It’s Thursday morning and we have a 9:30 A.M. start at Auxilium Primary School, Caranzalem.
Big book, lending books, activity books, stationery; all in hand, we headed off to school.
We have 4 classes there; 2A & B, 3A & B. Today, our book selection for both grades is the same. We’re reading a tried and tested favourite- Purple Jojo; a book about a white dog that finds himself covered in purple spots after waking from a nap. He proceeds to ask a variety of objects around him if they were responsible for the spots. They all respond negatively, stating that they are not purple. He ultimately finds that his spots are a result of jamuns falling from the tree under which he slept.
A wonderful and playful book that allows the child to go through a range of colours; it was sure to get their attention.
Red, blue, green and yellow. These were all simple enough. All the kids relate to these colours, and they are further reinforced by the colour coded house system in the school. Our game saw the class divided into groups based on these 4 colours. They all stood as they heard the name of the colour to which group they belonged. Here’s where we threw in the twist. ‘What’ll happen if the reds and the blues stand up and I mix them up; what colour will we have then?”
Silence.
And out came bottles of poster paint. And they watched in anticipation. First the red, then the blue….”and what do you get??” “PURPLE”, they chorused! The same followed with the red and yellow, then the blue and green.
The stage was set for Jojo to make his appearance! But wait! They looked at the cover…Jojo was a white dog! So why is the book called ‘Purple’ Jojo?!
And so we turned pages to find out.
They took delight every time Jojo asked a different object whether they had put the spots on him. “NO!” they responded “….that is white, black, green, red.”
“Then how did Jojo get spots on him?!?!” Without thinking twice a confident 2nd grader in our first class for the day responded to the question- “The aliens put spots on Jojo!”
What a twist in the tale that would have been! And certainly a tough act to follow! But the kids didn’t seem to find the jamuns falling from the tree to be too much of an anti climax.
Pencils and pastels met paper for the extension activity as colours in their head took the form of objects on paper.
All the colours came together on white sheets. It was a colourful day indeed at Auxilium Primary School, Caranzalem.
And we learned where purple comes from.
