I have now started this scheme with my Grade 2 students and so far we have read the first half of the poem together. We began to discuss the meaning of the new made-up words that we encountered. Some ideas began to take shape in our first session; the Cannerlee could be a statue, or some precious material, or a machine used to produce food; the Lizzerbee an amphibian, or a monster. Soon we'll also have ideas for the Kort, the Fuzznillers and the Snick.
Didn’t you hear about the Lizzerbee?
It came in the morning for the town’s Cannerlee.
Though the town didn’t see, nor hear, nor know,
So the Kort sent a crew to the land capped in snow.
A boat soon was crafted, to sail away,
On a mighty adventure for eleventy days,
With dangers to dodge, Fuzznillers to flee,
But the town truly wished to return the Cannerlee.
The chief of the crew, with her stinging Snick,
Kept it hidden from sight, in a sack close and quick.
The rest they held tightly, their spirits free,
As the ship left the port to a miserly sea.
But before continuing further in the story, I wanted the groups to develop a shared vision of the town and then to begin inhabiting it, role playing out the story as it develops. To facilitate this, I built on my idea of a Magic Imagination Ball (introduced in this post) where each student can pantomime the creation of an object by 'molding' their magic ball, which helps us all to visualize it and position it in our mental map of the town.
In an earlier session this semester, I handed Magic Imagination Balls to the new students in the groups, then we explored using them through the collective creation of an imaginary garden. Sitting in a circle in the classroom, I asked each student to add one thing to the garden inside our circle. They pantomimed the object, giving it shape, weight, movement and meaning, then showing where it was positioned in space. The objects and animals in each garden varied from cherry trees to skyscrapers, from hamsters sitting on floaties in a pool to velociraptors, from garden sheds to strings of fairy lights. As the picture is built step-by-step, we are able to construct a clear visual image in our heads which we visualize in the classroom. We then went on to write stories, draw pictures and tell tales about the events that may have taken place in this garden.
So when it came to building the town, we already had an idea of how we could do it. After reading through the poem and a short discussion, we divided the class into small groups and each group had a few minutes to discuss what they would add to their part of the town, then practice pantomiming it in the space. Each group then introduced their section and soon we had a town hall mapped over one of the tables, a statue of a previous mayor in a corner, a bakery by the whiteboard, a council fire on the carpet, a museum by the sink, and so on.
Now, as we continue with our story, we have 'real' places to inhabit and role-play in; I can send a group to the town hall to for a meeting; we can have council by the fire while 'eating' bread from the bakery. And as the town has been created collectively, it is also remembered collectively between sessions. I can ask "What's in this corner of the room?" and at least 5 hands will shoot up in the air with answers.
The next session will be this first chance to role-play. We will start to find roles and responsibilities for everyone in the town, we will discuss and debate and we will soon head out on our adventure.
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