Email: talktous@podar.org

This book is dedicated to the innocence in little children. This

book is dedicated to all parents and teachers to understand that

every song, every story, every interaction with children can have a

lasting effect on their life values, so we need to be careful and

rework certain traditional forms that we are using in our

kindergartens, afterall it takes a village to raise a child.

Vision by - Dr. Pavan Podar

"Songs and rhymes" are an essential part of early language experiences for infants

and toddlers, and include making, listening to, and reacting to sounds and also

engaging in spoken language experiences such as 'made up songs', or listening to

songs and rhymes.

Problematic language in nursery rhymesBy today's standards, many traditional Mother Goose-type nursery rhymes can

seem violent, racist, sexist, or ageist. In fact, traditional poems and songs in many

cultures have elements that are of questionable appropriateness for young children.

Even though infants and toddlers will not understand many of the words or fully

comprehend the messages, teachers and parents should be selective in their choice

of rhymes to share or use with children.

It seems unnecessary and unwise to reject all nursery rhymes on

the basis of a few, especially if verses can be altered slightly to

make the words, theme, or message more acceptable. Like

instead of a hunting we will go, the words can be on a picnic we

will go. Also, Humpty Dumpty for example, can become a role

model for play safety by being more careful and not falling to

pieces.

As part of the project ‘AVISHKAR- Change and Creativity in Childhood’, the Level 3

children (age 5) of Podar Jumbo Kids Plus, along with their teachers worked on

changing some common songs and rhymes and make them more healthy for

childhood.Enjoy this booklet that has-On A Picnic We Will Go and Humpty Dumpty Did Not

Fall, written by the kids, illustrated by the kids to make this world a better place for

you, me and the entire human race…………. Swati Popat Vats-Director.

On A Picnic We Will Go On A Picnic We Will Go On A Picnic We Will Go

pty ptyHum Dum ...FDid Not all

H mpty Dumpty...uDid N t Fal o l

H mpty Dumpty...uDid N t Fal o l

H mpty Dumpty...uDid N t Fal o l

Podar Jumbo Kids Plus

Lima MerlyinAsst Teacher

Mohit Mehta

Vivaan Tripathi

Maishaa Poddar

Janhvi Chaudhary

Vraj Mangukiya

Manasvi Jain

Moksh KothariPriyavi Singh

Aryan Rupani

Shaurya Moolya

Atharv Gulekar

Gaurav NathaniGaurika GaurJiya Sharma

Nivedita Nair

Suhani LunkadKrish Sarangale Krish Premanad

Mohit Gupta

Tian D'mello

Rayyan QureshiFaiz Thim

Kabir Chaturvedi

Swapanil Rajuri

Swastika SinghTasmia ShaikhTia D'souza

Meghna PilgaonkarMain Teacher

Nuten PaunakDidi

Devangi LodayaSupervisor

Melanie MathiasPedagogist

Aarya WalanjAryan MaruAashna Shah

Shift C. Level 3. Div B

Arati Makecha Teacher

Shehzeen Shaikh Sayan Bhattacharya

Riya Nair

Kushagra Singh

Akhilesh Krishnan

Anirudh V.Arham Ansari

Muskan SinhaSahil Kadam

Shubham JainSulek Ghose

Arshiya JoshiDaksh GadaDarsh Vanani

Dhoon PandyaDhruva DassanJiah D'souzaMahir Gupta

Sparsh Chandolia

Aabidah Rahkange

Purva Rampariya Perouze Mascarenhas

Ali NagoriAnchal Agarwal Advait Kushwaha

Swayam KerekarZainab Patel

Chaitali Shah Main Teacher

Swati DangreDidi

Devangi LodayaSupervisor

Melanie MathiasPedagogist

Podar Jumbo Kids PlusShift C. Level 3. Div E

Old version

A Huntingwe will goA Huntingwe will go

You will notice that all the children’s drawings have comments written by the Teacher. This is called Documentation-a Practice adopted by us from Reggio schools where a teacher ask the child about the drawings and then writes down all points that were mentioned by the child.

Notice the Documentation in the Drawings

Why did we want to changeA Hunting We Will Go?

Imagine a school assembly that starts with kids singing about

going hunting and catching a fox and putting him in a box and

never letting him go! Yes, without thinking of the harmful

undertones of these traditional rhymes and songs we are daily

exposing our kids to them and then complaining about kids not

being sensitive.

Values and morals cannot be taught to young children, they need

to imitate them from others. Unknowingly we are teaching them

about and exposing them to many unwanted acts of violence, and

social bias, through the stories and songs that we sing to them in

schools or as bed time stories.

'Discussion starters' help kids understand and question the wrong

and replace with the right. And that's exactly what the kids of Level

3 did with these two rhymes, we discussed its relevance to good

and bad and then identified what needed to be changed and had

fun playing with words to find the replacements.

So, it was a value education session and a language session all

rolled into one. Come enjoy the new versions of both these

preschool favourites and help kids grow up with healthy values

and language skills.

A hunting we will go,

A hunting we will go,

Heigh ho, the dairy-o,

A hunting we will go!

A hunting we will go,

A hunting we will go,

We'll watch a fox and put him in a box,

A hunting we will go!

A hunting we will go, A hunting we will go,

Heigh ho, the dairy-o, a hunting we will go!

A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go,

We'll catch a goat and tie him by his throat,

A hunting we will go!

On A PicnicWe Will Go

Rework Level 3

‘Change and Creativity’

to Create

On A PicnicWe Will Go

You will notice that all the children’s drawings have comments written by the Teacher. This is called Documentation-a Practice adopted by us from Reggio schools where a teacher ask the child about the drawings and then writes down all points that were mentioned by the child.

Notice the Documentation in the Drawings

Why did we want to changeA Hunting We Will Go?

Imagine a school assembly that starts with kids singing about

going hunting and catching a fox and putting him in a box and

never letting him go! Yes, without thinking of the harmful

undertones of these traditional rhymes and songs we are daily

exposing our kids to them and then complaining about kids not

being sensitive.

Values and morals cannot be taught to young children, they need

to imitate them from others. Unknowingly we are teaching them

about and exposing them to many unwanted acts of violence, and

social bias, through the stories and songs that we sing to them in

schools or as bed time stories.

'Discussion starters' help kids understand and question the wrong

and replace with the right. And that's exactly what the kids of Level

3 did with these two rhymes, we discussed its relevance to good

and bad and then identified what needed to be changed and had

fun playing with words to find the replacements.

So, it was a value education session and a language session all

rolled into one. Come enjoy the new versions of both these

preschool favourites and help kids grow up with healthy values

and language skills.

On a picnic we will go,

On a picnic we will go,

Heigh ho, the dairy-o,

On a picnic we will go,

On a picnic we will go,

On a picnic we will go

We'll watch a fox and click his snap,

And never catch it, No!

On a picnic we will go, On a picnic we will go,

Heigh ho, the dairy-o, On a picnic we will go,

On a picnic we will go, On a picnic we will goWe'll row a boat and watch a goat,

And never catch it, No!

Why did we want to change Humpty Dumpty?

Humpty Dumpty(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The most common modern text is:Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.All the king's horses and all the king's menCouldn't put Humpty together again.

The rhyme does not explicitly state that the subject is an egg because it

probably was originally posed as a riddle. The earliest known version is in a

manuscript addition to a copy of Mother Goose's Melody published in

1803,which has the modern version with a different last line: “Could not set

Humpty Dumpty up again” It was first published in 1810 in a version of

Gammer Gurton' Garland as:

Humpty Dumpty sat (sic) on a wall,Threescore men and threescore more,Cannot place Humpty Dumpty as he was before.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary the term “Humpty Dumpty”

referred to a drink of brandy boiled with ale in the seventeenth century .The

riddle probably exploited, for misdirection, the fact that “Humpty Dumpty”

was also eighteenth- century reduplicative slang for a short and clumsy

person.

In 1648 the town of Colchester was a walled town with a castle and several

churches and was protected by the city wall. A huge cannon, colloquially

called Humpty Dumpty, was strategically placed on the wall. A shot from a

Parliamentary cannon succeeded in damaging the wall beneath Humpty

Dumpty which cased the cannon to tumble to the ground. The Royalists, or

Cavaliers, 'all the King's men' attempted to raise Humpty Dumpty on to

another part of the wall, but because the cannon was so heavy' All the King's

horses and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty together again.

Humpty Dumpty

Old version

Humpty Dumpty

You will notice that all the children’s drawings have comments written by the Teacher. This is called Documentation-a Practice adopted by us from Reggio schools where a teacher ask the child about the drawings and then writes down all points that were mentioned by the child.

Notice the Documentation in the Drawings

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Why did we want to change Humpty Dumpty?

Rework Level 3

‘Change and Creativity’

to Create

You will notice that all the children’s drawings have comments written by the Teacher. This is called Documentation-a Practice adopted by us from Reggio schools where a teacher ask the child about the drawings and then writes down all points that were mentioned by the child.

Notice the Documentation in the Drawings

Humpty Dumpty...Did Not Fall

Humpty Dumpty...Did Not Fall

Discussion starters-

At Podar Jumbo Kids Plus conflict resolution skills are given

due importance to teach kids and teachers that there is

always a solution to every problem. And ‘Discussion starters’

help in identifying the problem and then probing for the

solutions. Solutions that are acceptable to the whole group.

As part of the discussion starters on this traditional rhyme’s

we discussed about why Humpty Dumpty must have fallen

down and how he could be more careful while sitting on a

wall. Infact, a child said, “Why sit on a wall?”

‘Discussion starters’ help us identify the cobwebs in our value

system, in our thinking styles and then help us see more

clearly what is the right way. And that's exactly what emerged

from this discussion starter, a Humpty Dumpty who did not

fall!

Enjoy these little new rhymes.

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

He knew how to be careful,He knew how to play,

And that is why he is in one piece today!