The Surin Elephant Roundup

Background:

Every November, Surin, a north-eastern province in Thailand, holds its annual Elephant Roundup, one of Thailand's most popular festivals. The Inhabitants of Surin were renowned for catching and training elephants, who have been a prominent feature of Thai art, literature and legend, thanks to their importance both in labour and war. The Mahout and his elephant have a special relationship; in daily life man and elephant need to depend on each other, and as such the elephant is usually treated as part of the 'family'. This life-long relationship is an integral element of Kui culture, tradition and the way of life.

Nowadays Thai elephants are almost exclusively bred instead of captured due to their dwindling numbers in the wild, and the Surin Elephant Roundup show has been held annually since 1960 to commemorate the importance of the elephant and his trainer. The Roundup takes place over two days and includes an elephant buffet, elephant talent competitions, demonstration of the various techniques used to train elephants, a presentation of ancient elephant warfare techniques, a tug-of-war between men and elephants, and possibly the most popular event, 'elephant football'.

The Craft Class:

The aim of this class is to introduce the concept of the elephant roundup and all the truly amazing things that elephants can do. Vocabulary includes actions and phrases such as 'dance' 'eat breakfast' and 'play games'. Materials include flash cards, a short film, a cut-out elephant, a mask, and various worksheets for early-finishers. You'll also need a projector or laptop, loads of crayons, scissors and some sellotape.
 
For the main project you will need:

●scissors 
●pencils and pens
●cello-tape.

You will also need:

1 copy of the flash cards
A copy of each of the handouts per child
A photocopy of the elephant (printed on card-stock)
A photocopy of the elephant mask (aso printed on card-stock) 
 
Procedure: 

○ Start with a quick game of 'instructions', speeding up little by little as you go (stand up, turn around etc). Add a few new 'animal instructions' and demonstrate what you mean (be a tiger, be a giraffe, be an elephant).

● Show the flash cards and elicit the vocabulary. Act the actions as you go (Dance, Play Football, Play Games, Paint, Fight, Eat Breakfast). Drill pronunciation and stick cards around room for a quick game of 'say and point'.


● Ask kids which animal can do all the actions in the flashcards. Encourage all guesses, but if they don't seem to be getting near, give them a little hint or two. When they've got it, show surprise and ask if they're sure. Then hit 'em with the video! Try to encourage them to call out the actions that the elephants are doing (a bit weird in present simple, but if they're not at continuous stage yet, you can ask them "what can the elephant do" instead or "what is it doing")

Uploaded by phumin00 on youtube.

○ At this point decide if you want to do a map thing or not. I tend to pull up a world map on the whiteboard and help them find Spain and the UK before letting them guess a bit as to where Thailand is. When they find it I give them the handout and get them to colour and label the 3 countries. I'm doing this with each Craft and Culture class, so the students that come back are getting a bit of a collection!
 

● They are now ready to make their 3D elephants. You've got to keep a really strict eye on time, as they will have to colour in both sides of the elephant, cut them out and still have time for the mask and a worksheet or two!
*ADVICE* Don't do what I did which was to give them the option of colouring-in with pens. It takes too much time and the pens run out! Best to stick to the old favourites: pencils or crayons.

● When they've coloured in the first side, get them to cut them out, flip 'em round and colour the backs. Give them a piece of scrap paper each to protect the tables from wild colouring-in skilz ;) Finally, show them how to cut the slits and construct the elephant, adding a bit of sellotape to the legs and ears as you go so they don't fall off. 

○ As each kid finishes off, you can give them a photocopy of the mask to colour in and cut out. The littler students will need help cutting out the eyes of the mask, and attaching the string.

 ● For early finishers, now is a great time to give out the colouring-in  handouts. Or if you're tight on time, staple them to the back of the map and tell them they can do it at home!

Y ya 'sta! Elefantastic! :D

Pum'kin love!

Another year, another Halloween, and what better way to celebrate it than with food and something crafty? This year I thought I'd try to push the pumpkin-carving skills little further than just sticking a knife into it and making holes, and also get to grips with making my first pumpkin soup. The Guardian newspaper got me started with a short article on how to carve, and a link to this guy, who is possibly the worlds most amazing pumpkin-carver EVER! Now fully inspired I was ready to go out and buy me a pum'kin!

The best thing about making a pumpkin lamp is that you get to eat the insides as well. Now I've never really been keen on pumpkin pie, but I'd never say no to a pumpkin soup. I found this recipe on the bbc website. I've changed it just a little by using the pumpkin seeds from the pumpkin instead of buying them. More on how to roast them later.

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions , finely chopped
• 1kg pumpkins or squash (try kabocha), peeled, deseeded and chopped into chunks
• 700ml vegetable stock or chicken stock
• 142ml pot double cream
• 4 slices wholemeal seeded bread
• handful pumpkin seed from a packet

Serves 6 Prep 20 mins Cook 25 mins

1. Heat half the olive oil in a large saucepan, then gently cook the onions for 5 mins, until soft but not coloured. Add the pumpkin to the pan, then carry on cooking for 8-10 mins, stirring occasionally until it starts to soften and turn golden.
2. Pour the stock into the pan, then season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 mins until the squash is very soft. Pour the cream into the pan, bring back to the boil, then purée with a hand blender. For an extra-velvety consistency you can now push the soup through a fine sieve into another pan. The soup can now be frozen for up to 2 months.
3. While the soup is cooking, slice the crusts from the bread, then cut the bread into small croutons. Heat the remaining olive oil in a frying pan, then fry the bread until it starts to become crisp. Add the seeds to the pan, then cook for a few mins more until they are toasted. These can be made a day ahead and stored in an airtight container. Reheat the soup if needed, taste for seasoning, then serve scattered with croutons and seeds and drizzled with more olive oil, if you want.

Yes. It really IS as good as it looks! Roasting the seeds was relatively easy. All you have to do is wash them in a bowl and try to take off all the gooey pumpkin strings you can. You then have to thoroughly dry them. This could be done with a hair dryer, or (as I did) you could just go out for a drink with friends and come back and hour or two later. Then:

• Pre-heat the oven to 135 C (275 F)
• Melt a tablespoon of butter and a table spoon of margarine, and mix in a squirt of lemon juice, a tablespoon of oregano, a splattering of cinnamon and a pinch or two of salt.
• Take the mixture off the heat, add the pumpkin seeds and mix them in well.
• Spread the seeds on some tinfoil and stick them in the oven for about 20 mins until golden brown

Yum!

The last step was the carving of the pum'kin itself, which I did with an apple-peeler knife. I think it came out quite well! This is the first time I've tried peeling the skin off the face of the pumpkin to add depth, and added a chimney to the top. I also tried the technique of smothering it all in Vaseline to try to extend its life. It has to last until Monday after all, if the kids at school are going to get to see it! Does anyone else there feel the pum'kin love? I'd love to know what squash-related activities you get up to, and see any photos of your pumpkin lanterns!

Spring Flowers

The Craft Class:

A bright and cheerful project to welcome back our long-lost friend Spring!

There are some fiddly bits in this project but I managed it with about 8 students between the ages of 8 and 10 last week, and nine 6-7 year olds today :)

For the main project you will need:

●scissors 
●pritt-stick type glue
●a pencil
●some newspaper (to protect their sticking surfaces!)
●cello-tape.

They will also each need:

FLOWERS

1 pre-cut circle a little bigger than a euro coin

3 strip of yellow or orange card (about 11x3 cm)

12 little squares of different coloured paper (roughly 8x8 cm)

STEMS AND LEAVES

3 wooden skewers (pinchos) cut to 3 different sizes

3 strips of green paper (to wrap around skewers) (about 1,5 x 21 cm)
3 green drinking straws

1 A5 green sheets of paper

POT

One plastic cup (preferably coloured)

One small stone (for the base of the cup)

A small block of polystyrene that fits snuggly into the cup

Procedure:

○ Ask the children what season it is, and drill 'spring'. Draw a flower in a pot on the board and label it together (PETALS, STEM, LEAF, EARTH and POT). Play a couple of memory games, and get the kids to copy the flower on a piece of paper, colour and label it, and finally make a paper frame for the picture. It took more or less between 1/2 hour and 45 mins for the younger lot.

● Give out the pre-cut circles and the small strip of yellow or orange card and get the students to trace around the stencil 2/3 times. Cut out and put aside.

● Next hand out 4 of the coloured squares of paper. The kids can chose whichever colours they want, but it's best to have a minimum of 2 different colours.

Get the kids to cut 4 strips about a centimeter wide of 2 of the colours. Put the rest of the paper to one side for now.

○ Take the first 4 strips and stick one end of each around the circle, making a cross.

● Fold each strip in half and glue the ends to the circle.

● Stick the other 4 strips in the spaces in between, stick, fold, and stick the ends in place again. Put the flower-head aside, and then repeat the whole process 2 more times to end up with 3 complete flower heads.

○ Give the children the A5 green paper, and get to fold it 4 times length ways. Show them how to draw a leaf shape (taking up the full length of the paper). Cut the leaf through all 4 layers. Put 3 of the leaves aside but on the last one, get them to trace around their circular stencils 3 more times. Cut out the circles and put them aside with the leaves.

● Give each child the green strip of paper for the stem and help them to fold it in half length ways. Cut some cello-tape for each of them to stick the sides together, making a long tube. Repeat two more times. (easier version): use drinking straws.

● Take one of the flower heads and glue the end of one of the stems to the back of the flower. Repeat for all 3. Take the three green circles that they made with the leaves and stick them over the stem for the back of the flower.

○ Give them the biggest wooden skewer, and show them how to measure it against one of stems. Tell them they will have to cut the paper straw stem about 3cm up from the bottom of the skewer. Repeat for the other 2 stems and smaller skewers.

● Stick the skewers carefully up the paper stem-tubes, blunt-side first.

● Attach the leaves to the base of the stem, pinch in place and attach with cello-tape. Fold leaf over and down. Repeat for all flowers.

○ Put the stone in the bottom of the plastic cup, fit the polystyrene in as snuggly as possible, and stick the flowers in.

● Finally push the petals in to make them 3D

● If you have any early finishes, you could get them to make mini butterflies to stick on the flowers.

YA ESTA!

:)