Over the past few weeks, many of the ESOL children have been writing books.

We used Puppy Trouble by Joy Cowley as the basis of our own stories.

Each day, over several days, we would write about what was happening on one page. Once we finished out stories, we created beautiful books and shared them with children from Ruma Tahi. Then we recorded them.

 

Here is a story by one of the children about coming to New Zealand from an orphanage in India.

When I left India, we said goodbye to my friend, Preti, and we went in a plane. I slept in the plane and I was the only one who could sleep. Then we arrived in New Zealand and my room. I saw a toy koala. I felt happy because in India they hit me.

M

We read The Shape Game by Anthony Browne.
It is a really good book and he talks about the family trip that motivated his future career.

At the end of the book, he plays a game with his family where one person draws a shape and another person, using a different coloured pen, completes the picture. We played the game, too.

We wrote about one part of our school holidays.

I was so happy to meet my family in Korea but I went back to New Zealand. I cried. Before I went I hugged with my family. I hope I will see them again.

E

My second mum talked to me and to the rest of my family but my dad has cancer. I am so scared he is going to die. On the day my mum talked to me and the rest of my family, I hugged my family that was so happy to see me again because they missed me. When we sat down we laughed so bad because they kept saying funny stuff. So we said bye before we ate the food. There was pudding. I asked, “Can I eat the pudding?” and we cried because we said bye.

I