Smrt Lernins

Today was our first day of our Peace Begins at Home/Pennies for Peace class. We started at around 10:15 and went through to about 12:30.

We all started the morning together by watching the 12 minute video about the program. Even the little ones sat still for it (mostly). I talked to them about what a penny can buy here and in Afghanistan and Pakistan, demonstrating by putting pennies into the big glass jar. We then broke into our two groups, <8 and 8+.

The little ones (under age 8 ) read Listen to the Wind with Ms Mel, drew pictures about what they learned (the Tank drew a bridge, but he said Dr. Greg really was walking on a ladder), and the talked about what it means to be good people. They were about done after that, so Ms Mel and Ms Gretchen took them outside to run around for a while.

The four big kids (8+) are reading the youth edition of Three Cups of Tea. It’s edited from the original version to include less about Greg Mortenson’s personal life and political ideology, and to include an interview with Amira Mortenson, his daughter. We talked a little about the first few chapters, and then did an activity from the grades 4-8 lesson plan where the kids wrote down things they knew about the US, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, then things they wanted to learn about, and their predictions for the answers to their questions. There’s also a space for the answers, once they find them. We talked a little bit about the connection between the US and the other countries, a little about the war in Afghanistan, and about religious extremism. The children (two boys, two girls) were shocked to hear about conditions for people, especially women, under the Taliban.

The next thing we did was look at a map of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The children outlined both countries in different colors, then found the US, Afghanistan, and Pakistan on a world map and colored those countries in the same colors they’d used to outline them on the other map. We talked about how far away Afghanistan and Pakistan are from us, but how, despite the distance, we’re connected in many ways. We reconvened w/ the little kids for lunch and then watched a short video on the geography of the region.

The little children went outside to play, so the big kids and I made a “recipe” for building a school. We imagined starting on a barren piece of ground in a mountainous, rural region, and what we’d need to make a school and to get the supplies there. It started simple, with bricks…would the cart them in or make them? They decided to make them, so they needed mud or clay. They needed concrete, but decided to import that using a “heavy truck,” until they got to the river, when they decided they’d need a boat, too. For roof tiles, they though they could use recycled metal from vehicles or even old cans, if importing roof tiles wasn’t cost effective. We talked about the things we’d need to overcome a lack of running water (pipes bringing it up from the river?) and electricity (manual tools or generators, which they felt should be solar-powered). The list was pretty long — two columns, with notes about the origin of all the materials — and they ultimately decided that the most important thing on the list was money!

I think they really enjoyed today’s lessons. Not completely sure what we’ll do next week. We’ll focus more on the book and on cultural things about the region. Friday, I’m hoping to do something with food!