My Grade 5's are busy studying the Khoikhoi and San tribes at the moment which I always find to be so interesting. I decided to do something different this time with them and I am beyond excited about it - in fact I think I am going to do it myself!
Every second week in Assembly throughout the year, we have concentrated on different character traits that we would like to raise our children with. Things like humility, perseverance, diligence, selflessness, tolerance, patience, compassion and so on. I thought it a good idea to combine these into the final project for them this year.
I read them a couple of Fables (short stories with a moral), and then surprised them with a "package handout". In this handout was their brief which consisted of a template booklet with place for pictures & text, a written brief of due dates, and a character trait they had to use.
Their task is to write their own Khoi San Fable using the moral they were given. For example, make up a story where the moral is "It is better to be diligent than lazy". We talked about how, in Fables, even trees and flowers, beetles and butterflies can have voices and personalities. They were encouraged to be creative with their story. It had to embrace the lifestyle of these people groups.
They have to conclude it with a poem of their own writing, titled "Tribe".
Little Bird Tales had been such a hit with the Grade 2's that I was amped to use it with the older grades. So I decided that their fable and illustrations will be done using this. They will be done in rough first, after which they will draw and type it into Little Bird Tales and narrate it. From there it will go to their Wiki which acts as their Display Board for their family and friends to view.
I would love (next year perhaps), to join together with other schools and create an online book where we all write our own fables that are indigenous to our countries and their people - and put them together and maybe Skype to read them to one another and have a Q & A time about our stories.
That will have to wait for next year... because this year is flying by so fast I can barely catch my breath!
