www.eightacresofeden.com: ‘For all you Aussie homeschool mums or if your children attend school and have to do a project on Australian pioneer life this is a fabulous resource.’
Maurice Saxby, Reading Time 54(2), May 2010: ’aesthetically pleasing and beautifully formatted book that should in time become a collector’s item’; ‘an important book historically, artistically … and as a research tool - but fundamentally because our literature is enriched by this fresh look at and rendering of a story that is embedded in the Australian psyche and deserves this deeply satisfying new treatment.’
Teachers Notes for Lost! A True Tale from the Bush
Compiled by Stephanie Owen Reeder (BA (Hons), Dip.ED, Grad.Dip. Lib. MEd, PhD
Lost! A True Tale from the Bush is a fictionalised retelling of the true story of three children from the Duff family – Isaac, Jane and Frankie – who were lost in the bush in the Wimmera District of Victoria in the winter of 1864. Based on eye-witness accounts and newspaper articles from the time, as well as later versions of the story written over the years, Lost! relates the story from the perspective of both the lost children and those who were searching for them. The book is lavishly illustrated with paintings and drawings from the 1800s, drawn from the vast Pictures Collection of the National Library of Australia. Information sections at the end of each chapter document how children lived in the 1860s, looking in particular at housing, entertainment, food, transport, toys, schooling and clothing. An epilogue relates what happened to the children when they grew up, and a select bibliography provides suggestions for background reading. Lost! is a perfect book to use for introducing the study of Australian colonial history. The story itself contains information about how children lived at the time, and this is augmented by the information sections. The book lends itself to being read out loud in the classroom, chapter by chapter, with follow-up activities involving research, language, drama and art skills. A number of possible activities related to the book are outlined below.
Here is some of the stunning artwork produced by five- and six-year-olds at Rockhampton Grammar School. After reading Lost! the children were encouraged to create artwork based on the emotions in the book, including loneliness, fear, sadness, caring, relief and joy. Artists Ellie, Lily, Holly and Kaitlyn produced this beautiful ‘Vision of Relief’. The children’s work is truly inspirational! Many thanks to their teacher, Adair Mehlhose, for both inspiring the children to be so creative and for allowing me to share their artwork.
Environmental studies
1. Study mallee tree forests, their habitats and special characteristics. Draw a map of Australia and indicate the areas where mallee trees grow.
2. Identify, study and draw the wildflowers that grow in your area and the native animals, reptiles and birds that live there.
3. Research water sources in the bush. How can people ensure that they do not suffer from dehydration when they are lost in the bush?
4. Identify what bush foods are available in your area. Cook and sample examples of bush food, as well as damper, parrot pie and kangaroo stew. Discuss the differences in the food eaten in the 1800s and now. How much food do we produce ourselves and how much do we buy from shops? Why have things changed?
5. Research the changing weather patterns in your area over the last 100 or 50 years. Have the weather patterns changed? Are you getting more or less rain? What impact does this have?
Social studies
1. Make a list of the games and toys children play with today. Does the list include any of the toys and games played by children like Isaac, Jane and Frankie?
2. Research one of the games you are not familiar with, and play it.
3. What chores do children do around the house today? Are they similar to the ones that the children in Lost! had to do?
4. What has changed in the way we live at home since the 1860s? Is it easier being a child now compared to in the 1860s? If so, why?
5. Compare the modes of transport used in your area today with the transport used in the 1860s. How much faster is it to travel today than it was then? Make a map showing the roads and railways in your immediate area.
6. Have a cooeeing competition in the playground to see who can cooee the loudest. Measure how far away the loudest cooee can be heard.
7. Which Aboriginal tribe or group lived in your area in the 1800s? Research how they lived. What did they eat? What family structures did they have? What sorts of shelters did they build? What stories did they tell? What art work did they produce?
History
1. Which bushrangers were active in your state or territory in the 1800s? Research and document their story.
2. Was gold mined in your area? Research the Australian gold rushes. When and where were they? How did people live on the goldfields?
3. Research how schools have changed since the 1860s: examine classrooms, furniture, teaching aids, writing implements, subjects studied, books, discipline, school uniforms, etc, and then draw two pictures: one of an 1860s’ classroom and one of a present-day classroom.
Health and safety
1. Find out how you should prepare for a long walk in the bush. What should you take with you? What should you do if you get lost? Should you stay where you are and wait to be rescued, or should you try to find your way home?
2. Find out what you sould do if you are bitten by a snake. What should you do to avoid snakes?
Writing activities
1. Write a story about a monster that lives in the mallee-tree forest or your area, including information on what the monster looks like, how the it survives, what it eats, where it sleeps and what noises it makes.
2. Write a story about a day in the life of a child living in the 1860, and include descriptions of the following: their house, who they live with, where they sleep, how they wash themselves, where they go to the toilet, what they do when the sun goes down.
3. Make a list of the rhymes that children learn today when they are small; and then make a book featuring the class’s favourite childhood rhymes, with illustrations by class members.
4. Write a story or a play about a bushranger. It can be based on a real bushranger or a fictional character. Include information about where the bushranger lived, what he wore, what weapons he carried and who he held up. What happened to him in the end?
5. Write a story about children lost in the bush today. What do they do to survive? How are they tracked? How are they rescued?
6. Write a newspaper article about the children’s ordeal and how they were found.
Art activities
1. Draw a picture or make a model of a mallee-tree monster. Consider the following: How big is it? How does it get around? What colour is it?
2. Use bark from trees or paddle-pop sticks to make a model of a bark hut like the one that the children in the story lived in
3. Collect squares of material from old clothes that are being thrown out. If everyone in the class brings in a few squares, there will be enough to make an interesting patchwork quilt
4. Make a board game based on getting lost in the bush.
5. Produce artworks based on the emtotions found in Lost! These include loneliness, fear, relief and love (see example above).
6. Make paper dolls out of cardboard and make them two sets of clothes: clothes from the 1800s and clothes from the present day.
Drama activities
1. Make hand puppets and a puppet theatre, and perform a puppet show based on the story of Isaac, Jane and Frankie and their adventures in the bush.
2. Research and then perform some of the circus acts that would have been performed in the 1860s.
3. Make costumes and perform a scene from the life of a bushranger.
See also Inside the Shortlist: 2010, published by the Children’s Book Council of Australia
Colour My World! (National library of Australia, 2009) is a picture book for preschoolers and junior primary children which celebrates colours and how they make us feel. Colours are all around us, but there is more to colour than meets the eye. Colours are often associated with feelings. Red can be warm and cheery, or represent anger or danger. Blue can be fresh and cheeky, or sad and cold. Illustrated with black-and-white images of children from the amazing Pictures Collection of the National Library of Australia, Colour My World! invites children to interact with colours and to think about how they make them feel and where they can find them in the world around them. This is an interactive book, with a charming text and questions aimed at encouraging children to think about the role that colours play in their life. A section at the end of the book provides more information about colours, their different shades and connotations.
The National Library of Australia’s Pictures Collection contains a treasure trove of sketchbooks from the nineteenth century. They range from impressive leather-bound albums, with marbled endpapers and gold engraving, to battered, pocket-sized sketchbooks. Each sketchbook tells the story of both its artist and the places and people they depicted. Opening these books is like taking a trip back in time, and seeing the Australian and New Zealand landscapes through the eyes of someone who has just stepped off the boat after a long and sometimes harrowing passage across the ocean to a new world.
