Some words about our current work:

This Mantle of the Expert unit of work is with a group of year 1 and 2 students at Muritai School. Our inquiry topic is helping others and we are going to be thinking about the key question: “How do we get our problems solved and help others to solve their problems?”. We are going to be working together for the first five weeks of this term every Wednesday.

We are going to spend time in role as people who work for a helping company. We are going to do a different drama each week where we will help clients, such as Old MacDonald, solve problems. Each week we will also be doing a range of activities to help develop our drama skills and our co-operative learning skills so that everyone can successfully participate in the team and work collectively in the drama work. As part of this skill building we will also spend time every day doing music in the Orff Schulwerk approach, which will involve singing and moving, as well as some simple ensemble work on untuned percussion instruments. You can read more about both Mantle of the Expert and Orff Schulwerk by clicking on links on this blog.

Saturday, 10 November 2012

DAY FOUR

LITTLE JOHNNY BROWN, LAY YOUR COMFER DOWN.

Today we started with a traditional American song called Little Johnny Brown.  We all had turns at being Johnny Brown with a blanket ('comfer') in the centre of the circle.  We moved to the words of the song folding the corners of the blanket one at a time then showing everyone a movement to copy before passing it to someone else - lots of fun and a very catchy song!

Little 'Lily' Brown lays her comfer down.
We also learnt a stone passing song from New Guniea called 'Mal, Mal, Mal'.  As we sang this song we had to move rakau sticks around the circle in a pattern - this was a challenge and it took a lot of practice to get it right.  We also sang and moved to our potato song and Jambo - everyone is really enjoying the music and singing, and it is a great way to start the day.

A STORY OF A GIANT WHO IS THROWING TANTRUMS

Our drama today began with a story of a little child who sees a giant throwing a tantrum on a mountain called Thistle Mountain.  The child hears the giant bellowing words like "tanglebangled ringlepox!" and sees him banging his head against a tree and throwing branches.  The child hurries home and tells the people of the village "I just saw a giant throwing a tantrum!".

After this story we gathered our ideas about what tantrums are and we all shared stories about when we had seen or heard a tantrum.  We discussed why children throw tantrums and how you feel sad/frustrated/angry when you throw a tantrum.

COLLECTIVE MAPPING

Next we listened to a description of the village by Thistle Mountain, a place called Thistle Town.  The description included a stream at the bottom of the mountain, a lake in the centre of town, bridges over to the mountain, forrest areas, shops, a school, a petrol station, and a number of other features.  The children listened carefully to the description and then set to work on making a collective map of Thistle Town and some individual maps too.

Collective Mapping.
A LETTER FROM THE MAYOR OF THISTLE TOWN

Next we went into role as 'The Problem Sovers' and we received a letter from the mayor of Thistle Town.

Dear Problem Solvers,

We need your expertise help.  Our town has a mountain called Thistle Mountain and people have been hearing strange things happening up there.  There have been people talking about seeing lots of broken trees and hearing loud roaring noises.  Some people are saying that there is a giant that lives on the mountain and that he is causing all this noisy trouble.

We hope you can visit us and help us solve this problem,

From the Mayor of Thistle Town.


Reading aloud the letter from the mayor.
Plans were quickly put forward on how the giant could be trapped...

“we could follow his footprints to see where he lives”
“yeah, we could track him”
“then we can make a trap”
“or cover him with a cage while he is sleeping”
“we could fly our plane over and distract him and then get him to fall in a hole”
“and then drop a net on him from the plane”
“we could tie him up with ropes while he is sleeping”
“we could sing him to sleep with a lullaby and then tie him up”
“we don’t want to hurt him”

ADDING HOUSES AND ADDRESSING ENVELOPES

We decided we would travel to Thistle Town and help the mayor and townspeople.  We added houses to our collective map to show where we would stay when we got there.  Then we addressed some envelopes.

“I’m going to stay by the lake so I can go fishing.”

“I’m going to stay on the mountain to see if the stories are true.”


Labels and houses added to our collective map.
More houses by some shops.
More houses.
Tom and Myles' camoflage style houses with a landing base for their private plane

Self Addressed Envelope


This envelope matches the camoflaged houses!
4 HOT AIR BALLOONS AND 1 PLANE

In role as 'The Problem Solvers' we discussed how we should travel to Thistle Town.  From the description of the town we had heard earlier we knew that Thistle Town wasn't on the main road and it was a very quiet place.  Petra suggested we travel by Hot Air Balloon and everyone thought this was a great idea.  Myles and Tom decided they would take their private plane, since they had a landing base at Thistle Mountain - they thought that way they could guide the balloons also.  We divided into groups to create hot air balloons using moving freeze frames - the balloons were very creative and looked great!

Hot Air Balloon 1
Hot Air Balloon 2.
Hot Air Ballon 3.
Hot Air Balloon 4.
And the private plane.
So four hot air balloons following a plane flew to Thistle Town where they were greeted by the mayor (teacher in role).  The mayor invited 'The Problem Solvers' into a meeting where they shared their ideas about how they might trap or capture the giant.  More detailed plans were drawn up and presented to the mayor so he could share them with the people of the town later.  In small groups 'The Problem Solvers' discussed the equipment they would need and started to prepare their trip to the mountain to capture the giant.

Here are some of the plans to capture the giant of Thistle Mountain that were presented to the mayor:

Trap plan to sing the giant to sleep.
Digging a hole for the giant to fall into a net.
Flying a plane over the giant to distract him and then dropping a net over him.

INTERVIEWING THE PEOPLE OF THISTLE TOWN

A Problem Solver interviews a townsperson about what they have seen and heard on the Thistle Mountain.

Our next activity was a drama activity where we worked in pairs.  One partner went into role as a person of Thistle Town and the other partner went into role as a Problem Solver.  The Problem Solver had to interview the townsperson to find out what they had seen or heard on the mountain.  We swapped roles so everyone had a turn at being interviewed.

Here are some of the things the townspeople said they had seen and heard:

“some buildings have been damaged”
“the ground has been shaking”
“trees have been knocked down”
“I have seen big stones in the streets in town”
“we hear shouting at night and we can’t go to sleep”
“I’ve seen some gigantic shadows”
“there have been lots of loud noises”
“the dogs have been running around”
“some animals have gone missing!”


I'VE HEARD THE GIANT THROWS TANTRUMS BECAUSE....

To end the day we did some writing about what we had heard from the townspeople in our interviews sing the starter "I've heard the giant throws tantrums because...."

"he hurt his foot"
"he wants lots of money and gold and he doesn't like his cave"
"he is hungry and tired"
"he wants a new hair style"
"he can't do anything right"
"he threw a tree in his face accidentally and it is sore"
"he's angry and wants more toys.  He's yelling and being annoying to the people of Thistle Town"

We are going to continue with this drama next week.
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