Teaching about A village in India with year 3 & 4 pupils from Waterton J & I, Wakefield

Teaching about A village in India with year 3 & 4 pupils from Waterton J & I, Wakefield Wendy North Wakefield Education Advisory Service

Kanjikolly & Chembakolli villages in India Kanjikolly and Chembakolli are small villages in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. We had been finding out about the villages in geography and wanted to gain a sense of what it might be like to live in these places. We used photographs from the Action Aid photo-pack and and CD-Rom `Take me to Chembakolli’.

First of all we used the classroom to develop focused observation using our five senses. In this way we learnt that we could describe a place with lots of detail. Later we then used this technique with photographs from Chembakolli & Kanjikolly. Our close observation, using sense impressions, helped to give an immediacy to our writing. Using our SEnses

Putting yourself in the pictureWorking with our chosen photograph we used `freeze framing’ to help us take on the role of a character in the photograph. CAN YOU WORK OUT WHICH FREEZE FRAME SHOWS … ?friendsvillage schoolwriting sieving concrete the way home

Putting yourself in the picture What might it feel like to washan elephant?

What does the fruit taste like? Putting yourself in the picture

Using four of our five senses, seeing, hearing, touching and feeling we examined our photograph carefully and made notes on the `sense impression’ sheet.Finally we wrote in a guided writing session. This helped us to structure our thoughts.Please read our writing about Kanjikolly village. Using our SEnses Photograph from Action Aid http://www.chembakolli.com/

Dean I can see a photographer taking a picture of me eating fruit. I can hear people talking and shouting in the village. The sun is light and bright. I can feel stickiness, wetness from my fruit. I can only see the photographer. I am happy and smiling. I can smell food and fruit, a banana smell like a banana-ish fruit. I think I like the village my fruit and the photographer as well. Eating fruit Photograph from Action Aid http://www.chembakolli.com/

Sieving concrete I can feel the soft blue powder the rough and hard wood. my bracelet tickling my arm. I can smell the misty air that blocked my nose. the moss on the trees and the dead leaves that are coming off the trees. Leah Stakes I can see some trees gently brushing against each other, my friends working hard. I can see the muddy floor, it has grass on it. I can hear the slight breeze shaking and rattling the trees. I hear my friends talking to me, they are telling me some things they are going to have for their tea. Photograph from Action Aid http://www.chembakolli.com/

What does it feel and look like to dress in Indian clothes? What makes these clothes suitable for the climate?

What different kinds of weather can you see?

What can you work out about the climate from the photographs and graphs?

Just before the monsoon rains start all of the family work in the fields to clear them and plant with new seeds. Over the next few months the monsoon rain will water the crops. While the crops are growing the fields have to be weeded. Boman thinks this is really hard work. Finally, when the crops have ripened Chandran and the other workers harvest them from the field. Chandran decides it is too wet for the sangam meeting with the other villagers. Padmini says her new umbrella will be very useful to help give her some shade from the hot sun. Living Graphs

Baranby can only fit ten items into his rucksack. What should he take?

A Day in the Life of Bomman and Jamie 1.Pupils choose one of the people in Chandran and Padmini’s family. 2.They are given a set of cards that show one member of the family involved in activities at different times in the day. 3. First they need to order the cards so that they are arranged morning to evening. They are then ready to choose cards to fit on a time-line (zig-zag book). The top half of the time-line needs to show what happens in Kanjikolly village. The bottom half provides a space where they can draw themselves ( and write one or two sentences) about what they will be doing at a similar time of day,

What is it like to live in an Adivasi village? 1.Explain to the children that we are going to watch a video about life in an Adivasi village. They are going to see part of a film about Padmini and Chandran. 2.They will need to watch very carefully – and really notice details. 3.They should be asked to listen very carefully for different sounds on the video – sounds that they might not hear at home … because they are to complete a sheet on which they write about or draw 5 scenes from the video. 4.Give each child (a table group should have the same character or place) a card which says which character or place they should watch out for in the video. 5.At the end of a section of the video they will complete their sheet and draw/ write about 5 scenes from the video. 6.Review learning.

Work in two’s. Can you put your photographs in pairs and explain your reason for doing so. • Because they have both got elephants in. • They are the same because they have forests and fields. • These are schools of children in the village. • Two people are in the house and in the other picture if you look very closely you can see a house at the back. • The two children in both pictures are exactly the same.

Teaching about A village in India with year 3 & 4 pupils from Waterton J & I, Wakefield