I remember doing this as a kid. I still think it's a lot of fun.
It's super simple. All you need is a wax candle and food colouring (watered down). Have the children first draw with the candle on white paper, you won't see anything at this point. When they have finished drawing, with the colouring and a soft, thick brush let them paint over the top. The wax from the candle won't mix with the paint and their wax drawing magically appears.
For smaller children use a smaller piece of paper. If you think your child might get frustrated when they draw with the candle and don't see anything, demonstrating the activity first might help.
This week I thought we'd have a break from the art projects and have a go at some vocabulary building exercises instead. After reading the chapter (translations only) to R (5) I selected some verses to work with. In each verse I chose words and gave their meaning below. After reading the a meaning R (5) then had to find the word in the text.
This definitely wasn't an independent activity, he needed support. Still, it made him think and hopefully even learn a few new words.
We're still working with the book Stellaluna by Janell Cannon. We've just completed a simple study on bats.
We managed to find a lot of information here and a great children's story about a family of microbats here.
This is R's (5) summary on bats. We worked on it together. R is still working on forming sentences in his head that are clear enough to be written down in a way that they can be easily understood (I still find that challenging :) ). This activity gave him an opportunity to practise this skill. I also wrote relevant words on his paper to help guide him in his writing.
Next, we're going to check out the bats around here and see if we can work out if they are microbats, or macrobats like Stellaluna.
This week we had some helpers, KP and her ever so lovely children came along and lent a helping hand. I also managed to fill out a simple register with the choto (small) names of the children who attend the "class" (usually when I ask for their names they tell me their full names and I become a bit bewildered by the length and complicated pronunciation of them). There are 15 children between the ages of 5 and 15. Hopefully now I can keep track of who is attending and when.
The children have been learning the basic phonemes for the letters S, A, T, P, I and N. Next week we'll start on some workbooks. I can't wait to see the children's faces when I hand out some little gifts for them.
What have I learnt? I've learnt, that even though philanthropic activities are not of the highest platform, like most material activities they can also be dovetailed to help us reach a spiritual platform.
This week at playgroup we experimented with flower paints and playdough.
For the flower painting we used old cloth, paper, flowers (picked by the children) and things to bang with.
Place the flowers on the paper cover it all with cloth and start banging away. Then lift up the cloth and....
surprise!
The playdough activity was soothing. I followed this recipe:
2 cups of plain flour
1 cup of salt
1 tspn of cream of tarta
2 cups of water (you can colour the water if you like)
1 Tbspn. of cooking oil
Place all the ingredients in large pot with at thick heavy bottom and stir away on a medium heat until thick.
There are many recipes for playdough. This is not the easiest, but it's still pretty simple and the texture turns out lovely. It also lasts longer.
I made the playdough just before playgroup so that it was warm for the children to touch giving the opportunity to introduce new vocabulary while experiencing warmth. I also chose not to colour the dough. I left this for the children to do them selves. They were able to choose colours and see how the food colour slowly changed as the dough as it was kneaded.
Today marks the third week of our Village Learning Project (we missed out last week because of S being unwell).
Today we had more children, maybe fifteen, possibly more. We learn mainly outside on the floor of Suniti's home. She has a simple bamboo and mud house. It's still a bit crowded, I find it hard to get around to see all the children, but the village is not a place to complain.
I'm happy with our routine. We start off with a kirtan, followed by some conversational English activities, then some songs, writing, a 'talking walk' and finish with a story and some maha prsadam snacks. I hope the children are happy with it too. It all takes about an hour.
I have two things to work on now. One is keeping track of the children, we seem to be getting more each week. I need a register to see who is coming, how often and who is new. I don't think R and I can manage more than 20.
The other thing I need to sort out is some kind of budget. Soon I'll need to start photocopying I'd also like to give the children some new pencils, since they don't seem to have any.
Sorry, no photos today, forgot to take the camera.
After over a week of being inside most of the time, yesterday we finally managed to step outside for some learning.
Since the following day was S's birthday and I needed to do a bit of shopping we set out for Navadwip.
I was really eager to find something relating to Indian art along our travels for R's 'Places I've Lived' book.
We were fortunate enough to find and experience mehndi art and pottery.
At the Mahendhi salon we first watched how he prepared the paste. It's basically crushed henna leaves and water.
The children were fascinated.
He placed the paste insde these plastic piping bags ...
and off he went.
R and I took a quick look at his design's portfolio while he was busy with S.
He worked so quickly and with such detail.
R's turn.
We were told to leave the paste on our hands until it dried and then after about an hour to rub it off.
Next stop, the pottery shop.
This is the kiln where they fire the pots. We found two little puppies living in there while it wasn't being used.
The potter adding handles to the jugs.
A potter using simple tools to shape this pot by banging and hitting.
The clay. The clay comes from the Ganga Mayi (Ganges River)
Now the fun part, the wheel!
First kneed the clay to remove any air bubbles.
The children thought this was amazing. One after another the potter created a new piece. In a matter of only a few minutes he had made seven different pieces, all different.
O son of Bhrigu [Saunaka], when the child Parikshit, the great fighter, was in the womb of his mother, Uttara, and was suffering from the burning heat of thebrahmastra [thrown by Asvatthama], he could observe the Supreme Lord coming to him.
He [the Lord] was only thumb high, but He was all transcendental. He had a very beautiful, blackish, infallible body, and He wore a dress of lightning yellow and a helmet of blazing gold. Thus He was seen by the child.
The Lord was enriched with four hands, earrings of molten gold and eyes blood red with fury. As He loitered about, His club constantly encircled Him like a shooting star.
The Lord was thus engaged in vanquishing the radiation of the brahmastra, just as the sun evaporates a drop of dew. He was observed by the child, who thought about who He was.
