Benedict and Columbus

Today we traveled back in time again and visited Italy. Well, it was not yet called Italy but just to give you an idea why we had pasta for snacks :)

Why did we learn about Benedict? That was the question i asked at the end of the first part of the presentation and one child replied: "Because he was so special! He was close to God plus he worked so hard and valued education above all." Yes, not only be good, but do good too - and work hard in life. I could not have thought of a better conclusion myself! We also realized that these values are very close to us - the people in the future - and they were so special then just because times were very different back then after the Dark ages. While Benedict, a patron Saint of entire Europe and all students, was a stranger to all of the kids the next person was not. Every one heard of Columbus!

We got inspired by his persistence in achieving his dream but we also learned that greed is not a very good thing - it got Columbus into a lot of trouble. The ships he sailed with were the focus for our craft part. We learned  how they looked and what an impressive journey they managed to achieve. The lead ship had a name very easy for us to remember! Santa Maria! Close enough to the name of our school to never forget it again.

Little hints to help them draw the ship

Most of kids took the challenge of drawing a ship - a lot of them stuck to the familiar territory though of drawing flowers, Ganesha, etc.

A neat collection of Santa Maria ships.

After the presentation and crafts session we went out to test our skills in our famous hop scotch game. Definitely a Sancta Maria special :) we could probably patent it! A hopscotch game with many task to accomplish while balancing on one leg - pouring water from one glass to another, throwing a ball up in the air and catching it, avoiding rough seas and sharks by jumping over them and hitting the target basket with a candy. Kids love it and without even knowing it is a wonderful motor skill challenge for them that boosts their skills.

Hop scotch jump Columbus style :)

Balance!

Akshata:"Columbus discovered America by chance. He wanted to find  India"

The final session was dancing. We were not able to finish all the things we planned yesterday when visiting the ancient Greece but we promised children we will make it up today. So Girish taught them a wonderful dance from ancient Greece that we all enjoyed. I actually found a lot of resemblance with some folk dances from Europe i know.

Dancing. Holding hands and managing steps - team work and fun :)

P.S. If any of you wonder how we pick our topics for this first week of the summer camp, where we travel back in time and explore history I want to tell you that we were inspired by a history book written for kids: E.H. Gombrich, A little History of The World. A book that  is on almost every list of "50 books every should have at home" and it is a wonderful introduction to history in s simple language all kids understand.