APPLES & SNAKES - POETRY LESSONS MADE EASY. Name of Artist: Pauline Stewart. Workshop theme: Contrary Mary Seacole Black History

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1 APPLES & SNAKES - POETRY LESSONS MADE EASY Name of Artist: Pauline Stewart Workshop theme: Contrary Mary Seacole Black History Length of workshop: 1 hour (younger groups) Year 3-90 mins Target age group: 5-7 years old (KS1) Pauline s inspiration for Contrary Mary Seacole One of the most frequent requests I receive during school visits, particularly throughout Black History Month, is to provide a framework to inspire poems about Mary Seacole. Mary Seacole is a challenging topic for KS1 but once introduced rarely forgotten. Contrary Mary Seacole How did you help sick people? -Why with my medicines did I! With homemade medicines did I! Where did you go? -England, Cuba, Panama and The Crimea you know! What diseases did you cure? -I am famous for treating the cholera and yellow fever. How should we remember you? -Mother Seacole put to the test, a fearless adventuring doctress Pauline Stewart Contents Preparation page 2 Classroom Exercises page 3/4 Follow up exercises page 5 Resources page 6 Preparation

2 I suggest learning as much as you can about Mary Seacole the Jamaican Victorian doctress , this can be done quite easily on the internet by simply searching Mary Seacole, also check TV schedules for repeats of programmes about her life. Start by doing some background reading (see resources), books identified at Key Stage 1 will help you to sift through the many facts about Mary Seacole s life and identify the essential/appropriate: e.g. Born Mary Jane Grant in Kingston, Jamaica 1805 (or Mary Joan Grant) Mary grew up in a boarding house Learned from her mother and by watching doctors how to be a doctress 1836 marries Edwin Horatio Seacole becomes Mary Seacole Helps with cures when there is a cholera outbreak in Jamaica Early Victorians did not know what caused diseases like cholera & yellow fever but some like Mary tried to find out Mary wanted to travel and to be a nurse She made medicines and sold healthy food Mary Seacole was kind and caring In 1854 she came to London to join (another famous Victorian nurse) Florence Nightingale s team of nurses helping in the Crimean War but was told she wasn t needed Made her own way to The Crimea in 1855, once there, opened a dining hall, treated cholera and other diseases 1857 wrote autobiography Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole 1881 dies aged 76 Use some of the resources you have gathered for a classroom display and link Mary Seacole into current and past displays about Victorians i.e. Florence Nightingale, put up posters, a map of Jamaica, Africa or the world. Gather natural and harmless ingredients such as ginger root, cinnamon sticks, aloe vera, sealed tin of mustard or similar ingredients Mary Seacole would have used in her cures: A mustard poultice applied to the back and stomach, in treating cholera Thirsty cholera patients were given water in which cinnamon sticks had been boiled. Alternatively create a mini classroom balmyard using pots of herbs and perhaps a small healing aloe vera plant or mint. Mary and her mother kept a balmyard to source their healing oils, balms and other remedies. Compare past remedies to what is available today for treating the common cold (sealed) jars of vapour rub, traditional honey and lemon etc For healthy eating and natural remedies try Other useful comparisons: nurses uniform today, Victorian nurses dress then, Jamaica today and Jamaica in Mary s day. Classroom Exercises

3 Instead of trying to cram all the information into one session, talk a little bit about Mary during the week before you want children to produce written work. Introduce the topic by showing the class a large picture of Mary Seacole, explain that she lived over two hundred years ago, which is a long time ago in the past, her clothes are a clue to this. People dressed, spoke and behaved differently, many things which are common now were not yet invented. 1) Ask the children to think of things that we have now which might not have been around then i.e. electricity, fridges, hospitals, the modern sewerage system, innovations that have reduced the spread of germs and disease. 2) Mary recognised the importance of diet in resisting illness, ask the children for examples of healthy food. 3) Spend 10 mins or so on show and tell explaining and bringing to everyone s attention items from the display. 4) Tell the class about Mary Seacole s life, about how Mary lived in a time of slavery, how women were treated differently from men and were not expected to be doctors or nurses. Allow time for questions. 5) Have the class re-enact scenes from Mary s life, boys and girls can take turns in being Mary, soldiers, sick people. 6) After the Crimean War, Mary Seacole returned to England impoverished but a celebrated figure. A military festival was held in her honour. Tell the class that you will be marking this by playing classical music of the era eg. Handel s Music for the Royal Fireworks, La Rejouissance (3 mins) or by her contemporary Johann Strauss ( ) 7) Tell the class Mary Seacole kept a box of treasures filled with souvenirs from her travels and gifts given to her by grateful soldiers and their families. 8) Brainstorm words describing Mary to put in a box of treasures. Notice any rhymes and put these into pairs. Read aloud the nursery rhyme Contrary Mary. Explain that contrary is an old word for different or stubborn. Contrary Mary Mary, Mary, quite contrary How does your garden grow? With silver bells and cockle shells And pretty maids all in a row (Traditional) Ask the class why they think Mary Seacole was sometimes called contrary Mary, what different things did she do? Remind the class that Mary and her mother grew healing plants in their balmyard. Inform the class that another name for Mary was Mother Seacole, soldiers often referred to her like this because they were miles away from home and the comfort of their mothers.

4 Read the poem that I have modelled on Contrary Mary Contrary Mary Seacole. Notice the second line taking the form of a question for Mary Seacole with the third and fourth being her reply and the alternating rhyme pattern. Writing a class poem Before getting the class to write a poem together decide whether you will vary your rhyme pattern or stick to the ABCB pattern of the nursery rhyme. Mary, Mary, quite contrary (A) How does your garden grow? (B) With silver bells and cockle shells (C) And pretty maids all in a row (B) Brainstorm questions to ask Mary like the ones in the poem or use the same ones: How did you help sick people? Where did you go? What diseases did you cure? How should we remember you? Think of words that rhyme with the last word of the question. Experiment with using Contrary Mary as a chorus. List words that rhyme with Mary like, scary, weary, fairy, theory Also think about rhymes for the important dates in Mary Seacole s life: 1805/55 alive 1854 war 1881 done Write on the board a structure for your class poem Mary Seacole, Mary Seacole Mary Seacole, Mary Seacole (A) How did you help all the people?? (B) (C) (B) An easier class exercise would be to write on the board a structure suitable for your class such as: Mary Seacole, Mary Seacole You were born You learned You saw You helped Or a simple sailors s song or add the chorus Over the sea Over the sea went Mary She Follow up exercises Read aloud a few Caribbean rhymes or listen to a recording of some. Tell a few Anansi stories (see resources) Mary Seacole would have been aware of

5 these. Have a go at writing a cure poem of happy and sad words to make people feel better, or one that uses some of Mary Seacole s cures: Mary s Cure Take some mustard wrap it round This will halt the wheezing sound Boil up three cinnamon quills This will stop you feeling ill Take a sip of ginger tea This will calm down your belly! Pauline Stewart Plenary have the children perform their class poem or individual lines, some can assist by providing sound effects of the sea which Mary frequently crosses (rainsticks etc.) or the battlefield. Why not share your efforts with the rest of the school in an assembly? Resources Wonderful Adventures of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands by Mary Seacole, edited by Ziggi Alexander & Audrey Dewjee, Falling Wall Press, ISBN

6 Books aimed at Key Stages 1/2: Famous People, Famous Lives, Mary Seacole by Harriet Castor, Franklin Watts ISBN Famous People, Mary Seacole , by Christine Moorcraft & Magnus Magnusson, Channel Four Learning ISBN Costume in Context The Victorians Jennifer Ruby, B.T. Batsford Ltd, London ISBN for an example of Victorian nurses' dress (p.23 A Nurse c. 1856) Classroom resources and further information about Mary Seacole s life and the Victorian era can be obtained from: The Florence Nightingale Museum The Wellcome Trust The Jamaican Tourist Board The Black Cultural Archive The National Portrait Gallery The Royal College of Nursing The National Maritime Museum The Museum of London for artefacts of that era Victoria and Albert Museum for general dress of the era The Mary Seacole Trust, Manchester Websites: - For healthy eating & natural remedies

Key stages 1 & 2 Lesson plans

Key stages 1 & 2 Lesson plans Remembrance - What does the poppy mean? Why people wear a poppy. What is the significance of a poppy. Who makes the poppy. What a symbol of Remembrance is. The Royal British Legion section of the CD Rom.