Encourage children to find out more about India with a project based on the engaging story Elephant Dance by Theresa Heine (Barefoot Books, 5.99). The activities have been chosen to excite children's senses and provide a balance of stimulating learning opportunities across all six areas of the curriculum.
Adult-led activity
The elephant dance
Focus on the climax of the chosen story, Elephant Dance, to encourage children to respect cultural differences.
Key learning intentions
To have a developing respect for their own cultures and beliefs, and those of other people.
To move in safety with confidence and imagination.
Adult-child ratio 1:10
Resources
Elephant Dance (Barefoot Books, 5.99) ,bright blue fabric ,coloured tissue paper ,string ,a bamboo flute or recorder, jingle bells, gongs and drums flower catalogues.
Preparation
* Make garlands with coloured tissue flowers threaded on to string.
Activity content
* Read the story to the children and then talk about the title. Why is the book called Elephant Dance? Who told Ravi and Anjali about the elephant dance? What can the children remember about the dance?
* Reread the names of the flowers used to make the garlands and find pictures of them in flower catalogues.
* Invite the children to try out different ways of moving like elephants, such as bending over and swaying on two legs while waving an arm to represent a trunk.
* Suggest that the children take turns to be the three elephants in the story, walking in the procession during Diwali while the other children clap and make music.
* Drape bright blue fabric over each elephant's back to represent a blue silk howdah and invite the others to choose a garland each to wear.
* Supply bells, drums and gongs for watching children to play while the elephants sway along.
* Talk about how Ravi dreamed about an elephant dancing silently while he played his flute.
* Play some notes on a bamboo flute or recorder and invite the children to make up elephant dances.
Extended learning
Key vocabulary
Elephant, dance, procession, silk, howdah, garlands, sweet jasmine, hibiscus blossoms, morning glory, chimes, gongs, flute, silent.
Questions to ask
* What did Ravi's grandfather see on the feast of Diwali?
* What did the elephants wear?
* Who rode on their backs?
* Can you remember any of the flowers that were in the garlands that the people in the story wore?
* What made the elephant dance in Ravi's dream?
Follow-up activities
* Invite the children to listen and move along to a variety of Indian music CDs, for example 'The Rough Guide to the Music of India and Pakistan'
(World Music Network).
* Find a recipe for coconut barfi and make some with a small group of children to share after reading the story (remember to check for allergies to any of the ingredients).
Child-initiated learning
Sound and music
Additional resources
and adult support
* Leave the resources used for the associated adult-led activity in the sound and music area, and provide a CD of the Indian music used along with a player that the children can operate themselves.
* Demonstrate how to play the CD and encourage the children to recall the story as you listen together.
* Withdraw so that the children can develop their own ideas using the resources.
* Revisit the area regularly to observe play and comment on actions.
Play possibilities
* Recalling the story together and sharing ideas for the direction of play.
* Using available materials to recreate the elephant dance in the story.
* Thinking of original ideas for the resources, for example, inventing new characters by wearing garlands and dressing up in the blue fabric, or creating musical accompaniment to the CD.
Possible learning outcomes
Seeks out others to share experiences.
Uses talk, actions and objects to recall and relive past experiences.
Responds to sound with body movement.
Adult-led activity
The colours of India
Evoke the rich magic of the book by inviting the children to handle beautiful materials in a rainbow of colours.
Key learning intentions
To extend vocabulary, exploring the meanings and sounds of new words.
To explore colour, texture, shape, form and space in two or three dimensions.
Adult-child ratio 1:7
Resources
Copy of Elephant Dance,3saris, chiffon scarves or lengths of thin fabric in the colours of the rainbow, as well as silver, white, gold, brown and grey.
Activity content
* Invite the children to sit in a circle and read the story Elephant Dance to them, pausing to wave coloured fabrics at appropriate intervals, for example, to create the monsoon rain like a silver curtain cascading from the sky.
* Look again at the rainbow picture and name the colours. Supply each child with a length of coloured fabric around the circle copying the colours of the rainbow. Invite them to hold up their materials to form a rainbow - red, orange, yellow green, blue, indigo and violet - 's-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g'
over the sky'.
* Read out the words used to describe the colours as the children hold them up, for example, 'orange as lentils', 'green as the parakeet', 'red as watermelon' or 'blue as the kingfisher'.
* Choose colours together to represent other things that are mentioned in the story, such as the sun looking like a 'fiery ball' uncurling to become a 'ferocious tiger' or the 'gentle wind' pit-patting through the trees and 'hushing the leaves'.
Extended learning
Key vocabulary
Rainbow, red watermelon, orange lentils, yellow saffron, green parakeet, blue kingfisher, indigo ocean, violet storm-sky, fiery ball, silver bangles, white snow, gold kite, brown soil, silk sari, silk howdah, grey elephant.
Questions to ask
* Can you tell us some of the colours in a rainbow? Which one is your favourite?
* Which of these colours reminds you of the tiger in the story? Can you say why?
* Which of the colours would you choose to make a sari or howdah?
Extension ideas
* Make a weather chart, fix a hook next to it and drape different coloured fabrics over it to represent the various weather conditions each day.
* Explore other aspects of the Indian culture through colour, such as spices and animals, using the reference pages at the back of the book for initial inspiration.
Child-initiated learning
Creative area
Additional resources and adult support
* Set up a rainbow 's-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g' across a wall behind the paint and collage area using the coloured saris.
* Ensure that paint colours and collage scraps are rich and bright and represent the colours of the rainbow. Provide powder paint in primary colours for children to mix their own rainbow colours, and strong card bases for collage work.
* Visit the area to draw attention to the rainbow and remind children of the part it played in the book Elephant Dance.
* Suggest that the children create rainbows of their own using the resources available.
* Leave the children to explore materials and try out different ideas, returning occasionally to comment on how they are progressing.
Play possibilities
* Observing the fabric rainbow display and making links between this and the focused story to stimulate their own creative ideas.
* Painting rainbows or creating them on card bases using collage techniques.
* Experimenting with mixing rainbow colours from primary colours.
Possible learning outcomes Persists for extended periods of time at an activity of their choosing.
Uses one-handed tools and equipment.
Chooses particular colours to use for a purpose.
Adult-led activity
The shape of India
Take advantage of larger outdoor space to create a map of India for small world play.
Key learning intentions
To use appropriate shapes to make representational models or more elaborate pictures.
To observe, find out about and identify features in the place where they live and in the natural world.
Adult-child ratio 1:4
Resources
Large outdoor hard surface; copy of Elephant Dance; coloured chalk; small world Indian elephants, tigers, peacocks, snakes, monkeys and crocodiles; stones; blue fabric strip; model trees; toy boats.
Activity content
* Read the story and then look again at the map of India.
* Talk about how India is shaped like an elephant's ear and look at model Indian elephants to make comparisons. Suggest drawing a map of India on the ground outside using coloured chalk.
* Begin with the outline, making it large enough to accommodate several children playing with small world equipment.
* Use stones for the peaks of the Himalayas and discuss how to create the River Ganges with blue fabric or chalk running from the mountains to the sea. Colour the mountain peaks white with chalk.
* Invite children to use coloured chalk to draw deserts and forests, and wavy lines to represent the Indian Ocean, using the map in the book for reference.
* Introduce small world animals, trees and boats and play imaginatively together, encouraging the children to decide on direction.
Extended learning
Key vocabulary
Map, India, Indian Ocean, River Ganges, Himalayas, mountains, peaks, deserts, forests.
Questions to ask
* What did Ravi's grandfather say India was shaped like?
* Can you tell me about some of the animals that live in India?
* Can you remember some of the things we drew on our map of India?
* Point to where would you like to live on the map. Why have you chosen this place?
Extension ideas
* Look at an atlas and talk about the shapes of other countries. For example, describe how Italy is shaped like a leg.
* Explore a pictorial atlas to discover some of the physical features of other countries, such as mountains, lakes, deserts and rivers.
Child-initiated learning
Outdoors
Additional resources and adult support
* Leave the chalk outline of India on the ground and provide the other resources used in the adult-led activity.
* Join the children's play initially to encourage them to recall the story that inspired the creation of the map.
* Leave the children to explore the resources and use them as they wish before visiting to discuss their imaginative ideas.
* Supply further materials if requested by the children.
Play possibilities
* Explaining their own ideas and listening to those of others before deciding on the direction of play and use of resources.
* Learning more about a country other than their own and making comparisons between the two.
* Creating imaginative scenarios based on their recall from the Elephant Dance book of the physical features and wildlife of India.
Possible learning outcomes
Talks activities through, reflecting and modifying what they are doing as a result.
Shows an interest in the world in which they live.
Plays alongside other children engaged in the same theme.
Mark-making area
Additional resources and adult support
* Provide the children with outlines of India cut out of thick brown paper in various sizes along with a wide selection of mark-making tools such as crayons, chalk and felt-pens.
* Remind them of how Ravi and Anjali coloured in the River Ganges and the Himalayas, painted deserts, forests and the 'great tiger sun', and then drew tigers, peacocks, crocodiles, elephants, snakes and monkeys on their map.
* Suggest that children pick an outline to illustrate as they choose before leaving them to explore the resources freely.
* Return occasionally to ask them to tell you about their maps.
Play possibilities
* Following the example of the characters in the story, and the action of adults and children in the adult-led activity, to create a map of India.
* Using the 'ear-shaped' paper for an entirely different purpose to suit their own requirements and introducing additional items of their own choosing.
* Talking about the meaning of the marks they have made.
* Showing developing skill in the use of tools available.
Possible learning outcomes
Ascribes meanings to marks.
Demonstrates increasing skill and control in the use of mark-making implements.
Notices what adults are doing, imitating what is observed and then doing it spontaneously when the adult is not there.
Areas of learning
Personal, social and emotional development
Communication, language and literacy
Mathematical development
Knowledge & understanding of the world
Physical development
Creative development
