Hair Love, short animation and book by Matthew A. Cherry
This is one of those precious stories that takes you on an emotional journey and stays with you long after reading or watching. In just five minutes of animation you feel the hopes and frustrations of the father and daughter and are gently introduced to deeper emotional theme. (No spoilers here!) Get comfortable, get yourself a drink, (and some tissues) and check it out here https://youtu.be/kNw8V_Fkw28
Hair Love itself has an interesting story in that it was made possible by a Kickstarter project. Matthew A. Cherry explains “This story was born out of seeing a lack of representation in mainstream animated projects, and also wanting to promote hair love amongst young men and women of color. It is our hope that this project will inspire.” The campaign page https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/matthewacherry/hair-love-animated-short-film/ includes lots of the initial sketches as well as some of the viral videos of dad and daughter hair struggles and triumphs.
The book is also available. (Clicking on the picture will take you to Amazon, Teachers Telling Tales are not affiliates and recommend supporting local, independent book stores where possible.)
Global Handwashing Day is an annual advocacy event linked to sustainable development goals. The theme for 2019 is Clean Hands For All and a quick glance and the facts and figures below show why this event is relevant to everyone.
In 2013, I conducted hand washing workshops in small schools in South Belize while volunteering with TIDE, a conservation and and development organisation. The ‘glitter germs’ part of the lesson was the highlight for the children, their eyes sparkled like the pretend germs on the hands when it was their turn to be sprinkled! It’s a well used and memorable way to demonstrate how germs spread from unwashed hands whether it’s through holding glitter in your hand and pretending to cough or sneeze, shaking hands and giving high fives or passing around a ‘contaminated’ pencil and asking each child to write their name with it. The children I worked with loved the challenge to remove all the glitter germs against the clock using either a paper towel, a bowl of water or water and soap. We also sang songs, played card games and had a quiz.
You can download the updated lesson plan with links to resources from the Teachers Telling Tales shop on tes.com (free download), or Teachers Pay Teachers store (also free).
Handwashing
Bug Off card games
Handwashing Challenge
Spreading Sparkles
Glitter Germs
Hands up for hygiene
Rub-a-dub
Sensory Soap
Bye Bye Germs!
Glitter = Litter! What’s the Alternative?
Back in 2013, I hadn’t considered the impact of glitter on the environment. When articles came out to raising the alarm, I’m sure many other teachers and parents shared my sadness at the realisation that this ‘magical’ substance was no longer something we could use guilt-free. There were no eco-friendly options available. The activity can also be done using a plant sprayer and coloured water for the sneeze demonstration and flour or glo germ kits. Good news if you are a fan of the glitter though, many companies have since rushed in to fill the dark void with sparkly options! Be aware that not all are as eco-friendly as others, here’s a helpful infographic to check.
I’ve been sick the last couple of days and it has got me thinking about how illness or injury can cause anxiety. Even as adults we worry that it might be something serious at the same time as worrying about troubling a doctor in case it isn’t serious! For young children the experience can be overwhelming. 3-5 year olds I have taught have become very upset when told they needed to see the nurse at school. To overcome their fear we invited the school nurse to visit the class to reassure them.
It was simple to set up, we collected some soft toys and created common scenarios such as a scraped knee, bumped head, nosebleed and stomach ache for her to treat. The children watched intently and came up with suggestions for treatment. They enjoyed seeing and touching the things the nurse brought such as a hot water bottle, ice pack and sticky plasters. Soon all the teddies were feeling much better!
We didn’t have any problems with taking children at the nurse after that, but if children are still anxious, they could visit the nurse with the soft toys and a note to see the nurse help them in the medical room.
Following on from the lesson, children enjoyed exploring being nurses and doctors in a role play area, continuing to look after the toys and each other. This helps them to become familiar with medical equipment so it’s no longer scary.
Children love to care for their teddies with bandages and sticky plasters.
Resources
Editable sick or hurt scenarios available for free download from the tes shop or TpT store.
To encourage mark making and early writing, Teachers Telling Tales produced writing frames for children to fill in during doctor role play. After listening to their patient they mark / fill in the details and their prescription on the form.
“Flyaway Katie is about the ability we all have to change our mood and make ourselves feel happier. All you need is a bit of creativity and a lick of Paint!”
Author and Illustrator, Polly Dunbar
To check out the book, or purchase a copy, click on the image above
This gem of a book with its gorgeous illustrations is a fantastic resource for exploring feelings and how to manage them. It links colour beautifully with emotions as Katie transforms from feeling grey and all alone to flittery, fluttery, flighty and fizzling when she puts on her favourite clothes and paints herself in bright colours.
Let the magic begin …
Ideas
Flyaway Follow – Along
Children love listening to the story while looking at the pictures. To really engage them, develop their listening skills and involve them with the storytelling try using story element cards. TTT has created cards with the colours, body parts and clothes from the story. Children can hold up their card when they hear it mentioned in the story. This is a great way to introduce unfamiliar vocabulary and the cards can be used as a classroom resource or part of a display afterwards. Colouring an outline of Katie after the story or during a reread reinforces the vocabulary. You can get this resource here https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/flyaway-katie-follow-along-12168466
Flyaway Feelings
Feelings can be overwhelming for young children. If you ask them to identify feelings they generally respond with happy and sad. This book can help them to identify and describe a wider range of emotions, for example, Katie is feeling bored and lonely at the start of the story. The way it visually links feelings to colours and through the fizzing patterns is also helpful. The story leads to discussion on how we can change our moods, supporting children with learning to manage their emotions. Through sharing the colours and clothes that make them happy in circle time activities children can learn that we like different things and get to know each other better. A great way to explore this further is to create a self portrait in the style of Flyaway Katie. Resources for these activities can be found here https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/flyaway-feelings-self-portraits-12168474
Flyaway Creations
The colourful bird picture inspires Katie to have her magical adventure to change her mood. It is also fantastic inspiration for children to create their own art work. They could decorate birds to recreate the picture using colouring pencils, markers, paint, or collage, (see the butterfly below for detailed pattern work idea). Polly Dunbar created a beautiful bird mural with students in Singapore. http://www.pollydunbar.com/flyaway-katie.html
The fizzling patterns from the story can be recreated using a variety of brushes and texture stampers, stencils and cut out shapes. While some children will enjoy creating detailed patterns on birds, others will love the more messy approach of going outside, putting on a rain poncho and splattering the colours! A pattern like this on a large sheet/roll of paper would make a great background to display self portraits or birds. Ideas and templates for these creations are available at https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/flyaway-creations-12168480 Or, save and get all three Flyaway resources as bundle: https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/flyaway-bundle-12171903
Teachers Telling Tales resource samples
Links
Examples of resources for making fizzling patterns
You can create fizzling patterns with found objects around the home or class, but there can be great deals online. For example, at the the time of writing, the 42 piece set above is only £7.49.
“At night his bedroom shone like the Milky Way, the jars on his shelves dancing and spinning with trapped, silvery, exotic, beautiful, fancy words.” from Eren by Simon P. Clark. Illustration uses jars image by ThreeMilesPerHour from Pixabay
Sometimes the stories that resonate or stay with you somehow find you. This has often happened to me through book clubs, or friends passing on their favourite reads when I have been ambushed by stories I wouldn’t have chosen myself.
Yarns and tales and the telling, they’re all about unravelling the truths that life hides … It’s about you, and the story and where the two things meet.
from Eren by Simon P. Clark
Eren by Simon P. Clark was given to me by a friend and although aimed at young readers (age 10+), it captured my attention and kept me thinking about it long after the final page. Eren is about the origins and power of storytelling and it contains many wonderful quotes about stories, “Why do we tell stories? We tell stories because we know no other ways to fly.” It also features short tales. The one that I found myself rereading over and again was about a man who collected words, locking the ones he liked in special jars so that no-one could ever use them again. The tale never reaches its conclusion due to an interruption just as the word collector is on the cusp of attaining the ‘Greatest Word’ leaving the reader wondering what it could be.
It is a book that appeals to readers who like dark, eerie and mysterious stories. It’s great for a class book to be read daily, or to use the mini story and keep in the classroom library for individual reading.
Wonderful Words
‘Constellation’, ‘peahen’ and ‘gobbled’ are three of the words collected in the short tale; as a reader you can’t help but think what would your words be. What makes a word worthy? Is it the sound of the word or the meaning. Does it sum up a concept or evoke a strong feeling? These are really interesting ideas to explore with students. Here are some ideas for turning young writers into word collectors.
Ideas
Curate a collection of wonderful words.
A ‘jar’ for each student to put their words in. This is a good use for those plastic food and drink containers that collect in cupboards! Foil packaging (such as crisp packets) can be used to write words with a permanent marker, or use glitter glue for sparkle. Displayed in a dark corner with fairy lights this will look really special. Whenever a new word is found it can be added to the jar which then become a resource at creative writing time.
Sensory jar creations. Add oil, water, glitter, cubes or Lego with letters on to build the words inside the jar. See links below for some great ideas and instructions.
If your students (or you!) enjoyed reading Eren, you’ll be pleased to know there is a short story project online by Simon P.Clark in collaboration with photographer Brandon Rechten, ‘Twelve Stories. Twelve Photographs. One Question. Who – or what is Eren? http://www.erentales.com/
The smallest is just 15mm, the largest around 68cm
Their tongues are 1.5 to 2x their body length and can shoot out and capture prey in less than a second.
Their eyes can rotate 360º and look in different directions at the same time.
They can see in UV light.
Males may have facial ornamentation to make them more attractive.
And of course, they can change colour, although this is most often not as camouflage as commonly believed, but for communication (related to mood) or temperature regulation.
What do you call a group of chameleons?
Many animals have charming collective nouns, for example, a shiver of sharks or a romp of otters, but I wasn’t able to find one for chameleons. The closest is a lounge of lizards or a mess of iguanas. Here are my ideas:
Collective nouns for chameleons illustrated by Fiona Childs
The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle
This charming picture book has had many a class giggling as the poor chameleon gets more and mixed-up as his wishes to be more like other animals come true.
As with the best children’s books, there is deeper learning beyond the funny story. I highly recommend reading this book module on using the story for exploring the philosophical dimensions of happiness, change and personal identity https://www.teachingchildrenphilosophy.org/BookModule/TheMixed-upChameleon
Teaching Resources
The possibilities for fun learning inspired by the Eric Carle story and these amazing creatures are endless! I’ve had so much fun creating tens of chameleons with different patterns.
Themes in Teachers Telling Tales Chameleons resources
The Content Chameleon
This is a mini story and quiz in presentation form; the chameleon, no longer mixed-up returns to the zoo and has fun trying out animal patterns. Children guess which animals he visited, then complete colouring sheets featuring the chameleon and patterns.
Chameleons with animal patterns that feature in The Content Chameleon resource.
There are blank outlines for colouring, or tracing onto a plastic envelope for exploring pattern changing or hiding for a chameleon hunt.
An interactive presentation where children choose which chameleon matches the picture (of jellybeans or Lego, for example), then drag it on top to make it disappear.
