mary poppins

Maddie read Mary Poppins for her book club that we run, and it was her turn to create a presentation for the club meeting. This was Maddie's first research project, and she did phenomenally well! I was so pleased!

I found a few articles to start her off, and then we found more articles related to the aspects in which she was most interested. From those, she highlighted things that stood out to her. Then she used her highlighted notes to compose a rough draft. From there I helped her edit. She created a wonderfully written final copy. Then we searched the internet for photos to correspond to her report. She chose which ones she wanted to use and where. Then I created a powerpoint presentation for her of her photos. She presented her report to her book club, reading her report, and using the iPad to show photos as she read along. She also presented it to family later on. Maddie really did a great job with this project! The text is below.

--------

THE STORY OF MARY POPPINS

BY MADELEINE

FEBRUARY 8, 2014

The author of Mary Poppins is Helen Lyndon Goff. You might be surprised to hear that because that is not what is on the cover of your book. But I’m going to explain that to you.  Helen Goff was born in August of 1899 and died in April of 1996 at the age of 96. She was born in Deptford, South London, England. Helen began publishing her poems when she was a teenager. Then she became an actress and chose the stage name Pamela Lyndon Travers. As a young lady she toured Australia and New Zealand as an actress in a Shakespearean Company before returning to England. (PIC  – This is Pamela Lyndon Travers as an actress.) Back in England she decided to be a writer and chose the pen name P. L. Travers.

In the winter of 1933, P. L. Travers began to write Mary Poppins. She wrote it very fast, probably because she had lots of time to write since she was recuperating from a serious sickness. It was published in 1934, and it was her first literary success. Over the years she wrote other “Mary Poppins” books titled, Mary Poppins Comes Back, Mary Poppins in the Park, Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane, Mary Poppins and the House Next Door, and Mary Poppins in the Kitchen – A Cookery Book with a Story. Travers’ great aunt Helen used to say, “Spit spot, into bed.” She might have given Travers the idea of some of the things Mary Poppins said and did.

During World War II, Roy Disney first contacted Travers about selling the Mary Poppins story for film. Although Travers was an adviser to the production, she didn’t like that Walt Disney took away the harsher aspects of Mary Poppins’ character and made her a bit nicer in the movie. Travers didn’t let Walt Disney make a movie out of any other later Mary Poppins novels. (PIC  – This is Julie Andrews, who played Mary Poppins, on the left, Walt Disney in the middle, and Travers on the right.)

Walt Disney knew what children would like to see. He never wondered what would parents want their kids to see but thought about what the kids would like to see. Peter Ellenshaw painted more than a hundred paintings for the movie. He painted them on glass so they could put light behind them and make the lights of London appear to come on gradually during certain scenes. The first song that the Sherman brothers wrote for the movie was “Feed the Birds – Tuppence a Bag,” which was Walt’s favorite song. Though lots of people had been working on the Mary Poppins project for years, the actual filming didn’t start until February of 1963. (PIC  – Here is Dick Van Dyke on the left and Julie Andrews on the right. They are practicing dancing for the Mary Poppins movie. The man in the middle is the choreographer. Dick Van Dyke was Bert in the movie, and as I said before, Julie Andrews was Mary Poppins.)

Mary Poppins was called “Disney’s Masterpiece” because it was a smashing success. Mary Poppins was the biggest hit of the Disney Studios. The movie took in $44 million at the box office. Just recently a new movie was made about the making of the movie Mary Poppins, because making the movie was an interesting story.

Even though the movie does not take place in the 1930’s, that is the time period written about in the book Mary Poppins. I am going to share with you some information about what life would have been like if you had lived during the 1930’s in London.

First of all, Jane and Michael were wealthy. We know this because they had a cook, a housekeeper, a gardener and a nanny. (PIC  – Here is a row of ladies being trained to be maids. PIC  – This is a baby who got gifts, and he looks surprised. His family was probably wealthy.) But most people were not rich like the Banks family. In fact, most people in London in the 1930’s were poor. There was a lot of unemployment.

In the 1930’s there were no supermarkets, only small shops. People in those days had to shop most days because they didn’t have refrigerators. They kept milk fresh by storing it in bottles in a bowl of cold water with a wet cloth. Many homes and streets were still gas-lit, and people cooked on coal ranges, or stoves. Some people had a flush toilet in a lean-to. (That’s kind of like a little shack outside.) Many people used newspapers as toilet paper, and babies wore cloth napkins for diapers. Paper tissues hadn’t been invented yet. People used hankerchiefs and rags. When walking outside, you had to watch out for globs of spit on the pavement because spitting was common. (PIC  – This is a London trolley with lots of people getting on. PIC  – This big clock is called Big Ben. It’s London’s big, famous clock.)

People washed their clothes in heavy metal buckets and tubs using soap bars and a small wringer to squeeze water out of the clothes. Some people with a little more money would send their clothes to a commercial laundry where they were washed, dried and pressed. People with less money sent their clothes to a bagwash, which was cheaper. The clothes were just washed and returned wet in a bag. Often a very poor lady would run a bagwash service to earn some money.  (PIC – This is a poor family. The mom is doing laundry. She might be going a bagwash.)

There were public baths and some of these also had swimming pools attached. The baths were a row of cubicles. (Cubicles are kind of like bathroom stalls in a public restroom.) Adults went here to get a hot bath, since most apartments didn’t have bathrooms or hot water. But kids often bathed in large kettles. (PIC – This is a picture of a child having a bath and this is how they bathed.) If you lived in London, you most likely lived in an apartment. (PIC – This is an apartment flat from the 1930’s. PIC – Since people didn’t have yards the babies had their sun time in cages hung outside the windows. I wonder if babies got hurt falling.)

In order to keep warm, everyone burned coal in their homes. Burning coal made air pollution and “pea-soupers” occurred frequently. Pea-soupers were a thick black or greenish fog which occurred when the air pollution and a lot of moisture from the nearby Thames River combined. Pea-soupers were dangerous and people died from them sometimes. (PIC – This picture shows what policemen would have looked like in the 1930’s. This is not a pea-souper, but it does show London fog.)

It was almost unheard of for a lady to go to work. But like I mentioned before, she might wash clothes in her home to earn money. Girls always learned to darn socks almost as soon as they could hold a needle. (PIC – This is a picture of a group of girls. We would have looked like this if we lived in London in the 1930’s. PIC – This is a girl with a decoration on her front door. She has a coat much like Jane’s coat.) Most kids started school at the age of 3 and left school at the age of 14. When you were 14 you often left school to go find work to help support your family. When you left you were given a leaving school certificate and a character reference, and when you applied for a job the employer always wanted to see them.

By the end of the 1930’s Hitler was gaining power in Europe and was a threat to England. People living in London were given gas masks in case of an attack so they could breathe clean air. Young kids sometimes got Mickey Mouse gas masks.

THE REST OF THE PICTURES:

PIC – This is a young man in the 1930’s. He is in his military uniform. Most young men were in the military because at the end of the 1930’s World War II began.

PIC – This is a young lady in the 1930’s.

PIC – Those two people got married and this is their wedding photo.

PIC – Here is a man dressed up as Santa Claus. He is giving gifts to boys at an orphanage.

PIC – Here is a family having a special Christmas tea.

PIC – These kids are carolers. They might be singing for money.

For a snack today I made scones. Scones were (and still are) a very common food to have with tea in England. I also made gingerbread stars. I got this idea from the chapter in Mary Poppins where she takes Jane and Michael to the shop and buys them gingerbread.