I had quite the Monday with my first and second graders.  I started my morning by traveling to Africa with my first graders, but by 11:00 was in Australia with my second graders.  You can imagine my exhaustion after traversing two such amazing continents.

As I said, I started my morning with a trip to Africa with first grade.  We read a terrific folktale called The King of the Frogs.  It was the story of how peace came to the frogs.  You may not realize, but frogs were quite the rambunxious group before gaining a new king, Mamba the Crocodile.   The unruly frogs had asked their God Mmumi for a King, but I am not sure this is what they had in mind.  The kids and I had a wonderful discussion on being careful what you ask for and having the ability to govern ourselves. It was neat to hear their perspectives.  Following our discussion the kids created their own origami jumping frogs using an index card.  They had a wonderful time allowing their frogs to jump about “doing as they please” just like the frogs did in the story…before grumpy King Mamba entered the picture. 

After our frogs settled down long enough to sit in their habitat, the first graders created poems about their frog.  Enjoy the example above.

Once we arrived back to Bulverde Creek it was time to head off to Australia.  The second graders spent time learning about the Aborignies (natives to Australia).  We studied their cave drawings, their technique, languages, music, etc.  It was great fun.  After studying the beautiful art attributed to the Aboriginal people the kids were influenced to create their own pieces.  They attempted to use many of the techniques we saw in the paintings we studied.  The kids wrote poems to go with their wonderful art work.  Below is a book with a preview of some of the art and poetry.  To see the completed book, please click on the link below the book.

Click HERE to see the completed book. When you See CLICK HERE TO READ, please click on it so that you can see the book in Full Screen.