Old Tree ideas

We had another great session this morning, and got so much done......

First of all we looked at Won Hye's latest message, which is under this in the blog.  We really enjoyed reading about the old old tree, and it triggered off a lot of ideas.

We talked about ideas from the week, and we talked about some history too, the story of the Korean War, which most of us did not know, and about trees and tigers.

We thought that exactly what happened to the Dream Tree group could happen here, if we tried to find a tree nearby not everyone would know, because very often we do not notice trees.

We had some ideas about stories about an old tree.

Why may a tree be so important to the people of a twon or vllage?

Maybe because it holds happy memories for them, of when they played on the tree as children, swinging, or climbing or hiding.

Maybe there is a hollow part of the tree and there are secrets hidden inside it?

Maybe the fruit on the tree is good every year, and when the village has been hungry it has been the only thing they can eat.

Maybe there was a flood, and all the people of the village climbed the tree to be safe, and that it saved them.

Maybe there is an ancient tree-house at the top, and it has some treasure in it.

Maybe there is a myth, an old story, that if ever the tree falls down it will be the end of the village...it is like a curse.

Maybe the tree was planted when they were born, and is growing with them.

The tree gives oxygen, and wood and fruit and shelter...

So there are many reasons to love the tree.


We also talked about everything that could be threatening the tree...

Perhaps it is that they want to knock the tree down to make room for a new building.

Or someone hates the village, and they know that the tree is important, so they want to destroy it.

Or they want the wood for paper.

Maybe there is treasure buried under the tree.



We also talked about some other stories.  We think that a tiger rug is a cruel thing, because the tiger is an endangered species.  In our story we want to show that killing tigers for skin is wrong.   Maybe if it can speak, the tiger rug is very angry about what happened to him.

We have seen tiger rugs in old mansions and houses in England.  Perhaps someone rich from England went to India, or China or Korea, and they went hunting for tigers.  Perhaps they bought the rug as a souvenir from a market.

We also wanted to tell you that in England it is often cold and raining, but many things are the same as in Korea.  Also one of our favourite trees is the conker tree, which is really called the horsechestnut tree.  This has conkers [seeds] in green spiky cases.  In the autumn they fall down and sometimes you can get hit on the head by them falling.

And we wanted to say in England there have never been tigers.  But in the old days [once upon a tiger] we did have wolves.  that is why english stories have wolves in them.

And we said that if a tree is 700 years old it would have been planted in the Fourteenth Century, which is a long long long time ago, when England was very different...like Korea was too.

Finally I have to tell you about some things we did last week, but I left my notes so they were not on the blog.

Remember the list of things that we have now, but not in the olden days?

Here is the whole list from Leighswood:

TV 
Nachos
Roller-coasters
Nintendo

Popcorn

Lights

Watches

Projectors

Films
Chairs
Cadbury World [this is a theme park near us]
Pizza
James Bond
Cartoons.....


Also we talked about what they did have instead, Once Upon  a Tiger.....

Tents [like teepees - native american tents]
An old fire put out by the rain
A big pile of fire wood
Pelicans
Things made of wood
A big river
Nice people.....   

[we didn't have much time for this list so it is only short]



Some of our group are going for a trip to the countryside this week, and they will collect some stories from there, and maybe some pictures for you.  We will not meet again for two weeks now, but the children are going to be putting ideas on their blog.....

Have fun.

Peter