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.
