Gallipoli... Kerry Greenwood

With this book I examined context, I used a teaching unit from PETAA to support this teaching, one of the initial tasks I did was to predict whose point of view is this story written... The children were considering the Australian soldiers or the Turkish soldiers. One of the things they noticed on the front cover were the two soldiers, and they were wearing slouch hats... Australian soldiers wore slouch hats. We compared this to the uniform of the Ottoman Empire to confirm this. I am also trying to get my students to use two pieces of evidence to support their thoughts so I had them examine the words on the cover and they then made the link between Cannankale and Gallipoli and confirmed it must be a story from the ANZACs... I loved this story and the children made lots of connections to what we have learnt in class, we examined maps and the children could visualise where Eygpt was, Lemnos, Lone Pine all settings names in this story. When they heard Simpson and his donkey Duffy mentioned they all shared a connection to prior learning. We deeply analysed the historical and cultural contexts for this story and will continue this learning until our Anzac Day service.

More ANZAC stories! and writing with a purpose

Last term I read quite a few ANZAC titles, the children really enjoyed the contrast in Anzac Biscuits by Phil Cummings.

 A mother and child make biscuits whilst the father is away fighting war. Each page has a link with the next- the flowers on Mum's apron is a contrast to the flowers in the field where dad is, the thick mud dad is walking through is compared with the sticky treacle on the little child's fingers. The children enjoyed seeing the contrast between the two scenes. I was at a conference this week and I had the lovely Kate make no bake Anzac balls with the kids and look at procedure writing. You can find the recipe here... http://www.mumsinthemix.com.au/healthy-bake-anzac-biscuits/

We then read Gary Crew's Memorial.

Another book the children can examine the visual literacy, these two amazing talented duo really know how to write books well.  After analysing this book, I had my class write arguments for and against whether the tree should be removed.

Anzac Ted... Everyone should have this title on their bookshelf.

It has such a lovely message, all of my students could make a connection to this title. After examining the Anzac spirit in these titles, I had my class write an imaginative text, I was really surprised by their efforts. Someone wrote a story as the unknown solider, another used the structure of Anzac biscuits to compare life at war and home, and a student tried to retell life as an Anzac through letter writing back and forth from home.