We have been doing lots of work during the lockdown.

Ms Finikin sends us work each day. Her videos with our work can be found here.

Here is some of the work we have done.

The older children have been working through A Walk in the Park.

We drew the band stand.

Here is Minu’s picture.

Here is Tanu’s picture.

Here is Richard’s picture.

Here is Alicia’s picture.

Here is Emily’s picture.

Here is Darshan’s picture.

We looked at the clothing worn in England in 1978.
Ms Finikin remembers her grandmother’s fox fur stole.
She used to play with it. It was missing a leg and had glass eyes.
Poor fox.

We drew Mr Smith and Mrs Smythe and labelled their clothes.

Here are Viktor’s people.

Here are Tanu’s people

Here are Minu’s people.

Here are Alicia’s people.

Here are Emily’s people.

Here are Richard’s people.

Here are Darshan’s people.

A Walk in the Park was written in 1977. In 1998, Anthony Browne rewrote the book as Voices in the Park. Here is Ms Finikin reading it.

Mrs Smythe is the first voice.

We drew Mrs Smythe and described her.

Here is Viktor’s picture.

Here is Tanu’s picture.

Here is Darshan’s picture.

Here is Emily’s picture.

Here is Alicia’s Picture.

Here is Richard’s picture.

Here is Leen’s picture.

Here is Sophia’s picture.

Here is Leen’s picture explaining the colour of the trees in First Voice.

Viktor has drawn a picture of the Smythe house.

Mr Smith is reading a newspaper, looking for a job.
On the front page of the paper is a photo of Edvard Munch’s The Scream.

Here is Tanu’s picture.
Tanu wrote, ” I think Edvard Munch is screaming because there is lava that wats to touch the people who are paddling in a boat.”

Here is Viktor’s picture.

Here is Richard’s picture.
Richard wrote, “She is screaming because the bridge is falling down.
She is feeling scared very much.”

Here is Minu’s picture.
Minu wrote, “The zombie asked one man, “Are you scared of dying?”
The man said, “Everyone at some point is going to die.”
But I don’t think zombies die because they are already dead. One more man came talking about dying. Then the zombie overreacted like a zombie dance moving arms, legs, body and head.
The river is blue and the sky has hot colours – red/yellow/orange/a little bit of light blue, and a little bit of grey. The bridge is brown with pinches of grey.”

Here is Emily’s picture.

Here is Alicia’s picture.

We did a Zoom lesson where we read Greedy Cat’s Door.

We drew Greedy Cat.

Here is Noah’s picture.

Here is Alicia’s picture.

Here is Sophia’s picture.

We also learned how to draw a cat in a box as a tricky way of drawing a cat – it’s a box with a tail.

This is Viktor’s picture.

We read My Mum by Anthony Browne.

Here is Sophia’s picture.

We read Koki the Kiwi by Michelle Osment and Sunset.

Here is Sophia’s picture of Koki.

 

The younger children did heaps of different books and drew pictures from them.

We did This Little Piggy.
Here is Leon’s picture of the little pig who stayed at home (just like us).

Here is Kaito’s picture.

We read No, David!

Here is Kaito’s picture of David.

(The big kids also read No, David! on Zoom.

Here is Emily’s picture.

Here is Hailey’s picture.

In class, some older children made their own No, David! books.
Here is Sophia’s book. )

Ms Finikin showed us how to draw flowers.

Here is Kaito’s picture of flowers.

We read Tom and Pippo and the Bicycle

Here is Leon’s picture of Tom, who is sad because Pippo keeps falling off the back of his trike.

Here is Kaito’s picture.

We read Tom and Pippo on the Beach.

Here is Kaito’s picture of Pippo.

We read Jinzi and Minzi are Friends

Here is Leon’s picture of Jinzi and the snowflake he made.

Here is Kaito’s picture.

We read Zachary Quack Mini Monster.

We drew Zachary Quack

Here are Maddy’s, Crystal’s, and their mum’s pictures.

Here is Leon’s picture.

We did swans and ducks over a few books.

Here is Maddy’s swan.

Here are Kaito’s pictures.

 

We read Hairy Maclary – Sit.

Here is Maddy’s picture of Hairy Maclary.

Here is Leon’s picture of Hairy Maclary.

Here is Kaito’s picture.

We did Rumpus and the Vet and learned to draw a cockatoo.

 

Here is Kaito’s picture of the cockatoo.

We read Colors by Monique Felix.

Here is Leon’s picture of the mouse with paint on his tail.

We read The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Here is Leon’s picture of the caterpillar.

We read Little Bear’s ABC.

Here is Leon’s picture of Little Bear.

Here is Kaito’s picture.

We read What am I?

We learned to draw a racoon.

Here is Kaito’s picture.

We read Where the Wild Things Are.

We drew a Wild Thing.

Here is Kaito’s picture.

We read Goodness Gracious!

Here is Leon’s picture of the pirate from the book.

We are all working really hard.

We chose to read How to Catch a Falling Star.

We thought about the difference between hoping and wishing.
We thought about what our wishes would be.

I wish I wasn’t hungry every day and I could read every day and I could have adventures and be a master of computers.    – Avalon

I wish I could have a lot of dogs and a lot of cats and a lot of birds and a lot of fish. I wish I could have a big house and a pretty car.   – Sophia

I wish I could have a kitten, because kittens are very, very cute, and I like to touch the kittens fur. It is very soft.
And I wish I was allowed to have candy in school, because the candy is very sweet.
And the last thing I wish is that I could have a very big house, and nine billion dollars, so that I could buy everything in the world.
P.S. The WHOLE WORLD!!!             – Alicia

I wished to get adopted because all my first friends got adopted before me. The judge asked me if I wanted a family and I said yes. Then it was my sister’s turn and Mum’s turn and they said yes.              -Minu

I wish I ruled South Korea because South Korea has lots of yummy stuff and very good stuff. If I ruled I could have all of those things and I would be rich.     – Emily

I wish I could go back to dinosaur times and I would kill little dinosaurs and I would build houses and I would die when I was, like, 30 (because a theropod would get me).
– Guanyu

Guanyu chose the 1972 story of Egrin and the Painted Wizard as our book of the day. Three groups used it.

Egrin paints a picture of himself but the cat manages to spill mean powder and coming alive powder on it. A nasty wizard that was the opposite of Egrin appeared and caused trouble. After reading the book, we thought about what we would be like if we were opposite us.

Opposite me would be nasty and kick people and I would bite people and smack them in the face. I would bully people that are smaller than me and I would paint people blue and I would throw rocks at them. – Guanyu

Opposite me would be very kind to my brother and wouldn’t fight with my brother. Another thing is I wouldn’t listen to my parents.   – Emily

Opposite me would write fast. I would listen to my teacher. I like the ocean. The opposite is I don’t like the ocean.  – Minu

 

Opposite me would be mad and never listen to the teachers and my sister and my mum.   – Milyn

If you opposite me, I will be very mean, and I will shout very loud to you. And if you need my help, I will say, “Hey, you do this by yourself!! I don’t have time to fix your blabby thing!!!!” You will see what is bad if you opposite me.    -Alicia

Opposite me is evil and crazy and mean. I would say, “I don’t care” and “No, do it yourself”.     – Sophia

Opposite me would never listen to my mum and never listen to the teachers.  – Avalon

Opposite me wouldn’t talk to my mom and wouldn’t be kind to people and I would be mostly messy.   – Tanu

 

Opposite me will be mean to my family.  – Alexey

Opposite me will not be nice.   – Darshan

Opposite me will be mean to my sister and hit her.   -Ella

Opposite me will talk too much.   – Jack

 

On March 10, Guanyu decided we should read the Egrin book again.
We thought about what we would be like if we were wizards.

If I were a wizard, I would be a kind wizard because if I were a bad wizard,
I would go to jail. I would make toys for the kids.   – Emily

If I were a wizard, I would be a good wizard. I wouldn’t be caught by the police
or go to jail.    – Minu

If I were a wizard, I would be a good wizard. First I would build a house for me and then build a house for animals. I’d make food for the animals.
And, if I see a battle is going to begin, I would stop this battle and bring peace and happiness again.     – Alicia

If I were a wizard I would be a bad wizard and put bombs everywhere and see people die and break everything. I would not be here, I would rob a shop.    -Milyn

If I were a wizard, I would be a good one. I would help the animals and feed them. I would feed them water, too.      – Sophia

If I were a wizard, I would be a good wizard and I would make food for animals and make a river for animals to drink from.    – Tanu

If I were a wizard I would be nice to everyone. I’d build houses for everyone.
– Avalon

If I were a wizard I would an evil wizard. I would kill people and use a wand BLABLABLA and some lions would come out. I would kill everyone in the world. I would use a wand and BLABLABLA and some soldiers would come out and I would fight the king.              – Guanyu

 

I went to the zoo and we went to the fish pond and my dad stepped closer. He fell in the fish pond. – Louis

In the zoo a gorilla smashed in the other glass and he got shot. – Daniel

I went to the aquarium. I went around and around and around and around on the travelator.  – Viktor

I went to the aquarium. I saw an octopus. He went around and around and he saw a fish. – Richard.

 

 

I go to the doctor because my feet was giggling. – Louis

I went to the doctor because I watch too much i-pad. – Daniel

I went to the doctor because my teeth were wobbly. – Viktor

I never go to the doctor because I am healthy. – Richard

Ms Ouida sent a cat calendar from Japan. It has heaps of really cool pictures in it. We like looking at the pictures and talking about them. Then we write about what the pictures make us think of.

When I was 6 I had a lollipop cake. – Ella

When it was my birthday I went to Lollipops Playland. I saw Jayden at Lollipops and I got hurt and I came home and I opened my presents and I played with my toys.
– Darshan

I have a Pepper Pig cake. Then I made a wish. – Richard

When I was 1 my mum made me a garden cake. It had strawberries and worms.
– Viktor

I got a Lego cake for my birthday.
I got a lolly cake.
I got a You Tube cake. – Louis

 

 

I like to have a picnic with my family. We go to the beach. We swim. – Louis

I went to a picnic. It was fun. I took an ice-cream. I ate the ice cream in the beach.
– Viktor

I have a picnic with my mum. I see a rainbow. – Richard

My family loves to go outside and go to play. – Ella

My family likes to go to the playground and go on the slide. – Jack

I like to help my dad go up to the top of the stairs and make new rooms. – Alexey

My dad is working outside. He is cleaning the lawnmower outside because he is good. – Darshan

When the rain stopped, the furry monkeys came in my orphanage and they snatched the food.  The monkeys took the food to the top of the building. We hid away from the monkeys. I hid away in a room filled with cockroaches. The monkeys gave the food to their babies.

-M

In Voices in the Park Charles gives Smudge a flower. She takes it home and puts it in a mug.

We designed our own mugs and wrote about them.

Next they got rolled into cylinders and put up on the wall.

 

We talked about Cook’s secret mission to get land for Britain. Although it was written in his instructions that the inhabitants were children of God and to be treated with kindness, this was not the popular view of the day.

The Doctrine of Discovery justified the expansion of Christian empires and was used until very recently as an argument in courts of law.

We talked about the concept of ‘The Other” and whether someone being different justifies mistreatment.

 

Should we take things from “The Other”

No! Because they need their lands and it belongs to their country and don’t think if your skin’s white and other people’s faces are different than you, you don’t hit them because it’s the same people and you don’t say bad words to them.
-Emily

No! Because it’s not fair for other countries.
-Robin

No! Because they would have war and war is bad and it would be unfair.
-Guanyu

Yes! Because:
1/ I can take Chinese things like books or chairs or something.
2/ I can take New Zealand’s snacks.
(But we pay for them)
-Ha Eum Mok

No! Because people then would start war because they are angry at losing their land.
-Sebastian

No! Because it’s not nice and it’s rude and they will start a fight and “The Other” will be angry.
-Milyn

No! Because it is very rude and it will start a war. They will never be their friends and they will never see them again.
Maliepō

We talked about the meaning of the word ‘discovery’ in relation to Captain Cook ‘discovering’ things around the Pacific.

Here are some of our ideas about this.

Did Captain Cook discover countries?

No! Because it’s not Tera Nullius. Terra Nullius means no-one is there.
-Robin

In 1770, Captain Cook discovered the south east coast of Australia, landing in Botany Bay. On 22 August, 1770, he claimed the whole of the east coast of Australia at Possession Island, naming eastern Australia New South Wales.
-Ha Eum Mok

No because he went to New Zealand, Australia and many countries. Captain Cook couldn’t discover countries because there were many people in the countries.
-Emily

Captain Cook discovered all of the continents except for the south continent that was Australia and New Zealand. But one day he found those two lands and he claimed them for Britain.
-Sebastian

No! Because there already people there and there’s no people there anymore because people already left so it is easy to say it is Terrible Nullius.
-Guanyu

Yes. He went to New Zealand and South Africa and Tonga and that’s how he went to places and the people told him to ask people for land or, if people are not giving a piece of land, they have it for themselves.
-Milyn

 

 

One of the groups is exploring the Anthony Browne books A Walk in the Park and Voices in the Park.

 

Smudge sees the world as a beautiful and exciting place. We thought about what she would see if she looked at our school.