As promised, the kids gave narrations today about the mummification process. Sydni and Zoey gave oral narrations using the voice recorder, which I have typed up. Cole typed up his own narration using wordpad. Apparently, he *really* enjoyed this. Had I known he would love to write as long as it involved typing, I would have had him typing his narrations sooner! Any [ ] in the narrations are my clarifications.
Sydni’s:
It’s me Sydni. I am just going to start from the beginning. First you get this long metal thingy and stick it through his nose and you mash up his brain. Then you cut the body open and take all his stuff [organs] out and put them in jars. Put the salt on him and then let him dry up and shrink and stuff. Then you put oil on him and some other kind of stuffing and then you wrap him up.
Sydni was talking into that recorder like she was a contestant in a beauty pageant. I was totally cracking up! She has been very hesitant to narrate in the past, so I am pleased that she seemed eager to do this one. YAY!
Zoey’s:
They put a hook in the nose and then they pull out the brain and then they pull out all of the organs and place them in these jars. Then you tip the body over then the liquid goes out. Then you stuff it with something and some salt. Then you wait for 80 days and the salt is dry. It’s natron salt. Then you get off the salt and take all the stuffing out and then you stuff new stuff in it and then you put this oil-like glue on. Then you wrap it up and put thingies [amulets] on it then you wrap it up and you have a mummy.
Can I just say that I was SUPER impressed with Zoey’s first ‘real’ narration?!?! She has been looking over all the Egypt books in the house and played that mummy game about four times yesterday.
Before I add Cole’s, I am going to say that he made a spelling error that turned into some rather graphic human-on-mummy violence. He meant to type “wrap” and its various forms. I laughed out loud when reading it the first time, so I hope you find it humorous and not offensive!!
Cole’s:
How to make a mummy: You take the brain out with a special hook tool. You cut the stumach area and take out the orgins and put them each in a jar with the difrent god headed tops. The orgins are the lungs,stumach,intestines,liver. BUT KEEP THE HEART THE MUMMY NEEDS IT FOR LATER. Then you put patches in the cut where the stumach is and then you put natron on the body and wait 40 days. After those 40 days they put oil on the body then they rap the body in linen then put amulets on the linen and rap it again. After raping it they would put a mask on it then they put the raped body in 2 cases. Then at his funaral the people hire morners. And after his funeral, up in the world of the egypt gods, anubus scales the heart of the body and if its heart had too many lies it gets eaten but if it has truth it will be spared.
*AHEM* Poor mummy! He has no idea what it really says, of course. There are some corrections to make, obviously, but he did manage to do a pretty darn good job. The colon in the beginning was all his idea (and I am pretty happy to see it!), as well as a few commas and the correct use of the word ‘too.’ This is not his first written narration, but it was his first time typing one.
Kris
/ September 8, 2010The kids narrations are wonderful! This is not a part of the CM learning we have embraced much. I mean, I do have my dd kind of summarize what we’ve read in history or The Hobbit or what she is reading in her assigned reading time. Maybe I should have her type things up or speak into a recorder? She might find that fun. Or she might find it more work, who knows. So far, just telling me what she heard me read to her or she read on her own, isn’t causing stress so we’ve stuck with that. DO you ask them questions to prompt certain narrations? We’re still very new to CM…
Becky
/ September 8, 2010Kris, it’s perfectly fine to just have her retell what you read, or what she read. That’s all narration is!
I keep forgetting how old your dd is. I am thinking in the 5th/6th grade range, right? Because she is new to narration, just easing her in with basic oral narrations is fine. But most kids in the CM philosophy would begin written narrations around age 10. It’s something you ease into. Cole is working on 1/2 oral and 1/2 written right now. Eventually that will become mostly written narration as he matures.
Sometimes I simply ask them to relate the story back (summarizing) and sometimes when we have learned a particular subject in detail (like mummification), I will ask them to tell me everything they know about making a mummy, or the steps involved. Sometimes I say, “tell me five things about the Nile river” or “tell me everything you know about __________.” There are lots of tricks if you have a reluctant narrator.
Becky
/ September 8, 2010Oh! And the only reason I even have a voice recorder was because of living (previously) in Maryland. I had to bring in a portfolio twice a year to review with the school district and having typed up narrations was the only “writing” I could bring in the early years! It’s proven to be a great narration tool for us.
Sam
/ September 8, 2010Oh my gosh! Those narrations were so great! I loved Sydni’s matter-of-fact delivery. And, Zoey’s was really fabulous! Isn’t she your youngest? My goodness, what a good job she did! And, Cole’s… ROFL!!! That was so funny! But he really did a superb job on his, as well. And, I liked his addition of being judged by Anubis. Really fun stuff here! Great job, guys!
Becky
/ September 8, 2010Zoey is my youngest. She won’t be six until late October!! She was really enthralled with the whole mummy thing, so it stuck. And she played that game over and over today. I am sure Seneb was sent to the afterlife at least 4 or more times by her alone. Still, she has a real mind for details and she is a bit of a perfectionist (no clue where that comes from!). She gets very upset when she gets anything wrong, so I think she pays extra attention.
Kris
/ September 9, 2010Becky – she’s 11/6th grade. But narration is pretty new to us although I’ve asked her in the past to tell me what she has learned. We’ll keep working on it until she gets the hang of it. Doesn’t have to be perfect from the beginning. Just gotta get past the ‘I don’t know’ answers. lol Thanks for your help.
Fawn
/ September 9, 2010Those are great Becky! And at least he remembered to drop the “e” and add the “ing” ha!