Sharing the story
* Remind the children that the story of Rama and Sita is very old and is important to Hindu and Sikh people worldwide, not just those living in India.
Children may have heard the story told at home or seen it on television. The story also features in the video 'A Little. Princess' (Warner Bros. 8.99). There are many versions and elaborations of the story and children may be able to embellish on this simple version. (See Resources, pages 18-19.)
* Retell the story and develop as an oral storytelling activity for yourself and the children. Ask the children to tell you their favourite part of their story, and tell them yours. Encourage them to talk to each other about their choices.
* Help them to think of the story in sections and to see a mental image or 'picture in their head' of a particular part of the story.
* Talk about the images they may have of the characters. Remind them that the illustrations in books may be wonderful, but that the pictures they create in their heads are far superior (Note that some gods are painted blue in Hindu paintings.)
* Encourage the children to share the telling of the story by taking it in turns to contribute.
* Revisit and retell the story for as long and as often as their interest is held!
* The children may like to retell the story in drawings as well.
* Talk about which parts of the story they might have found exciting or frightening and how the ending made them feel.
Languages
* Explore the fact that India, where the story comes from, is a land of many languages the most common being Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujerati and Bengali - and that the English language has adopted words from these languages, for example, pyjamas, shampoo and bungalow.
Scripts
* Collect books, newspapers, magazines, and posters of print in a variety of scripts and talk about how some languages are written in different scripts and in different directions, for example from right to left in Arabic and from top to bottom in Japanese. (Remember to include Braille.) Fonts
* Make a collection of 'lettering' and alphabet books that show the many different fonts and styles for writing English.
* Explore the fonts on a word processor with the children. Printing your name repeatedly in many different fonts is a great way to practise name writing and keyboard skills!
Numbers
* Use images of Ravana, from the story and from the children's own drawings, to explore counting to 10.
* Build a bank of the numerals from 1 to 10 in a variety of languages, beginning with languages or dialects common to the setting.
* Encourage parents, practitioners and visitors to share their knowledge of counting in languages other than English.
* Photocopy the back of the Nursery Topics poster, showing 1 to 10 in French and Hindi and Chinese numerals and transliterations, and display it prominently - particularly in carpet/large group areas where practitioners can use them regularly and build their confidence in using them!
* Add other languages to your bank of numerals. Provide phonetic spellings as well as correct spellings and scripts, to make it easier for adults to learn unfamiliar words.
* Acknowledge how difficult it can be to learn new words (particularly in an unusual script) and encourage practitioners to relate this to the experience, not just of children learning English as an additional language, but to all children trying to make sense of written English and its irregular phonic conventions.
Magic circle
* Provide chalk for drawing 'magic circles' outdoors and the children will initiate their own games.
* Role play the part of the story where Ravana lures Sita out of the circle. The practitioner can take the role of Sita, while the children can think of ways to tempt her from the circle. This game will enable the children to explore the 'wicked character' and put the practitioner in the less dominant role.
* Swap the roles, leaving Rama in the circle while Sita goes to hunt for food.
* Suggest that the children might use the magic circle to safeguard equipment they are using outdoors (for example. while they go to the toilet).
Suggest a reasonable time limit and help and encourage them to self-monitor the system.
* Draw numbered circles on the ground to create simple jumping and pathway games.
