Yesterday was my third story-reading at Thorntree Prep as “Reading Mama”! I soooo enjoy the kids’ little sparkling faces, their energy and their interactivity!
I read the same book to Grade 2 & 3 last time I was there, and it is amazing to see how the thinking processes differ from that of the younger ones! What a difference a year or two can make in a person’s life!
Anyway! I handed the kids some modelling clay, which they thought at first were ‘sweets’! I guess if you look at it, it might resemble liquorice or something – so glad it is non-toxic, in case someone might try to eat it (although the smell would put them off)!
I let them smell the clay and it was interesting how their expressions changed once it didn’t smell like the “sweets” they were expecting! I then told them that it was coloured modelling clay, gave each kid a small piece of pink and a small piece of blue clay, and told them to roll it into little balls. Some of them mixed the two balls together, which was the objective, but I didn’t tell them that at first. As the story progressed, I noticed the other kids mixing the two balls into one as well.
The kids already knew that red was just a darker version of pink, so it made it easier on me (thanks guys!) – I didn’t have to try explain it first (I didn’t have pink clay, so I used red!). They even told me to get red to be pink you just add some white! Clever little stars!
I read the story Purplicious by Victoria Kann while they kept their hands busy, and at the end of the story had the kids report back on the clay again. Everyone’s clay magically turned to purple!!! I think they knew about mixing colours, but they made a great connection with the story!
In the story, Pinkalicious loves the colour pink. She wears pink, her paintings are pink, her room and everything in it are pink, and she prefers pink ice-cream! Taunting and mocking nasty classmates make her think that “Pink has no purpose” when they say that black is “in” and pink is “out”, and they won’t be friends with someone who likes pink. Pinkalicious gradually changes, but becomes more and more unhappy. Until she makes a new friend who shows her that pink is a powerful colour!
It is a wonderful story, with beautiful full-page illustrations that engage kids, while carrying over a powerful message – that it is okay for different people to have different likes, but it is not okay to force others to change who they are just to be accepted.
The bigger kids complained that the story ended rather abruptly, and wanted more to it. But the littlees (Grade R & 1) didn’t mind as they chanted the new word they learned: Purplicious!
Brilliant!
