Mythology remains on center stage for us this week. On Tuesday, we got our first look at our section of the annual all-school play. Our section is an adaptation of two Yanomamo myths. One tells the tale of humans stealing the secret of fire from the mouth of a great caiman, the other explains the concept of Moon’s blood. We read through the script as a class, then spent the next day making note of striking imagery in the tales (there’s plenty), as well as the clues that reveal aspects of the values of the Yanomamo culture. 
We also did this exercise after a birthday-inspired viewing of the Twilight Zone episode “After Hours.” There’s plenty of striking imagery in that as well, and we examined what messages we could discern from from what we found funny and/or unnerving. These studies are all culminating with an examination of our own culture here at Summers-Knoll. What values do we share? What customs do we have? What are useful lessons that our community passes on? We brainstormed a giant list of these along with a list of striking, Summers-Knoll related imagery. Students are now working on creating myths that incorporate some sort of S-K cultural belief or story, punctuated with striking imagery that will help reinforce the tale. If we start hearing strange stories trickling through the various homerooms in the weeks ahead, we’ll know that we’ve been successful.  |
| We created a huge list of striking imagery and cultural values related to Summers-Knoll. This is part of it. |
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| Bora choosing how we will celebrate his birthday. |
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| Our journal prompt for the week |
Math got off to an exciting start this week with our annual school Halloween parade. By the time we had marched to County Farm Park and back while admiring and showing off our costumes, there wasn’t much time for math. Instead, we watched a brief episode of the “educational” series Look Around You. Ask your child about “Maths,” and at what point they realized their math teacher was pulling their leg. The remaining days this week were devoted to Singapore work.
These studies are all culminating with an examination of our own culture here at Summers-Knoll. What values do we share? What customs do we have? What are useful lessons that our community passes on? We brainstormed a giant list of these along with a list of striking, Summers-Knoll related imagery. Students are now working on creating myths that incorporate some sort of S-K cultural belief or story, punctuated with striking imagery that will help reinforce the tale. If we start hearing strange stories trickling through the various homerooms in the weeks ahead, we’ll know that we’ve been successful. 
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