The Paralympics!
During circle time, Ak mentioned that he thinks that there are two kinds of Olympics. “One is the Olympics, and the other one is paralim-olympics”. He further explained it by saying that “Paralyim Olympics, it’s at the bench, but it is inside Ky’s Chiba surfing. One more at the bench, we do it today, fastest one to eat”.
Vieda said that Ak was remarkably close when he said “paralim Olympics” because it is called, Paralympics. Before we moved forward with our discussion about Paralympics, we had a short picture card game. Vieda put several pictures on the floor and asked us to pick a card depending on the criteria that she would say. The first criterion was, “Pick a card that shows a person who can enjoy sports”, while the next one was to pick one that shows one that cannot enjoy sports. It was interesting to note that there were cards that we had different opinions about.
Here are some of the reasons we had for picking out cards that we think described people who could enjoy sports:
Is: Because she is smiling.
Ak: He is holding a basketball.
Li: There’s one in Olympic sport that is called running. And that girl is running.
Vieda: What do you think we need to run?
Is: We need a timer to run.
Ak: Our legs to move.
Ti: Because she is smiling.
Ak: This is ski, and it is sports.
Mi: She is ice skating (maybe she is enjoying sports).
Ky: This one look angry (made the angry face, too!).
Za: He’s doing muscles and is angry.
Ak: He hold very heavy things.
Is: He is training and he’s winning, so he is raising his hand.
Ak: Because he is just playing (and so not really winning).
On the other hand, those who said no had the following ideas for saying that the picture cards that they chose cannot enjoy sports:
Vi: Because he’s writing.
Ly: If he’s still writing and has not finished his homework, he cannot play. He needs to finish his homework before he could get to play.
Ak: Ah, I know! (Referring to the same picture), her work at the Olympics is thinking of which food is good for the Olympic people. So, she cannot enjoy sports.
Kyi: He closed eyes (as he pointed out to the person in the picture who seemed to be closing his eyes which made him to look a bit angry).
Ak: This one is holding a rope and other people are driving.
Za: She has a ball, but she has skates so, she can’t enjoy sports with skates.
No: Because she is sitting in a wheelchair.
Ak: But I think that’s tennis and they can enjoy. Just like basketball, they take themselves by moving the wheels.
Is: He has black glasses and looks like a bad guy. With his scissors, he is trying to cut the world and break the glass.
Is: This one is thinking how the Olympic can be more fun.
Ak: But a kid cannot join the Olympics.
Mi: She is thinking, so she cannot.
Li: Kids can do sports.
N: She’s just thinking what she needs to do.
Is: If you jump and you come down, you might bump your head.
Li: He is doing sports right now.
Ak: On TV, I see the sports and they go down on, like the slides.
Is: Olympics and Paralympics, we can do what we like.
As we exchanged ideas about who we feel can and cannot enjoy sports, something stood out. It seemed like we take into consideration what the person’s feelings are (which is obviously seen in his/her face) to determine if that person can enjoy sports or not. We also look at what the person has that we do not usually see in other sports players. At the end of our discussion, we noticed that there are picture cards which we interpret differently from our friends. To some, a person looks angry while to some the person looks happy. As we got more interested with our perspectives, Vieda told us to make some groups under several categories namely: boy/girl, black eyes/non-black eyes, black hair/non/black hair, white shoes/non-white shoes. With this simple activity, we realized that we can be the same and at the same different depending on the category that we would like to consider. We understood this concept better when we read the book, We Are All Alike… We Are All Different by the Cheltenham Elementary School Kindergarteners.
Just before we started playing our Ohana-lympics games, Vieda showed us some picture cards (children and adults in wheelchair, a boy with prosthetic) from the pile that we had earlier. Vieda invited us to look at the pictures closely and share our thoughts with the class.
Vieda: Do you think they can join the Olympics?
Mi: Yes!
Li: Maybe not because running is faster than wheelchair.
N: They play to win. They hurt their legs and they can’t walk.
Is: No, they cannot. If you are hurt, your body gets tired, and you need to rest. If you rest, then you can play.
Now looking at the boy’s picture with one prosthetic leg, Ak said, “Oh it’s only a bone”. Other friends took notice too and said, “The skin came off”.
We were so surprised and happy to know that it was not the skin that came off and in fact, it was something that helps the boy to walk and run just like we do! How about their feelings? Do we think they are happy?
Li: They are always sad.
Kyi: My grandpa leg here is ouchy, but he is happy!
Mi: In a hotel, I saw a girl. She broke her leg, like the picture but she is not sad.
Li: This boy has no hands.
Ky: Doesn’t have a hand like a pirate.
N: Maybe he used a hammer to mash potatoes and accidentally smashed his arm and it’s all gone now.
What an interesting topic to talk about! We learned that people may not have arms or legs, or may not be able to see, but it they can do many great things! They can even join the Paralympics and play great sports, like the ones in the Olympics. They have emotions and feelings just like us, and are happy beings as well😊
OUR VERY OWN PARALYMPICS
We played on an obstacle course where we hopped while having one hand behind our back, then picked a dinosaur with blindfolds. It was exciting! Lastly, we had two teams and made a long choo choo train. We had blindfolds except for the person at the very last of the line. He/She was the one who gave us instructions (“Turn left”, “Go straight”, “Stop”). It was teamwork at its best!
For our morning activity, we tried to paint using our foot! Ti said, “I like painting with my foot! It was not that easy, but I enjoyed it!”, while Vi said, “It was hard to paint a picture because I like to do it with my hand.”. We will talk about this special painting tomorrow.
Love,
Flowers XOXO