Dear Parents and Carers,
This week we have been hard at work designing (Tristan) our characters for the narratives that we are starting to write. We have used a ‘Character Planner’ template to brainstorm what our characters look like, their skills and talents, and their hopes and fears (Ike). Bessie also added where her character lived (a floating marshmallow ship), Lachlan added what accent his character had (Scottish), Lewis and Ike added what his characters liked to eat (cheeseburgers/blood), Sammy thought about how his character travelled around (in a flying saucer), and Sam and Ike thought about what his characters’ hobbies were (soccer/death ball).
This week, the Year Twos came up with the idea of asking parents or other people at home or in our community what they are currently reading, because we have noticed that we can get lots of ideas about characters from the books that we read. Sebastien B went home on Wednesday night and interviewed his mum and his dad. He asked them about what they are reading and recorded details on a piece of paper that he brought in today.
We are also currently writing persuasive letters to Adrian (Community Engagement Manager at the Carlton Football Club) to ask him if players from the football club to come into our neighbourhood to talk about wellbeing, strength, and fitness. (Ike, Claudia, Robert, Tristan)
This week we learnt an Italian dance called the Tarantella. Our teacher was Rosa, a lovely lady who has worked with our Italian teacher, Anne-Maree, for quite a long time. She comes from Italy. (Bessie, Wren) The Tarantella is based on a story where a farmer gets bitten by a spider (a Tarantula) and can’t stop moving (Ike). Some of the moves that we learnt involved clapping (Banjo), jumping from foot to foot (Sam), and stepping forward and backwards (Ike). Our instructions were very specific, for example, “three short, controlled steps” (Felix). Ike (and the rest of the neighbourhood, of course) is certain that he is now an expert at dancing the Tarantella!!!!
Today we had another visitor in the neighbourhood sharing how they used writing in their job and it was a fantastic presentation! Sunny W’s grandma, Susan, is a recently published author. She has written a thriller called ‘8 Lives’ (Franzi). It is a story about a man who was a scientist and involves a mystery about a man who died (Banjo). We learnt that when you write a book it takes quite a lot of your own editing when you start before you send it off to your editor (Bessie). She created 23 drafts of her story before arriving at her final copy (Lyla, Olivia, Ike). After the book was published, she had to sign copies of her books for different stores. At one place, she signed 500 copies in 1 hour (Tao). Thank you so much Susan for sharing your knowledge of writing narratives with us!