Friday. MOP. Taleigao today.
Well. The lesson is planned and I’m set to go. Eva’s coming along today. The story I’ve chosen to do is perfect for the season we’re in and is called ‘The Story of a Mango’.
Its an unusual book, quite captivatingly done. No words, but images that will lead you through the story with no effort whatsoever.
And so the session begins. Quite like the pied piper, the red van never fails to make the children come running. Soon enough, mats were laid, books were spread out, and we were ready to start with the session.
Book browsing. Lots of books being passed around. The kids are sharing stories…from the books and of their day. When we got done, without prompt, the kids stood up and said- ‘abhi make a story time na teacher?!’; and the circle was formed. ‘Game! Game! Game!’ Was the session on auto pilot today or what?! And then we sang a song and Eva taught the kids the actions.
‘Ab story sunaenge na?!’
‘Haan beta, haan. Ab hum sab story sunaenge!’ (I’d like to think that my Hindi skills are improving in the MOP process!)
The pre story discussion led up to.the book beautifully. In a nutshell- Its not winter, its summer. That’s why we have holidays. Because its too hot! We get mangoes these days! And jackfruit, and watermelon and apples and pineapple and chikoos and bananas annnnd we go home to the village!
Theek hai….now let’s get to the book. I decided to not say a word about the fact that the book had no words, and just let the story flow. In principle, I had no part in telling the story today beyond asking the kids what they saw on the first page and then pulling it all together as the story came tumbling out.
As it came…the story was being told from varied viewpoint of view and different corners of creativity. A different possible outcome to each page and a different possible ending to the story with each twist that came along.
When the story was done, I chose to ask the kids how we had possibly “read” a story when there were no words. Simple answer….”Teacher, picture hai na!” “Picture batate hai story.”
As I handed out the sticks for the extension activity, they looked quizzical over why I’d given them ice cream stick of all things. When I told them they were going to create their own mangoes to paste on the stick to make their own bookmarks, they set to work colouring out the mangoes; the kind they most like.
Happiness at the end of the session…..they all very proudly displayed their mango bookmarks.
As the red van left the MOP site, mango bookmarks waved at us yelling “Bye teachers!”
Friday. MOP. Taleigao today was good.
This was great! am impressed at the natural way of child participation !