Our School Visit Stories

School visits in 2011:

Story from Merdekaa!! with SD Al-Fath Cirendeu at the Museum Satria Mandala, Jakarta



                                             Here are our lovely facilitators! Ready to have funnnnn


                                                  
                                                              Start exploring the museum....


                             


In this programme, we have four independent sessions. The kids were divided into ten groups and they follow each sessions simultaneously, accompanied by our energetic facilitators. With museum trail, they were assigned as war journalists and went to the past to observe and report what they saw during the post-independence Indonesia. By exploring through time, they knew and thus understand why it was still difficult for Indonesia to be fully independent even after Soekarno had declared its independence from the Dutch. 

But, roaming the museum was not the only learning activity, they also discussed what they found, examined the cause and the outcome of the post-independence wars and explored their own and their friends' opinion about the struggling of the absolute independence.




Ah, here is our most favourite session 'Andai Aku Jenderal Sudirman' :D As war journalists, of course they had to overlook one of Indonesian great heroes, Jenderal Sudirman. His struggle and dedication is most admired and becaming an inspiration. After they visited the Jenderal Sudirman gallery, they played the role play and were asked questions regarding the most important decisions that Sudirman had ever done. 

If you were Sudirman, would you retreat and cancel your sruggle when you fell ill? Would you still choose to work as a teacher rather than join the PETA army? When Surabaya was attacked by the British army and your field commander died, what would you do? 

The facilitators were really overwhelmed by smart and funny answers the kids provided! This role play is good and proved to be a perfect tool for them to understand Sudirman and reasons behind his action and decision that influenced the future of Indonesia.




This is Chalk Art session, where the kids discussed about the meaning of independence now and then. How difficult it was to gain one and how we can maintain it and appreciate what had been achieved. So the facilitators asked how they celebrate independence and also wondered how the celebration will be in the future.





After discussion, they were given a big piece of brown paper and chalk, and each of them were asked to draw an independence celebration in the past, now and in the future. They were taking turn and came up with some interesting and funny drawing :D


                                                    Hehe, the proud kids with their chalk art!



During the post-independence Indonesia, there were lots of negotiations and agreements between Indonesia and the Dutch. The kids must had learnt it at school, but we would like to stress it since it was an important part of Indonesian history. We wanted it to be fun so we took the kids to play snake and ladder!


The boxes in the game board are filled with events of agreements between Indonesia and the Dutch during the post-independence era. The kids were supposed to say the event out loud when they were on certain boxes, so they and their friends would remember. And the winner of this game was entitled to a surprise gift from us!

 

It's the wrap up session! Ended with feedback from the kids and teachers, certificates as war journalists were given and we were all enjoying the programme! Was so much fun and hope to see SD Al Fath again in the future! :))


Walaupun sedikit, ini adalah dokumentasi peserta Merdekaa!! dari SD Al Fath Cirendeu di Museum Satria Mandala!
(010611)


*photo by Aninda Pardede



















 Junior Historian at Museum Sejarah Jakarta


 In February 17 2011, we specifically created a special tailored programme for SD Harapan Ibu year 5. They told us they would like to visit the site of Kota Tua, Jakarta, which is one part of the Old Jakarta during the Dutch colonisation. We were ecstatic about it! so we prepared a programme for the kids as a Junior Historian, that they would be given some clue and they had to found the answers in the Museum Sejarah Jakarta.

This is so exciting for us, since this is the first analytical museum trail that we made for older kids. The trail full of clues regarding the resistance against the Dutch that had connection with Jakarta or the museum itself.
 
Clues in the museum trail includes the Padrao inscription (sign of treaty between the Portuguese and the Pajajaran kingdom), J.P. Coen, the previous function of the museum building, the Sultan Agung attack against the Dutch, and the imprisonment of Pangeran Diponegoro. Quite a lot but the kids enjoy it so much! Between the clues they were also given an illustration of the multiculture of old Jakarta or Batavia at that time. 

So after they found out the answers of all the clues, we discussed what they had found. We asked them their opinion regarding the clues and answers and initiate further opinion on the particular topics.

Oh and our favourite best part of the session is the manifesto and the dungeon visit part. On the manifesto part, we took the kids to the balcony of the museum, where in the old times, the judges and other Dutch  authoritative figures would stand there and gave orders for public persecution. That is why also, prior to the manifesto part, we told the kids about the public punishment that always happened at that time. We asked their opinion about it, about how strict the rule during the colonial era, that the law mostly stood neutral out of political or economic interest. So we asked them to compare the law between those days and present time. We'd say well done to all of them! they came up with logical statement and reason about the law in Indonesia in present time. Thus, on the manisfesto part, we asked them to think themselves as judges in the colonial era in Batavia, and they had to come up with some rules and regulations. Again, they surprised us with their pure idealism, we didn't know they were smart and opiniated!

While on the dungeon part, we took them to the underground prison where Cut Nyak Dhien once put in captive. They were looking around for a bit then we asked them how would they feel if they were the one who were imprisoned there. Plus, we asked what would they do. You can't imagine what they came up with, some would feel depressed, would bribe the guard, would break free, would pray and plan their breakout, and probably would kill themselves. Hahaha, hilarious! So they now know how is it like to have freedom, unlike what was happened in the past.
What a cool session and we'd like to take other schools to this museum, taking this session. It's incredibly fulfilling for us to watch how the kids think, interact, discuss and make conclusions.

So thank you for SD Harapan Ibu, hope we see you again in the future! :)



These are the stories from our museum visit experiences in 2010:

Experience the Art of Basoeki Abdullah 
with SD Kupu-Kupu

A way way late post! :D

These are the few photos of us having fun at the Museum of Basoeki Abdullah, in Cilandak, South Jakarta. The museum was originally Basoeki Abdullah's own house and was turned into a museum to celebrate his life and work, one of the art maestros in Indonesia. Who say we can't have fun in an art museum?

This is one of the students of SD Kupu Kupu grade 6 who delightedly join this session. He and his group was looking for answers about Basoeki Abdullah's life. Sooo seriouuuusss..



As we said earlier, of course Basoeki Abdullah's life is not the only aspect that we'd like to know about. This other group was looking at one of the abstract paintings. They were asked what they thought about the painting, more specifically, what's that in the painting? funny comments were arising when they came up with different opinions :D


At last, they can sat down and discuss the things they found out about Basoeki Abdullah. Who was he, really ? was it true that he allegedly married so many times? what inspired his maginificent paintings?


As the children was drawn into this beautiful naturalistic painting, they talked about how they feel by seeing it, and whether the painting instigate certain emotions. By examining the colours, the angle and the ambience, among others, they also made certain stories about the painting.


It's storytelling time! As many of the children had known earlier, Basoeki Abdullah was mostly inspired by Indonesian folklore. Such as the story that were told to them on this session, the epic battle of Gatotkaca and Antasena.


This is the closing session when children were given a task to recreate the battle of Gatotkaca and Antasena's painting through a puzzle. They were quite excited doing it and actually were having fun together!

Group photo! yay! :) the children and their certificate as a Junior Art Historian!




Indonesian Classic Mythology 
with SD Al-Fath BSD

On Wednesday the 21st October 2010, we have our first client! its SD Al Fath Bumi Serpong Damai at the Museum Nasional.

A bit nervous at first, but we eventually shine in all the sessions (we believe so!)

The lovely kids from Al Fath arrived at 9, it was 23 of them, divided in 2 groups. Each groups had their enjoyable time in Finding Ganesha, Tantri Kamandaka storytelling and Samudramanthana role play.

In Finding Ganesha, participants were having fun roaming and exploring the gallery in finding the god elephant. Not only they had to describe what Ganesha look like, they also had to meticulously observed and identified what objects in Ganesha's hands, just like a detective!
Afterwards, their eyes and ears struck to the story of the birth of Ganesha, told through the scenes of the modern Wayang Beber look-alike.

Participants had a great time in playing the finger puppet of the 2 stories from Tantri Kamandaka. They had to read the stories in order to played the puppets, then some of them played and some of them listened to the story. They were all ace! we could hear laughter and giggling among them while getting the meaning of the stories and learned the morale. Kids did enjoy their times in the museum :)

Samudramanthana role play was probably the most hectic session, but it was all worthed. Participants were introduced to the story of the churning of the milk ocean by gods and giants, through an enchanting  sculpture in the gallery. Gods, giants, dragon, turtle, sun, moon and cloud were all the characters that they had to picked first before playing the story.
When we said: okay, lets start playing! next thing you know, everyone were on their position -- with our guidance-- playing their roles happily, making adjustment and improvisation (e.g. the gods were fighting over the weapons among themselves, the sun and the moon were talking in whisper to the gods, the giant were chasing the moon all over the place).
In short, it was a bit chaotic but fun! and the most important thing is they knew the story and the myth, understand the morale, recognise the sculpture and just having an amazing time with their friends.

And it's all that we aspire for them to experience in the museum, that they can having fun while learning! By using their senses, interact with each other, get physically and intellectually pumped up, children can have the most exciting time in the museum.

Overall, we were happy that day. We had a good feedback from the teacher aswell, besides all the smart and funny comments from the participants. That's for the day, but we have more stories about the next day programme with SD Al-Fath Cirendeu.