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conceptual companions
November 2009 
Cross-Curricular Egg Dancing
Posted on Sep 3rd, 2008
by 
Dryad
Dryad
WHEN I WOKE UP FROM HAVING SLEEPING-BIRTHDAY-SICKNESS, I found that my little Gaia Daughter Elisa (I don't know how old she is today. Three? It changes) was making me a surprise Birthday Cake! She had an accident with the eggs.
Whoopsters
Which prompted me to say . . . .
OH! I just woke up and wandered in the kitchen. Oh. My!! ELISA!!
.................................................................................................. What lovely designs you made!
I've always had this idea that just about everything is an opportunity for teaching. This is called by some people "Spontaneous Cross-Curricular Teaching" and by others a pain in the behind. The pain part often came from teachers in other classes who were trying to teach the three R's to five year olds sitting in desks in rows with their workbooks open and did not care for my class suddenly crawling around the playground watching earth worm and moving like them, laying on their backs looking at the clouds or blowing bubbles on the floor with straws because the huge container of dish soap spilled on the floor.
This was reported to me by the mother of one of my students who was helping out in her older child's classroom. I went out to bring the kids in from recess and found that there was a tropically warm Chinook wind blowing over the playground which had been glacier for the last several months. (I better write a Blog about Chinook's . . . later)
The children had pulled their hats and mittens off, some of them had taken off their coats and they were in this warm, warm wind laughing, squealing, running, giggling and dancing like spring had suddenly arrived - come up through the frozen earth and run up their little legs like the green sap coming up a willow tree. I really expected to see them start sprouting leaves.
Back in the classroom I had a book I was going to read them and an art activity planned. I bagged them both in about 30 seconds, asked the Playground supervisor to please wait just five more minutes and ran back to the classroom for my big sack of scarves. I knew I didn't have a cord long enough to get the record player outside (yes folks. LP's. The "Vinyl" that my son so covets now.) I got my keys, pulled my car over from one parking lot to the other, put in an 8-track of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, opened all four doors of the car and cranked the stereo up to warp whatever. (I don't think anyone covets 8 tracks even as ancient artifacts.)
The Playground Supervisor was a basketball player from the University, I gave him a scarf too and . . . we danced. It is a slice of transcendental beauty in my heart, if no where else, as sweet and green as that warm Chinook wind coming down from Mount Logan like a blessing.
The parent who was in the classroom of her older child told me the teacher walked over to the window, made a very high pitched sound of derision and commented, loudly, "She is OUT of her MIND! Somebody ought to catch her and lock her up!"
My favorite part was the "somebody ought to catch her." She probably knew perfectly well that I was the Gingerbread Man.
SO. When I found Elisa's wonderful egg-scape, I started to write a comment and an entire Spontaneous Cross-Curricular Movement Activity poured out of my fingers instead. So I said to myself. "Self. I'm not sure I know how to "Blog." That's another story, but I guess I'll stick this on the Blog, since here it is and . . . it is here.
At that point in time I was joined by a number of Conceptual Companions and a lot of Faeries (some you might recognize.) A Conceptual Companion - if you don't know - is someone who comes to play who is . . . conceptual. I don't think it is polite to call people 'Imaginary', it sounds like there is something wispy about them or something.
So . . . I just gave my lesson to those C.C's and Faeries and we had a lovely time Egg Dancing. I definitely recommend it for all kind of doldrums, ho-hums and yawns. I suspect at this point that several people reading this are agreeing with the teacher who thought I ought to be locked up. It just may be true, I suppose.
If they think they can catch me, they are certainly welcome to try.
gingerbread-me
I got to the cake making party at Elisa's late because I got Sleeping-Birthday-Sickness, but it is better now and luckily I brought the TIME SWARMER. So I Swarmed back to the beginning and we had the whole egg dance BEFORE they made the cake/clay/bricks which happened yesterday, but don’t get hung up on that, LINER TIME IS A MYTH.
HERE IT COMES!......................................
Quickly now pumpkins! Take off your shoes and CAREFULLY smash up the eggs that aren't smashed up. You have to be careful, egg shells can be sharp, but what does it feel like to step on an egg? This is a yolk-golden opportunity to find out. Also a GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO EGG DANCE!!
HAVE YOU EVER SMASHED AN EGG WITH YOUR TOES? I'd tell you about it but I think you should experience it. Find a yolk that is still all together and try to pick it up with your toes. You’ve got to try it and then you can use it as a metaphor . . . “The situation was sticker than trying to pick up an egg yolk with your toes.” But you don’t get to use the metaphor if you never really tried to pick an egg yolk up with your toes. That would be a good line for a story about a HARD BOILED Detective.
After you've had fun smashing the eggs, then you can dance in the sticky egg goo. That is quite a good floor for egg dancing, actually. Be very careful because, you know, it will be very slick and the slickness will be different as you go. That is something to NOTICE. Are the white parts slideyer or the yolk parts? What happens as the dance goes on?
The picture you started with was beautiful. After dancing get your camera and search out other pictures in the slid-upon-eggs. AND you can do art about what the whole experience FELT like! Remember when you are doing this kind of art, it doesn’t need to look like what you saw, you want to paint or draw or clay or whatever about how it felt. Lets put eggs in the tempera paints at the easel! Did you know that famous artists used eggs in their paint?! Where can we find out more about that?
http://www.eggtempera.com/paint.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempera
http://www.alessandrakelley.com/mixpaint.html
http://www.elfwood.com/farp/egg/egg.html
(Wow. One of my favorite “Teaching Questions” has turned out to be kind of dumb. Where can we find out more about that? Dah.)
Remember your picture will be ABOUT the Egg Dance, not a picture OF the Egg Dance. What did it feel like to your toes? Your nose? When it got on your clothes? What movements did your body want to make the most when you were on the eggs? Sing out all the Body Moves you remember making! What Body Parts did you use the most? Did your fingers get to dance or did your toes have all the fun? Did you really want to put your fingers in the goosh or did you not want to? What did the egg feel like when it was wet? Is that feeling really “wet?” Do you think? What word would you use to express it’s feel? Together lets see if we can get five. Ten! What did it feel like when it started to dry? Is the “egg white” really white? Is the egg yolk really yolk? Why is there an “L” in the word Yolk?! What about the egg shell? Did your toes get poked by any sharp egg shells? Sometimes people say “Walking on Egg Shells” . . . what do you think that means? How could we use the egg shells in our paintings? Could you have found a pathway through the eggs without stepping on them When you started? What kind of pathway is there now? What are some ways you could go over an egg and NOT step on it? Now think of a way no one else did. Now think of a way no one ever thought of to get over an egg before in the whole history of human’s going over eggs. What will you name your dance? If you wrote a book about eggs what would you name it? If you found an egg in your pocket, what would you name it? What if you had an egg in each pocket and one was hard boiled and one was raw? What would you do then?
Design the face that you will put on the hard boiled eggs that we will make tomorrow! Also to think about until tomorrow: Why does dye stick to egg shells? What happens when you use wax or crayons? What other ways could you decorate eggs? Is there a way to tell a boiled egg from a raw egg?
Now we are going to do our Fast Rhyme. The Conceptual Companions will have to help me do it and show it to the Gaia Friends tomorrow. OK. Sit square and get ready to think. Here come the rhymes, faster than a wink:
Stepping on eggs is very nice
I wouldn’t trade it for any price
The yolks go SQUISH
And the whites go SBLLOOOP
Some people like to put eggs in soup
I like eggs scrambled in a bowl
I like them boiled so that they will roll
I like to dye them in colors bright
And leave them for the Easter Bunny in the night
Did you think that Bunnies lay eggs
When you were very little and had short legs?
Did you think chocolate hens lay eggs of candy?
That kind of hen would come in handy!
I wish I had some hen’s in my power
Who would lay gummy worms, sweet and sour.
But that is backwards and Inside out!
It’s hen’s who eat worms, and chase them about
Those worms are NOT sour and sweet
And I don’t think I want any of those to eat!
Terrific Pacific!
We are so prolific!
At thinking up rhymes to be specific!
Yeah, us! Yeah, us! We are Rhymers
And We Rhyme Thus!
chair**********hair
door**********floor
book********* look
Someone calls out the first word, then you clap the dots and someone else needs to be ready with a rhyme on the next count. Start with ten claps. As you get better you can take the number of dots down.
Remember THE CRUSADE: RHYMES FOR ALL!! There are words in the English language that have no rhymes. No one should be left without a rhyme! the RHYMES FOR ALL CRUSADE is all about inventing words so that every word has at least one rhyme . . . without having to resort to assonance or horrific stretching rhymes such as are sometimes found in Country-Western songs. No offense to any Country-Western fans, but . . . it’s true.
So . . .
Rhyme-less words? We won’t admit it!
If there isn’t an English word to fit it,
We’ll commit COINAGE( the way the Bard did commit it!)
A rhyme for every word!
For every word a rhyme!
Every word should have a rhyme every time!
Here are some of my favorite words, they happen to rhyme. I love the way they feel in my mouth. Do you ever think about how a word feels in your mouth? Like Moon. Say it out loud. Moooon. Here are mine: Cello. Mellow. Yellow. I used to play the cello. It is like dancing with an instrument instead of just playing it and sometimes you can feel the music all the way to your back bone.
This is one of my favorite songs in the world. When I was in college I danced to it in front of a big screen that had moving pictures of autumn leaves on it. I was just a black shadow against the colors of the leaves and I was covered with their color. Maybe I love this song because I think I own September . . . maybe it is just because it is beautiful and mellow . . . so follow . . .
Try to remember
Thank you little Elisa and Peri and abundantlife and Samme and crudebliss and floyd lucious maxwell the 3rd who came to my class (after I swarmed backwards) and thank you to all the Faeries and C.C.'s (especially Julian)
P.S. I ran into floyd lucious maxwell the 2nd when I was away in Evermore. He sends his greetings and a snootfull of sherbet.
This is my Egg Dancing Painting. You can make one too!
Do you think they would make me not egg dance these days because of Salmonella? Bummers. Nothing splats just the same way as a real egg.
Egg Dance
Access: Public
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I love you Edwina,
You are the most creative, talented, person I have never met yet. Your work shows your beauty and the beauty of the world that we sometimes can't see for ourselves or don't take the time to see. You see the MAGIC, the innocence, the JOY , and help us to relive the magical times of childhood when our minds and bodies were free and we ran like the wind, and danced for joy. I would have loved to have been there running with the scarves. Thank you for sending a warm breeze of joy and love this morning. You are truly magical. You are every magical spirit in one. you are a work of art. ((((hugs))
Dryad,
Everything about this post was magical… I loved reading every word.
As a teacher, many people think I'm out of my mind, and in some regards I am… I think most teachers need to think outside of the box, and if we were in our right minds, we wouldn't be able to do that!
Hugs!
-Susan
yahoo!!!
Well you know good and well that you can't stay in your mind and in your heart at the same time! I'm sure glad you are indeed outta your mind Lady!
Thanks for the new song for my Profile Page Winnie! …. well, I ended up with The Lion Sleeps Tonight… not the same as September, but hey, if you can blast 8 track tapes and squish eggs between your toes I can add a tune that sticks in your head for DAYZ!
Hugz and Smiles, Dryad!
Amber
Thank you so much, my friends! I really almost didn't post this. I don't thik it is a “Blog” whatever that is, but I am so very glad that you enjoyed it. Your words are magical to me.
I've still got that big box of scarves! Everybody come on over and we'll dance until we turn the leaves all sorts of colors!
Blessings!