Life In Chiapas

[martink]

Hello,

I am preparing to teach a lesson to a first grade class which is going to focus on chiapas.  I plan on using "questions and swords: folktales of the zapatista revolution" because of the age group, but I wanted to know where I could find out more information about daily life in chiapas, particularly for the children.  Does anyone have any ideas?

thanks

k.

[Pedrocafe]

Well, lots of people are looking and no one is answering.

I can say that babies are always carried...by a parent, a sibling, a family relation, or even friends and neighbors.  The little ones are attended to ever waking moment and almost never put down when they are awake.  I will check to see if we have some pictures of this not yet on the web page...

Kids are ever present in indigenous communities and are rarily told not to do something.  Boys can be pretty wild.  Boys and girls both help with work in field and kitchen and house.  Little people are often seen carrying big loads of firewood and machetes.

We are working on a video which should have more of this information.  How did your class go and have you see The Story of Colors.  I have used that with some success in first and second grade classrooms - as well as with older kids.

[martink]

Hello,

No i have not used this in the classroom yet, and dont plan on doing so for quite awhile.  Im actually writing the lesson plan for a class (im still in college) but what I wanted to do was have the kids compare their current lives to those of the kids in chiapas.  Unfortunately, it has been hard to find information about this specific of a topic, so i have decided (in the mean time) to focus on how the zapatistas try to solve their problems by using their words, instead of violence.  This would be a first grade class, so I dont know how in depth I can go into the violence part of the situation, but, assuming that they have already learned about columbus, i was going to have them compare how the zapatismo's solve their probelms (peacefully with words) compared to how columbus did (with violence).  The main point here is, using your words (aka non-violence) is the best way to solve your problems.  I was going to illustrate this through "the story of the sword, the tree, the stone and the water," one of the folktales from marcos' book "questions and swords: folktales of the zapatista revolution."  However, I GREATLY appreciate your reply, and would still like to learn more information about the life in chiapas.  I really hope to visit one day, I think that would be awesome!  Maybe if i think its good enough, I'll post my lesson plan up here in the forums, so if someone else wants to use it or modify and then use it, they can!

Thanks again

k

[Pedrocafe]

I'd like to see what you came up with.
Peter

[martink]

Yes, I did get the lesson plan finished, but it is not so much about life in chiapas as it is about who the zapatistas are.  Its a very basic lesson plan because it was modified for a first grade classroom.  The professor I did this for was not all that anal about the format of the lesson plan, so it stops after the activity section, but here it is, for your viewing pleasure.   I also did a big poster (which i sadly did not get to present to my class) about the zapatistas and marcos.  I would show you that as well, but my professor kept it because he liked it so much. 

Enjoy

KLM