Atalanta, the sword on the stone in King Arthur's story. 

They also talked about the characteristics of the hero who defies the norm. Are they really the strongest or fastest? Or perhaps they have something special in them that allows them to complete the task. 

Next in the story, Rama's father decrees Rama king, only to have one of his jealous wives hold him to an early promise. Rama and Sita are banished from Ayodiah for 14 years. And so the epic journey begins. 

In our first session together, the children spent time going over images from India - crafts, jewelry, markets, fabrics, art, people, recipes, animals, etc. Each child had their own favorites with one in common: scenes from the festival of Holi, where people throw colored powder on each other. They were all completely enthralled by images of people covered in vivid blues, greens, pinks, oranges and reds. How exciting to imagine a place that celebrates throwing colored powder! 

After the story telling, we went outside to make our own Holi powder. 

The children mixed flour and water and drops of food coloring. After mixing and kneading, this beautifully colored dough is flattened into pancakes to dry. Then it is ground up ready to throw or sprinkle into designs on a doorstep. Can't wait to see what happens next...I think someone suggested goggles. 

The Ramayana voyage begins

Our new crew delves into scores of books from our Ramayana library.

Everyone selected a volume to bring home, whether a re-telling of Indian mythology, or beautiful images of Indian crafts: kite-making, painting, fabric-dying.

Reading these books at home not only sustains the crew's interest between sessions; it also helps family members engage with the story on a more regular basis.

A Finnish interlude

Finnish schoolchildren have been acing the PISA exam for a decade. Recently, Finnish schools have been getting a lot of attention for this successful record.

Their educational system gains strength from "one of the world's most generous -- and successful -- welfare states." That kind of support seems sadly impossible to imagine in the United States. 

Social infrastructure aside, the Finns also approach education far differently than we do. Take a moment to glance at this Smithsonian article, and marvel at how distant the following practices sound from NCLB/Race-to-the-Top/Gates pressure felt by American public schools:

There are no mandated standardized tests in Finland, apart from one exam at the end of students’ senior year in high school. There are no rankings, no comparisons or competition between students, schools or regions. Finland’s schools are publicly funded. The people in the government agencies running them, from national officials to local authorities, are educators, not business people, military leaders or career politicians. . . .

We emulate at least a bit of the Finnish approach in our ongoing Odyssey project:

• Our guide, Elizabeth Turner, has genuine subject knowledge (a major in Visual Communication with a minor in Studio Art from Loyola University Chicago) as well as ongoing reflection on pedagogy (progress towards a Master's in Teaching).

• She assigns no homework, and "engage[s] children in more creative play."

• "Classrooms tend to be understated, free of the high-tech gadgetry of their schools back home," just as our Odyssey is about reading, discussing stories, and creating inspired artwork, rather than staring at a computer screen.

• "In Finland all teachers and administrators are given prestige, decent pay, and a lot of responsibility." While we wish we could pay Elizabeth more, we certainly hope she feels she has a great deal of autonomy in how she conducts her sessions with the crew.

• Our group remains deliberately small (6-8 children), so that close learning can take place under the teacher's attention.

It's no wonder that educational advocate Diane Ravitch praises Finland for "schools we can envy."

Maybe the next Odyssey project should explore the Kalevala!

From Ithaca to Uruk to . . . Lanka!

We are gathering the crew for another Odyssey together . . . continuing eastward from the Aegean Sea, beyond Mesopotamia to the Indian subcontinent, the home of the epic Ramayana. 

Rama's adventures have recently been retold through the eyes of his devoted Sita.

For a tantalizing preview of our story, watch the ingenious animated film "Sita Sings the Blues," free online. (Thanks to our friend Scott Samuelson for introducing us to this terrific retelling.)

Join us to discover why Rama is so "blue" in a different way than Sita — and why that monkey god Hanuman keeps following him around.

And mark your calendars for the November 2 "IndiaFest" in Memphis.

Gilgamesh in Berlin!

R is traveling with family to Germany. We anticipated the marvelous Ishtar Gate, but had no idea that there would be an entire special exhibition devoted to "Uruk: 5000 Years of the Megacity," all based on the cultural artifacts related to the Gilgamesh epic. 

http://www.uruk-megacity.de/

What a treat to see so many objects that the crew has been studying only in photographs!

The plot!

What on earth?

Come find out at our play on May 11!

Penultimate episode

From Miss E: 

This week we read the 11th tablet, titled "Home". Gilgamesh finally makes it home with Utnapishtim, returning to Uruk with new eyes, with a new heart. The people of Uruk cannot believe their eyes! The king is back! Gilgamesh revisits the stone carvings on the walls of the city. They depict Gilgamesh's adventures with Enkidu, which saddens him to recall.


Inspired by this return, we carved our own bas relief pictures into clay. Many versions of Gilgamesh were made. We played with texture, adding clay vs. subtracting clay from the slabs. The crew came up with many diverse scenes!

With the classes beginning to near the end, we have been discussing what to prepare for our last hurrah for parents and friends. The children DEFINITELY are keen on the idea of acting . . . but so many scenes to choose from! I think we've narrowed it down to either 'when Gilgamesh loses power', 'when Enkidu dies', 'the plant scene', or the 'river of death'.


After sitting for quite a while, we needed to get up and burn off some energy! The children began a game inspired by Gilgamesh. Three children lay on the ground. They are the sleeping lions. Then, Humbaba chases Gilgamesh over the lions. The goal is to make it across alive!