Back at the ranch, the Prep V and VI children who did not attend the residential trip have been busy doing a unit of work on Jabberwocky, a nonsense poem by the Victorian writer Lewis Carroll. (If you want to know how it goes, ask Oliver, who can recite it by heart – very impressive!)
As well as illustrating monochrome concertina books of the poem with chalk and charcoal, we looked at the language Carroll used in the poem, including his famous portmanteau words. We decided that “mimsy” was a mixture of miserable and flimsy, while “frumious” was a combination of frustrated, furious and luminous. We felt that “vorpal” and “uffish” were open to interpretation, and enjoyed suggesting possible meanings!
Writing tasks included producing a fact file on the monstrous Jabberwock; Hannah decided it was an endangered species, Finn described it as a vicious carnivore and Isabelle said that its babies are called Babawocks – very endearing!
Using our desktop publishing skills, we also created an information leaflet about the poem’s author during our Computing lesson.
We also wrote a lively diary entry of the day the son in the poem slayed the Jabberwock, “my chance to finally make my father proud,” as Luca put it. The following extract from Finn’s diary is not for those of a nervous disposition.
“The Jabberwock pounced on me. I swung my blade across its eye, leaving a scar, and the blood splashed onto my face. The Jabberwock stumbled back, blinded. I jumped onto the beast and stabbed it in the heart, slicing down to the navel. I sliced off the Jabberwock’s head and brought it back to my father as proof that he was dead. The Jabberwock had been snicker-snacked!”
Finally, we used our own choice of art media to draw imaginative and colourful portraits of the Jabberwock, making sure we showed the “eyes of flame”, “the jaws that bite,” and the “claws that catch.” Well done everyone for three hard working and productive days!
I missed the first two days because I was sick but I came in on Wednesday. I really enjoyed drawing the jabberwock. The school trip looked quite fun the maths was quite fun.
From Luca
I felt uffish when I did the jabberwock so small but ignoring that I had a frabjous time. 🙂
All the artwork and writing looks amazing! 🙂
Beatrice Prep 6
Even though I did not go on the Surf and Turf trip, I enjoyed learning about the Jabberwocky poem. Which made absolutely no sense to me at first but over the three days, it made more and more sense to me. I especially enjoyed making the picture of the Jabberwock even though it took a long time to draw on all of the scales!
We also did some experiments on dice and seeing if there was a number that you had a higher chance of rolling on two 6-sided dice. We made bar charts to show this as well.
I had a good three days and I really enjoyed being in a mixed class of Prep 5 and 6.
Isabelle Harrison Prep VI
Good artwork!!!To conjure a picture with words you kind of understand but don’t really understand is impressive-Tanisha Joshi, Prep 6.
To be honest, I quite enjoyed the classes, but (no offence) upon retrospective thinking, I would have rather gone on the Surf And Turf trip because Mr. Suter showed us some photos from the trip and it looked really fun. I kind of regret not going but I enjoyed doing the chance experiments with Mr. Grant in maths too, my favourite part was when we all drew our interpretations of the Jabberwock. Disaster struck with my concertina book though, I can’t exactly recall what but i know it was bad.
Overall, i feel a mix of regret and satisfaction, regretful for not going on the trip, but satisfied by the outcome of my work and concentration throughout the week. I also feel that i have somewhat grown because last time there was a residential, i was reluctant to go, but this time, I regret not going. I feel like the work was not very tedious and I had a frabjous week.
–Oliver Wittering (Prep VI)
🙂
The drawing was difficult but I persevered. My favourite part of the Jabberwock was the eyes and the best bit in mine in my opinion was also the eyes. thank you mrs sweeney for this chance to learn about the JABBERWOCKY.
Jack.Hignett Prep 6