Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Jungle Book Week 1



CLASS SUMMARY:

Discuss the meaning of the word "Namaste." Practice saying "Namaste" to each other.

Do a "johar" greeting. In every child exchanges name with every child. So, the child whose turn it is says each of the other children's names around the circle, and each child responds by saying the first child's name back. This is a tradition in the Gond tribe, the tribe of Mowgli, at the ghotul, or youth dormitory. It's a great way for the children to learn each other's names, and it's also fun and leads to some silliness.

Put on your bindi. Talk about the Hindu concept of the chakra and the third eye. We looked through "magic eye" viewers that showed rainbows around everyday objects -- thanks to Miss Ginny for providing these! You could use a kaleidoscope or maybe rose-colored glasses to illustrate the idea of seeing differently than with your regular two eyes. Rather than get deeply into the meanings and variations of the bindi, I decided to go the silly route, so we had lots of different stickers for the kids to use: peace signs, soccer balls, donuts, and sparkly Mickey Mouse heads, as well as jewels and glitz for the girls. Here's a picture of one particularly glamorous bindi, taken during lunch hour:



And two little girl bindis:



I bought lots of different sticky jewels, but the ones that worked the best were these:



and these:



I cut them apart into individual bindis. If you like, you can also order sticker bindis from online stores.

Talk about Kipling himself. In the academic class we went through the fast facts one by one and talked about them, and in the younger class we just chatted about him and his life.

Introduce the two poems we will be memorizing as songs. The academic class worked on each song in full, and the enrichment class worked on the first verses. If you're in the academic class, those poems, "Mandalay" and "If" came home in your child's binder. I will post more about the songs later, including some audio files for listening at home.

List some vocabulary words to notice in "Rikki Tikki Tavi": cantonment, bungalow, veranda, fledgling, sluice, bantam, and brood.

READING ASSIGNMENT (to be read by 9/15): Rikki Tikki Tavi

QUIZ MATERIAL (for Academic Track): Rudyard Kipling Fast Facts

BONUS LINKS

Video of a mongoose fighting a cobra

Video of a mongoose fighting a cobra II

Video of a guy working with a 14 ft King Cobra out in the jungle

Rikki Tikki Tavi, the animated movie, was made in 1975. It’s a cartoon, but a lot of the words are quite true to the story:

Rikki Tikki Tavi Part I

Rikki Tikki Tavi Part II

Rikki Tikki Tavi Part III

A good picture of a cute Indian mongoose


A good picture of a cobra’s markings




1 comment:

  1. I thought you might enjoy seeing the for real mongoose babies that were born at our local zoo recently. We just got to meet them last weekend. Adorable!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vd-JgiA0Hh0

    Let me know if that doesn't work and I'll email the link to you.

    Peace and Laughter,
    Cristina

    ReplyDelete