Chapter three, in which Dave the Cleaner and the children of Mahoe have fun with air.
In this chapter we read about some of the activities Dave the Cleaner did with the children of the Mahoe tree. You will probably agree it is usually much more fun doing an activity than reading and talking about it. However sometime even the most amazing stories have slow, quiet moments and so it may seem for you with this chapter.
You see, a story can be like going on a long journey. There are days when the land and ocean lie still and flat as far as the eye can see while the sky above remains the same blue from dawn till dusk. Or so it seems. However, such lands can give rise to steep mountains, such oceans to tumultuous waves, such skies to raging storms.
A story can be like building a fine house. For the first long time, slow there may only be boring pages of lines and numbers and maybe a few boring holes dug in the ground to see. Or so it seems. However such scraps of paper and holes in the ground may form the foundations of a glittering palace.
A story can be like a grown tree. Sometimes it stands unmoving, not a leaf stirring. Or so it seems. However beneath the ground its millions of tree roots are busy searching, digging, stretching, grasping and fetching so as to hold the tree upright and feed it.
A story can be like chasing a rainbow. The faster you run to catch it, the quicker it skips and flits through trees, fences, rivers and hills away from you. However the rainbow will bedazzle and dance with you if you simply stand still and give it all your attention. Or so it seems.
This chapter is short though it might seem slow. However the amazing story of the children of the Mahoe tree could never have been without this chapter.
Here is what happened one afternoon of each week for about two school terms in 2011.
Dave the Cleaner visited Mahoe classroom for about an hour, just before the children went home and he could start cleaning the school. Together they all played with air using stories, experiments and dances.
People can be shy in different ways. Dave the Cleaner always felt shy when he had to talk to a group of people of any age. He hoped Lizzie and the children did not notice too much if his hands were sometimes shaking with nerves and he fumbled, mumbled and fumumbled his words on occasion. He was far happier being outside in the open air doing things and maybe chatting with just one or two other people.
With so many eyes looking at him at him all at once, he was always glad when Lizzie stayed around to help him cope.
Some times, while cleaning the school late in the evening, he stopped to pop into Mahoe classroom where he sneaked in little gadgets and placed them on to the window sills. They are gadgets that move up and down and around and around with the changes in the invisible forces of the air and the sun. He wondered if the children of Mahoe would notice them and, sure enough, they almost always noticed spotted them and asked questions.
He told the children he was a magician who could move a hollow ball without going near it. Some did not believe him, so he brought in his vacuum cleaner in, turned the motor on, directed the pipe at the object and it nearly chased him out the room.
The children experimented to see who could keep a warm drink warm the longest and what was the best way to keep an iceblock from melting.
They practiced breathing in and out with the trees, exchanging carbon dioxide and oxygen.
They acted out the Beaufort wind scale which is a measure of the wind’s force starting at calm (0) to hurricane (17). Lizzie started counting at zero and the children pretended to be smoke rising straight up… through 3 where they became tree leaves shimmering in a faint breeze…through 8 with gales breaking small twigs off trees to 17 where they were giant trees and roof tops being tossed around in a hurricane. The children of Mahoe particularly loved rolling around and acting out storm force winds.
Some closed their eyes and spoke about the forces they felt while swinging on the school swings. Other times they held a balloon in their hand, closed their eyes and trusted to the forces of the wind to guide them the length of the school field.
They had races by blowing through straws on sailboats they made from bits and pieces and experimented with sales on toy trucks.
Dave the Cleaner asked Lizzie to read the children of Mahoe the Dr Seus story of “Horton Hears a Who.”
They discussed the tiniest thing they knew in the world and looked through devices that made invisible things become visible. And then they talked about how everything is made of tiny, tiny, tiny ever so tiny ever moving things, which we call atoms; and how some atoms join up with other atoms to form small groups or clusters of atoms, which we call molecules.
Lizzie found a colourful, glitter wand that could change the children of Mahoe into dancing atoms and first of all they did the dance of solids, liquids and gases.
Lizzie waved her wand and called, “Be solid, be atoms in a solid “. They all huddled together, rigid and still jiggling. Some liked that more than others, which is not unlike atoms are with each other.
Lizzie then waved her wand and called, “I am giving you more energy to warm you up so you melt into a liquid.” Now all the jiggling atoms moved around more freely though always in touch with each other, even if just by a fingertip.
Lizzie waved her wand again and called, ” I am giving you even more energy to warm you all up even more so you can move freely all over the place and become a gas.” Now they were running in wobbly circles around each other though a couple of larrikin boys just had to bump into other people, which is not unlike what happens with atoms too
Then Lizzie waved her magic wand and called, “You have less energy now, so you are cooling down” and the children of Mahoe slowed down and came together to form a liquid. Then Lizzie waved her wand and called, “You have even less energy now, so you are chilling down and down even more” and they all froze into a solid again.
The children of Mahoe also did another dance of the atoms, those tiny, tiny, tiny, ever so tiny things that make up everything. This was the dance of the elements.
Now, as you know, there is an unbelievable amount of everything, and it is all made of these tiny, ever so tiny things that are always moving and changing called atoms. As you can imagine, there are so many, many atoms in everything.
It is impossible for anyone to count the number of atoms there are. However, humans have found ways of measuring how big and heavy atoms are, just like we can measure how big and heavy everything else in our world. So while we can never count the number of atoms there are, it seems there may be about 100 types of atoms.
You know how we give each type tree its own special name. For instance, here in Aotearoa we speak of the Mahoe tree, the Pohutukawa tree, the Kowhai tree, the Ngaio tree and so on. We do the same with atoms and give each type of atoms its own special name. You may often hear the names of types of atoms, especially names like hydrogen, oxygen and carbon because they are extra important in our lives.
Dave the Cleaner explained to the children of Mahoe how these three types of atoms, hydrogen, oxygen and carbon, get together to form molecules that keep us alive.
Then Lizzie told some of the children. They were to pretend they were H atoms, which is the short name for Hydrogen atoms. She told others they were to be C atoms, which is the short narme for Carbon atoms. She told the rest they were to be O atoms, which is the short name for Oxygen atoms. Lizzie then waved her wand in the air and called out, “I need 3 water molecules H2O, that is 3 molecules made of 2 hydrogen and 1 oxygen atom.
I need 3 carbon dioxide molecules CO2, that is 3 molecules made of 1 carbon atom and 2 oxygen atoms.
I need 2 oxygen molecules 02, that is 2 molecules made of 2 oxygen atoms.”
What a dance they did. The children of the Mahoe tree did not even need to carry signs or wear markers to find other atoms to make up the molecules. They zoomed around like atoms in gases and soon joined up in small groups of 2 or 3 atoms to form the molecules, just as Lizzie had asked for.
Dave the Cleaner watched in awe as they performed the dance of the atoms forming molecules.
Lizzie later told him she was so surprised and fascinated by the dance of the children of Mahoe that she watched his film of the dances again and again for some mysterious reason.
Dave the Cleaner was not so surprised, for he had long believed, and maybe you agree, 5-year old children are far wiser and more caring than many adults like to think they are. They were always reminding him how much he has forgotten how to inquire and ask questions and have fun since he became a busy adult.
Now a big, fat, wide question began to grow in his mind about the children of the Mahoe tree.
“What can they, what do they really know about the ways of the universe?
What can they, how might they teach us adults about caring for the precious air that keeps us all alive?
How can I become a five-year old in spirit again?”
This was the great question that kept Dave the Cleaner awake in the night now.
Yes, you probably guessed it what happened. The solution to the problem was staring him in the face as usual. Well, it wasn’t so much staring him in the face as smiling and laughing at him in the face. Suddenly in the night he saw all the kind, bright eyes of the children of the Mahoe tree smiling at him in fun.
“Aha,” he exclaimed, banging himself on the head with his hand. “I have been too busy being a know-all adult to listen and simply have fun learning. I have been to busy thinking I have to save them from I don’t know what. How would they save me? Could they? Would they? Tomorrow I will put my life in the hands of the children of the Mahoe tree and see what happens.”
True to his word, the very next day Dave the Cleaner put his life on the line in a more surprising, fun way than you might imagine. And this story becomes even more truly the story of the children of the Mahoe tree.
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Please note: this is a first draft script (Jan 2020) and prototype format of How the Children of the Mahoe Tree Saved Our World. I plan to create illustrations to complement each chapter as soon as possible.
Please enjoy tolerance – my diplopia means I struggle to read what I write.
This story is based on a true event. A class of five-year olds created the central plot. In the process they showed young children, unlike many adults, retain the vital spirit of inquiry and comprehension of the fundamental thermodynamics required to care for Earth’s atmosphere.
Some grand ideas and questions from Chapter Three
Idea: pending
Question: pending
Chapter 4 The story of the children of the Mahoe tree
Chapter two We learned the story behind the Story of the Children of the Mahoe Tree.