Week of March 6: Stories and Buddies

This week, we began working on a play that we hope to have ready to perform by the end of April. The story is called The Táin, or The Cattle Raid of Cooley. (Irish has some very different phonics rules — the title is pronounced TAWN.) It’s one of the most well-known parts of a lengthy group of tales known as the Ulster Cycle. Our version of the play is considerably simpler than the full story and is based on a little book of the same name by Liam Mac Uistin.  (You can learn more about the story here and also here, among other sites.) The tale centers around the foolish actions of Queen Maeve of Connaught. In an effort to ensure that her wealth is greater than her husband’s, she starts a war to gain possession of a famous bull. Opposing her is the young Ulster hero, Cuchullainn. As she and her allies suffer increasing losses, she becomes more and more intent on victory at any cost. It’s a story of love, jealousy, greed, and courage. It shows the position of cattle as wealth in ancient Ireland, the independence and high status of women, the political aspects of the child-raising practice known as fostering, and the belief in the intervention of deities in the lives of ordinary mortals.

Before embarking on this play, students read many different stories that come from Irish tradition. We decided to choose a few to work up as short skits, with the intention of performing them for our buddies in Bree and Rich’s first/second grade group.  Although we spent minimal time creating costumes and props, there were some very imaginative solutions. Blue paper on the floor was a river, folded newspaper built the Giant’s Causeway, and a bit of cleverly-placed Scotch tape enabled a druid to spear a fish. After one group realized that two sticks taped together didn’t make a very satisfying slingshot, they took to the woods with saws in search of a forked branch.

After several delays for other projects, we got that all together this week and invited our buddies to our classroom on Wednesday afternoon.

 

When the four skits were finished, our students had time to read more Irish folktales with their young friends.

 

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