Kinder Project

Project on Traditional Argentinian Folktales at Kindergarten

Adaptation of the Project by: Mariana Zárate; Evelyn Camplese and Samanta Giangiacomo


This is the adaptation of the interdisciplinary project "Leyendas Tradicionales" developed by Silvia Julia Sueldo. It was published in "Proyectos Didácticos Interdisciplinarios. Indagar y cuestionar desde pequeños." - Ediciones Novedades Educativas Agosto 2003 - Bs. As. Argentina

This project invites the educational community, children and parents to participate in a process-oriented learning experience which is born out of a need and aims to delevop a number of smaller and bigger products.




Stages in the Project
  


NEEDS
This project was born out of the need to create national identity and foster values such as solidarity and respect towards diversity.

RESEARCH
The author resorted to the following bibliography before designing her project:
- Akoschky, Judith, Diseño Curricular del Nivel Inicial, Buenos Aires, 2000.
- Bianchi, Laura, Módulo de Plástica (del curso homónimo), Cefop.
- Brandt, Ema, Diseño Curricular para la Educación Inicial. Plástica, Buenos Aires, 2000.
- Chertudi, Susana, El encuentro folklórico, Buenos Aires, CEAL, 1967
- Patte, Genevieve, Si nos dejaran leer, Bogotá, Procultura – CERLAL / Kapelusz, 1984.
- Secretaría de Educación, Diseño Curricular para la Educación Inicial, Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, 200.

JUSTIFICATION
This project proposes a theme, Traditional Argentinian Folktales, which guides the actors involved in the process to the cultivation of a set of values which not only represent a simple and clear way to keep culture alive but also respond to deep human life motives and which are still valid regardless the passing of time. This set of values is most necessary for the creation of national identity and the fostering of solidarity.

OBJECTIVES:
For the educational community to:
- appreciate the values underlying the chosen folk tales;
- be involved in artistic activities;
- be responsible in the fulfilment of each person’s role;
- recognise that the values dealt with throughout the project are still valid nowadays.

For children to:
- discover the magic world underlying each legend;
- understand the moral in each story;
- apply values and attitudes such as friendship, hospitality, respect towards diversity and solidarity;
- analyse and interpret the legends by dancing and singing traditional songs along;
- enjoy different forms of artistic representation;
- develop visual sensitivity;
- build images related to the stories narrated and the places they come from by themselves;
- enjoy teamwork;
- value other people’s efforts and set them as examples;
- identify diffrent musical genres and relate them to their originary place;
- relate different instruments to the original natural environment they come from;
- develop their creativity by means of composition of music and production of artistic works;
- relate colours and textures to climates and setoff from the places which the stories come from;
- learn new techniques to apply in arts;
- explore the possibilities that different materials provide;
- recognise and differentiate colour palettes;
- choose the right texture for each work.

TIME + SPACE
The project took place at the school premises, that is to say classrooms and the auditorium.
The span of time that this project has taken is not specified. Nonetheless, it is made clear that the project was set to finish by 10th November, on “Día de la tradición”.


MATERIALS
The resources used in the development of this project were:
- the Argentinian folk tales: “La leyenda de Coquena y el Ucumar”; “La leyenda del Yasí Yateré”; “La leyenda del Nahuel” and “La leyenda de los Onas”



- sound equipment;
- a recording of the legends told and the songs which they evoke;
- TV and DVD or VHS player;
- videos and magazines with images from different geographic areas;
- folk music recordings;
- folk instruments, characteristic from music from el Litoral, northeast and south of our country;
- tape recorder to record students’ productions;
- conventional and unconventional materials for children to use in the production of art works;
- a puppet theatre;
- waste material;
- music from the play “Leyenda”, interpreted by “Libertablas”;
- costumes;
- blackboard;
- posters.


ACTORS
The educational community, children and their parents were the actors involved in this project, they worked as a team in order to achieve the desired goals. Adults were in charge of perfoming different folk talkes, they also worked on the setting, which was expected to resemble the different regions at which the stories take place. Parents and relatives were as well expected to wear costumes and follow a script. Parents counted on the support of the Kinder’s drama workshop, new working groups could be set up if necessary.


PLAN AND ACTIVITIES
The activities were approached in a global way, therefore, each of them was related to more than one area of knowledge. Nonetheless, these activities were classified according to different subjects for the sake of orderliness:

ACTIVITES RELATED TO LITERATURE
- To listen to the narration of a folktale.
- To comment on personal opinions.
- To exchange opinions regarding what it has been listened to.
- To discuss about how to apply the morals and values presented in each folktale.
- To create a story in order to show the values and morals once again.

ACTIVITIES RELATED TO MUSIC:
- To listen to folk music from each region.
- To relate each story to the music that is produced at each geographic area.
- To compare music from different regions and look for differences and similarities between them.
- To identify rythms and dances from different regions.
- To dance freely different rythms.
- To discover musical instruments from each region.
- To associate instruments and the materials they are made of to the natural environment from which they are taken.
- To produce music according to the different folk genres dealt with.
- To indentify the character of the works dealt with.
- To create new music using the elements analysed in this project.

ACTIVITIES RELATED TO SOCIAL STUDIES
- To watch paintings, photos and videos related to the regions that each folk tale comes from.
- To find out which elements can be found at certain places and which cannot.
- To place each character in the spatial setting of the story.

ACTIVITIES RELATED TO ARTS
- To discover the colour palettes from each region.
- To explore the different textures of the material used in Arts.
- To make comparisons between physical characteristics of the characters mentioned in the folk talkes.
- To perform the folktales.
- To produce two-dimensional works of art using different techniques to create different textures.
- To make a pastiche.
- To make puppets of different charcaters, bearing in mind the difference in size among them.
- To represent the folktales through the puppets.
- To make sculptures of the characters using waste materials.
- To make two-dimensional murals and topographies to use as setting when perfoming the folktales.
- To watch the play put up by parents, relatives and teachers.

FINAL PRODUCT
It was an exhibition of the work done on 10th November, Día de la Tradición.

ASSESSMENT
The way this project was to be assessed is not explicitly mentioned. However, the organiser does imply that she is very happy with the work done. She says that all the actors enjoyed themselves in the process and therefore we could infer that this project was assessed not summatively but ...