'Lest we Forget'

While ANZAC day was quite foreign to a number of ESOL students who had recently immigrated to New Zealand, the concept of loss or war was not. Senior students who were able to listen to stories and discuss the content were able to write their own interpretations of the conditions young soldiers may have faced when they landed in ANZAC cove. These students were using imagery to improve description in their writing.

Nethasa writes:
The boat starts to creak with the weight of the men.
"Oh no!" we're here. I don't like this. I hate war. It's scary. My gun is so heavy and my boots are also heavy and wet. Now what is going to happen? It's turning very cold.

Aisha writes:
I see nothing but the night sky as we roll into the shore. Splash! My mate has a sip of water from his water bottle. Bang! The water turns red. What the heck is going on? Bodies are floating under the surface. "Jump!" Splash! As we hit the water, there's an explosion, then nothing but silence.

Arozo writes:

I see people coming to this foreign country in wooden boats. They run with guns along a rough beach. I hear guns shooting at shadows. 

Nisha writes:

People talking randomly to each other in this boat. Talking about what they are going to do. Not able to see anything but the stars in the sky, not even the sea. But they hear a sound, a loud splash as the front of the boat drops away.








These pictures were taken of the junior group as they created their pictures of poppies:

Capturing those Creative Moments

We post some photographs taken during a writing session.  While the children communicate about the design of their stories, teaching moments are used to explore the use of descriptive language and reinforce English syntax.

Ben and Victor (Russian first language) discuss the size of an object.

Radha and Sahi add the finishing touches to their artwork. (Hindi first language) 

Creating artworks that inspire vocabulary growth, discussion and ideas for writing

This year a group of Year 2 ESOL students shared a number of stories with their ESOL teacher about dinosaurs and dragons. Each child was asked to decide whether they wanted to create a dragon or a dinosaur and to provide reasons.

Producing the artwork provided an opportunity to discuss specific vocabulary like foreground, background and horizon. The shapes used to create their subject also become a mathematical focus.

The group discussed some of the adventures that a dinosaur or dragon might have. Would these creatures have friends like they did?  How might their experiences affect how they felt?

We share with you their results:

Victor

One day my dragon went to a new school because he got too old for his other school. He was happy to go to the new school. His friend was coming to the same school. They were going to play together. 

Sahi's  dragon story

Yesterday my dragon took me to a circus. My dragon blew fire into a hulahoop. 

One day a girl went to Riccarton and bought a dragon toy. She made a dragon garden and she played with it. She put the new dragon in the garden and it looked like a real dragon garden. At night the dragon turned into a real dragon. It flew up into the sky. There the dragon found and married a princess. They lived happily ever after. 

Radha

My dragon was happy because she was hurt and a girl helped her. Her leg was bleeding so the girl put a bandage on it. The girl and the dragon were friends. They went to the playground to play on the swings. 

 Ben

Bingo the dinosaur was off to Dinosaur School to learn how to run faster so that he could beat the Tyrannosaurus Rex.  One day 32 dinosaurs were playing tag with their teacher when Bingo ran back to his classroom. He did not want to play any longer. He saw Kritosaurus and Bingo ran away. He ran to my house. I opened the door. Bingo ran in.  He locked the door and went into my room. What would he do?