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3RD DRAFT
3/17/2005
Ms. Mary Rudder, Kindergarten, Harvard Kent School, Boston, USA
Hello, I’m Mary Rudder from the Harvard Kent School in Charlestown and I teach kindergarten. I use the StarFestival CD-Rom as part of our unit on Japan and places in the world. I also use it as a connection between family life, family roots and just to make the adventure more real. We start our adventure on our airplane which the kids painted, and designed and then we prepared for our trip by carrying packing our suitcases which is of course made of paper since kindergarten is a paper capital of the world. Inside the suitcase is a blank piece of white paper and the children are asked to draw the things that they think they will need on their trip. And sometimes you get what they would need, some children want to bring all the toys they own and one of the boys this year wanted to bring an ice cream machine. Unfortunately, when he went through customs in Japan, they would not let him in. They made him take it out of his suitcase. Of course, I am the customs official. After we prepare, we also have our airline tickets. And since we will be traveling to several places on the earth on the world, there are several categories that we list the places we will be going. Tokyo is our first stop although the trip will bring us all the way to Hiratsuka, which is where the Star Festival takes place. The children have a ticket in their boarding pass. Quite a few children [real] understand what a boarding pass is so when they receive this, they thought the trip was almost real. A few of the children went home and said, “I’m going to Japan tomorrow, but you don’t need to worry, mom, coz I’m gonna be home by 8 o’clock tonight.” So, I also issue them a passport with their picture in it, had them sign their name. Check to see if they knew their address because this is an important fact that toward xxx kindergarten children are expected to learn. A few didn’t know went home and found out. Their birthday, ok, a few didn’t know. Left a space in the back for the stamps when they go through customs. So as you can see, we are in Japan. So in the afternoon, because this is an 18 hour flight from Boston, we board the ship, we board the airship just before we are leaving and for the day and I collect their tickets and their suitcases and store them under the board. And behind the airplane is seats. They sit in rows just as they would on an airplane. And they say, “When are we gonna be in Japan?” And I would tell them, “You have to go home tonight, go into bed —to your own bed and when you come back in the morning, we will be almost in Japan.” So they come in the following morning, and when they came in, the Japanese house is up. So we’ll talk about that in a few minutes. Before we start our trip, I want the children to know where in the world they are and where they’ve come from. So we made a big mirror map which they help paint. Of course you’ll notice that some of the continents aren’t quite correct because when they get the paint in their hands, they start painting areas that should be water end up to be land, and [land that should be water] land that ends up to be water. So, but it has a general feeling for it. And I sent home a questionnaire, asking their parents because most of the children in the class come from other countries. In fact, just about everyone in America comes from another country if you trace that far enough. And they are asked just to write the child’s name and if you have, I’ve mentioned mom, dad, grandparents’, what countries they come from. And when they come in, I’ve already used the same pictures that we have on the passport to make a little card which will mount on our map with a line that will go from the girl’s name or boy’s name to Boston to wherever they came from. So the children will actually be able to see where in the world their family came from. It was quite interesting and they become very proud. In fact, the parents came in and when they saw the map up inside, they said, “Oh, this is where I come from. This is so.” They didn’t know I was going to ask them the question, so I think they will really be thrilled when they see their kids up with the name connected. I think it’s just important because it gives them a sense of, you know, where they came from and it also sort of gives value to their background. It was interesting that I sent home because we’ll be doing in this paper and we will be doing a family tree. But I didn’t’ ask for a family tree, one of the kids came back with it all written on the back of the paper. So I thought this is perfect because when we start looking at Shigeru’s family tree, we start doing our own. Here Juan has his all done. Only we will probably do it on a bigger piece of drawing paper, so you can see it. And I’ll have him script the words. So I think that ah it’s interesting if things should come out last and things have come out of the study. [Because ah] I want to go to Hiratsuka because part of the adventure in Japan is the big festival. And what we will be doing is we travel with Shigeru through the different points, going to the train station, from the train station on the bus, looking to see how it’s the same as what they are used to or how it’s different from what they’ve known. They were thrilled to see the subway station, the train station because they notice right away it didn’t look like the train station that they are familiar with. And they can see the little shops in the background, so they would, “Wow, that’s really pretty.” So I think that’s interesting that now they are thinking of what they know and they are learning something different. Let me bring you over to our house. (6:39) I should sit on the floor, but I won’t coz I’ll never get up again. This is Hira --Hirako and she is named after a little girl I met in Japan when I went on a visit. And so when I came back, I thought kids like to relate to other kids. And before I introduce Shigeru on the ah CD, [Hira ah] Hirako introduces her grandmother’s house because I don’t want the children thinking that every child in Japan lives in a house that’s a traditional Japanese style house. That most of the children when they talk to them would probably live in an apartment. But [they might] they would probably have a tatami mat on the floor. And they might have a kodatsu at their table. Or they might have a western table. So I think it is important that they know some other things that [they] the children in Japan are doing now. In fact, we have Japanese e-pals, which is really a great great deal of fun. They are first-graders, but they are kind enough to write to us. I’ll show [Shi ah Hira ya] Hirako in her regular clothes, but I’ll have this little angel that was sitting up here and the kids would say, “What is that? What is that?” And then I say, “She has wings. She has wings.” So I say,” Oh what do you think this is?” And they recognize right away she’s an angel. And I say, “Why would I want to have her around?” And “Oh, she’s good luck.” And I say,” What’s she wearing?” We talked about she has the kimono on and she has the geta shoes. So soon there’s like a tie between the old and the new. And I think the CD-Rom does that a lot when you see the older pictures and, you know, the festival dress. And I think it’s important for them to recognize it. (8:34) I tie in a lot of literature. And I introduced the story by saying, “It’s her favorite.” So they think this is great if she likes the story. And they sat with her after the story is read and we’ll re-read and go through the pages together. They would all sit around the table and try to look at the pictures and talk to her. [There were] we had our friends in and we were singing songs together. And they were making her hands clap coz they wanted her to, you know, wow we were doing we were clapping they wanted her to clap so that they were like really including her as part of the classroom. I think it’s important for the children to really become involved in things to make it important to them. We and I told them today they noticed the festival decorations on the opening screen and some of the pictures that they saw. And they said, “Oh, look at that!” especially the dragon. “Look at the dragon!” And I said,”Oh that’s part of the festival. And we are traveling on this train to go to Hiratsuka because we are gonna be part of the festival.” And we were planned at the end of two weeks of reading stories about Japan true and mostly a lot of folktales. And it they allows them to process the story, tell what it’s about. They pick out their favorite part, they read it, and they thrill me today. [They read] they read the “Wise Old Woman.” And it sort of teaches like that it’s so important to respect the elderly. And they took their favorite part and then they all stood and they started to write they are sounding out their words, which is we are doing well in a workshop, so this is like a big thing. I was so proud of them. And they go, “Oh, I got that and I could read it.” So I think it’s ah you know, even though we are doing Japan, we are still doing language act, we are still doing writing. So ah I try to keep that connection. I keep it tied in. So I told them that the festival, we would be having a festival and we would need to do all the decorations just like they see in the [movie and ah] film. And we will be inviting our pals down the hall to come in and partake in all these festivities. I said because I knew I didn’t want to have five kindergarten groups all here once, I said, “You know it takes a few days, so we’ll probably have it several days with one class in each city.” So they would, “Oh, ok. We are ready!” So I think [they are] I think this is really gonna be a great adventure. All the past years I’ve done it, it’s been a learning experience for the children and for myself. They always find a new angle or a different part to key in on. And this, especially this class, I think they are really keying in on. Just they really think they are there. They are really and I think they are hearing the noises, seeing the sights, going on the bus ride, seeing the fish market. I have to tell you the fish market. The girl saw the fish market and goes,”I love fish sticks.” And so I’m like, “The fish are big and they are such …Oh, that’s nice and you’ll see all the fish later. And she goes, “I want…” And I said, “That’s where it comes from. This is what happens if we were to make it into fish sticks.” So here we’re talking about how food comes to the table. What happens? It doesn’t just materialize into fish sticks. We didn’t just go out to the river and pull out the fish sticks. So I think it’s important for ah, you know, to say that we need food, people in Japan need food, People in China need food. We basically are different, but we all have the same kinds of needs. So, I don’t know. It’s an adventure. Want to see the old picture? (12:28) This is a class I had. That even at the very end of the day, they were trying to work. They totally identified with Shigeru on the film. And they were looking at it. Even when they [were] had their clothes on and they were waiting for their parents to take them home, they would still go and explore the different parts of the computer. Do I have a minute to tell you about the book? Sorry, I forgot. (13:04) This is a project I was involved in and it’s a real I mean really an adventure. So, this is the story of Shigeru when he was in Japan because the story on the CD-Rom is when he’s grown up. So this takes all the information from the CD-Rom and makes it into a story that a teacher, or a parent, or a librarian can read to the children and it shows real pictures and it also shows beautiful drawings. And I think that just get it it’s a story that about his family before he left and sort of how he had a very happy joyful life with his family and his after... It shows them all the things he does. Like this is going to the shrine, fishing with his grandfather, visiting his grandfather’s shoes shop. Things that were just an intricate pattern of his life. Going to the model shop and then to have, you know, when he’s 9 or 10 to be taken from his home roots and just brought over into a very strange world where he didn’t speak the language and he didn’t, you know, really understand or know any of the culture because he wasn’t exposed to it and then to have to deal with that. And how he quickly became more Americanized that after a short a year or so, when he found out that a letter he had sent to his grandfather was totally in English and his grandfather couldn’t read it. And he [didn’t] hadn’t even realized that he had done that. So I think it a lot of the children I have bilingual children and a lot of them have, you know, two languages or even three languages. And they think they sort of really understand that maybe sometimes I say things to them, I don’t quite understand what it is because it’s not familiar to them, but this sort of connects to their own, their own life. And I think that when you see Shigeru going back into Hiratsuka and visiting the old hut that he went to and looking at the old photographs, you can see, you know, how much he changed and how much he grew and how he would have that feeling that he’s not quite sure which culture he belongs to and maybe that’s how a lot of our children feel.
嗨，我是瑪麗瑞德，任教於查爾斯城的哈佛肯特學校幼稚園，我把七夕節StarFestival光碟容入認識日本及世界各地的教學單元中，我也把它拿來作為家庭生活與家族根源的連繫，同時也讓整個遊歷更真實。我們的歷險就從搭飛機開始，這是小朋友自己上色、設計畫出的，然後是行前準備，我們要打包行李，手提箱當然是紙作的，幼稚園是世界上使用紙張最多的地方；手提箱內有一張白紙，小朋友要畫出他們認為旅行需要用到的東西，有時他們會畫出自己需要的東西，有些小朋友要帶著所有玩具，今年有個小男生想帶冰淇淋機，不過遺憾的是當他抵達日本，海關卻不讓他入境，要他把冰淇淋機從手提箱裡拿出來，當然我就是海關人員；一切準備就緒之後，我們還要有機票，因為我們要到地球上世界上好幾個地方旅行，所以就把要去的地方條列出來；東京是第一站，雖然行程是直接到平塚市，也就是舉行七夕節慶典的地方。小朋友的機票裡面有登機證，有些小朋友知道登機證的用途，所以拿到登機證時，他們還真以為要去旅行了，有些小朋友回家嚷嚷說:「我明天要去日本了，可是媽媽不要擔心，晚上八點以前我就回來了。」我還做護照給他們，裡面貼上他們的相片，叫他們簽名，這時順便趁機看看他們知不知道家裏住址，這很重要，幼稚園小朋友應該要學會的，有一些不知道的小朋友就回家查，還有生日，有些人不知道。背後要留些空白，過海關時蓋章用，所以就像你看到的，我們到日本了。下午呢，因為從波士頓到日本要坐十八個小時的飛機，所以下午放學前我們坐上船坐上飛機，然後我收回小朋友的機票和手提箱，放在白板下面。飛機的後面就是座位了，他們照飛機上那樣一排一排坐好，他們會問:「我們什麼時候才能到日本﹖」我回答說:「今晚大家要回家睡覺，睡在自己的床上，早上來上課的時候，我們差不多就到日本了。」隔天早上當小朋友來上課，進到教室的時候，日式房子就已經搭好了，我們待會兒再回過頭來講。 出發前，我要小朋友知道他們住在世界的哪個地方，還有他們的祖先從什麼地方來的，所以我們製作了一張鏡子一般大的地圖，小朋友也幫忙塗色，你一定注意到了，有些洲畫得不怎麼正確，小朋友一拿到顏料就開始畫了，海水塗成了陸地，陸地應該是海水，陸地塗成了海水，不過樣子大致上出來了。我還發了一份問卷讓他們帶回家去問爸爸媽媽，我班上的小朋友大多來自其它國家，實際上，如果追溯夠遠的話，幾乎每個美國人都是來自別的國家，然後家長要寫下孩子的名字，如果你，我還問到媽媽、爸爸、祖父母的名字，從什麼國家來的。當他們來上課的時候，我已經用了護照裡的相片做了一張小卡片，這張小卡片會貼在地圖上，從小朋友的名字畫一條線將波士頓和他們來自的國家連接起來，這樣，小朋友就可以看出他的家人是從世界的哪個地方來的，很有趣，他們也感到驕傲，事實上，當家長走進來看到牆上地圖的時候，說:「喔，我就是從這裡來的啊﹗原來如此。」家長並不知道我會問這個問題，所以我想，當他們看到孩子的名字連在上面的時候，真的是樂壞了，我覺得這蠻重要的，因為你知道，他們已經有個籠統概念知道自己從哪兒來的，他們的背景也有了價值。有趣的是，我讓小朋友帶問卷回家的目的是，我們會在問卷紙上畫出家庭樹，但是我還沒叫他們畫，有一位小朋友就在背面畫好交回來了，我想這真的太好了，我們看宮川茂教授的家庭樹的時候，我們也要開始畫自己的了，這裡璜已經把他的畫好了，可能我們會畫在一張比較大張的圖畫紙上，這樣你就能看到了，我會叫他寫工整點，我覺得如果東西能歷久不衰，那就很有趣了，更何況是能結合教學和生活。我想去平塚市是因為，在日本的遊歷有一部分是為了七夕節這個大日子，我們打算跟著宮川茂教授一起去不同的地點旅行，去火車站從火車站到搭公車，瞧瞧這一切和小朋友所熟悉的事物有哪些是一樣的，又有哪些是不一樣的，他們看到背後那幾間小商店的時候，就說了:「哇﹗真漂亮﹗」我覺得很有意思，現在他們會動腦筋思考知道的東西，同時又學習到不同的東西。走，我帶你們過去和室那邊。 (6:39) (8:34) (12:28) (13:04)
Last Modified 5/11/06 1:20 PM |
