Children are still children
Shhh! Don't tell anyone I'm here. Just sneaking on to share something. But I'm not really here. Honest.
It's the penultimate afternoon of the summer term and that means DVD afternoon. This morning, my class were given a choice of films to vote for. All the usual suspects: Shrek, Toy Story, High School Musical...and one oldie, The Wizard of Oz. Well, to my surprise, it was a landslide victory for The Wizard of Oz and now my class of 28 6/7 year olds are laughing, gasping and singing along to a film that is older than most of their grannies and grandads.
To be exact (just googled it) the film is 72 years old this year - isn't it great that it still has such appeal for children? And that regardless of what they are now exposed to in terms of technology and communication, they can still be entertained and entranced without the aid of computer generated animation? I don't think I've ever seen them this quiet! Love it!
*Sneaks back off the Cloud before anyone spots her*
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14 Comments
Weens, thanks, but I don't think I can take credit - I think it's just a sign that children haven't changed as much as we sometimes thinks and that they are still entertained by the simple rather than the complicated.
My eldest son is most entertained in the great outdoors without a toy in sight. We hate rainy wet days in this house because then he turns into Tigger - literally bouncing off the walls!
Swallows and Amazons - I loved that book and the film :-) And Whisks, the great thing was that quite a few of them had obviously watched it before as they were singing along with the songs :-)
Skylark, thank you for this – it made me smile imagining you sneaking onto the cloud :) Don't tell teacher – oh, I am the teacher!
Spi – we've got the 80s TV Swallows and Amazons DVD:Coot Club and The Big Six. I think it's better than the feature film. But I'm a Ransome fan - not only was his writing superb, but he collected a lot of the tales I tell, witnessed the Russian revolution and married Trotsky's secretary – not bad for an author people think of as safe and old-fashioned! He also illustrated his books brilliantly: the pictures are simple enough for kids to copy (I did!) and never show faces clearly. He believed it to be essential that the readers developed a picture in their own mind.
This afternoon, we had a BBQ for our after-school group, knowing full well that there would be hardly any children, because several families have already left on holiday. In the end, we had four adults and one teenage helper with two girls! We all had fun, we played games and I told an old Russian tale (Salt- learned via Ransome!) with the aid of puppets made from wooden spoons and a shoebox ship. No technological trick spared! We had a fantastic storm, using assorted voices, and a hurried happy ending because burgers wait for no one!
Oh, and every week storytelling with a certain friend of mine, I get asked to sing 'Dorothy's song'. And i do – but not every week!
It just goes to prove that a good story line and a bit of imagination can come up trumps!
I am a fan of Shreck and animated movies but you can't beat a good old fashioned movie with great characters and plot.
I hope they had a wonderful afternoon :o) xxx
The Wizard of Oz was the first film I ever saw. I think I was five. (And, no, it wasn't the original release!) My mother was a lifelong Judy Garland fan.
A wonderful afternoon was had by all yesterday - and glad my illicit blogging put a smile on all your faces too ;-) School's finished for the summer today so I'm off to open a bottle of wine and some of the end of term choccies and put my feet up :-D
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