Story Writing

This term we are working on story writing. The children are loving it so far. We have been investigating what "ingredients" go together to make up a story, for example genre, setting, characters, and plot. The children have already worked on their characters and setting using some worksheets from Sparklebox.  We found these character writing frames especially useful. 

Today the children put all their hard work together and wrote their story. They worked collaboratively, included both their characters and negotiated about setting and plot. Here's what they came up with:

Stolen Treasure

Once upon a time a rude pirate called Black-Beard sailed to a treasure island. The treasure was stolen by a wizard called Ozo. Black-Beard was very angry because the treasure had been stolen off him by the nasty and wicked wizard.

Black-Beard got off at the island and tried to find the treasure. He saw the Red Indians guarding the castle so he hid in the woods. The fairy god mother called Lilly was going to pick some roses in the forest. She saw the pirate and she took a photo. She sent the photo to Feather Hair the fierce and handsome Red Indian. The photo appeared floating in front of Feather Hair’s face. He looked at it and said to the Indian army “Guard the castle; he’s probably going to come here next”.

Black- Beard the pirate came out of the wood and tried to look in the castle but he got captured by the Red Indians. They tied him up in chains and put him in the dungeon and tied him to the ceiling. While everyone was trying up the pirate in the castle the angry and evil wizard Ozo was looking at his crystal ball and saw it happening. He made himself invisible and got into the castle by magic and stole the treasure. The furious wizard disapparated himself into the pirate ship and he sailed off.

The happy wizard shared the treasure with his wife. The pirate died in the castle. The Indians and the fairy godmother lived happily ever after. 

Old Time Festival

Today we went along to the Old Time Festival at Mamre House. We took the opportunity to dress up again in our 1800's costumes. We enjoyed cookery demonstrations, dancing, pony rides and the farm. The children helped paint the mural pictured above. Here are some more pictures from the day:

Milking the fake cow

Mowing the grass

Steaming!

Today we went along the the open day at Campbelltown Steam And Machinery Museum. I've posted about their open days before so this time instead of photos I took some video.

Walking The National Pass

Continuing with our Blue Mountains crossing theme, today we took a long bush walk from Wentworth Falls. The National Pass is a 6km round trip up and down the mountain side, with lots of steps it's rated hard. It's supposed to take adults 3-4 hours to complete. We managed the trip in just under 4 hours (not including a cafe stop of course!).

Here's a selection of the photos I took on today's walk:

Just about to start, only 8C but we were soon sweating

Half way

Behind the waterfall

The track leads across the waterfalls at several points

Refuelling at the Conservation Hut cafe towards the end of the day

Mixed Media Magazine Faces

The children have been working on these amazing mixed media portraits for a few days. It's a really easy process that gives fantastic results. You'll need large pictures of faces from a magazine, watercolour paper or card, gesso or white acrylic, stamps and ink pads, coloured acrylics, tissue paper, and gel medium or PVA glue. A white and black marker or paint pen are useful too.

First we stuck our magazine picture down on some watercolour paper. We left enough room around the face to extend the hair (you might want to add a hat or a crown too).

Next we painted right over the magazine with watered down gesso so the picture could still be seen through it.

Next we drew on facial features with a pencil, don't forget to continue right off the magazine piece.

We then painted the background and stamped over it.

Next we glued on pieces of tissue paper with gel medium; we made sure to scrunch it up as we went to give the hair some texture. We also added some book pages to light areas of the face.

Once all that was dry we started on painting the face. We used a ready mixed skin colour as a base and added white to make a lighter shade and brown to make a darker one.

We used the magazine picture for guidance to place the three skin tones. We gave the hair a base colour too. 

Once that was done we painted on strands of darker hair and added highlights using a dry brush technique. We used a Posca paint pen for the whites of the eyes and a Sharpie marker for the pupils (if you have a steady hand just use a brush). We redrew in any details that had been lost with a pencil.

Here are the finished pictures:

By L age 4.5

By R age 6.5

By Mum

Historic Breakfast

Today we all got up hideously early to attend a historic breakfast and re-enactment. On this day 200 years ago Blaxland, Wentworth,  Lawson, and their party set off from nearby South Creek to find a way across the Blue Mountains. We joined friends and the public at this commemorative event put on by Penrith Council. We got to hear extracts from the explorers own journals of the time along with modern poetry read by actor Jack Thompson (we found out he was also home educated) . There was the formal unveiling of the commemorative plaque before the "explorers" set out on the first leg of their 21 day journey, accompanied by horses, dogs and a group of kids in period costume. We enjoyed a sausage breakfast and live music before heading out for the rest of the day.

The explorers ready to go

Afterwards we also set off into the foothills of the Blue Mountains for a picnic and play at Euroka Picnic Area and camp-ground. There we spotted many kookaburras and lit up a camp fire.