Novel study: The Tuckshop Kid (Years 5-8)

"Hungry? Need Lunch? Mum's packed you curried banana and pickle sandwiches again? Only got a $1.25 to your name? Then you need to see Matt, because he is an expert at Tuckshop."

Written by Pat Flynn. Illustrated by Tom Jellett. University of Queensland Press 2006 Upper Primary Lower Secondary - Middle Years

Let's explore some of the themes and ideas in the novel…

Obesity

Read Page 3 - "Trouble with giving…smells like sweat."

Learning Object: The Sven Calloway Show: Health - Patricia Jacobsen (LO ID L1484)

• Write a letter to your principal or school council, outlining a Health Program that you have developed for your school. Why does your school need the program? What will be done in the program? Who will be involved in running the Health Program? For how long will it run? Why?

Bullying

Read Pages 11-12 - "Watch out...see how you feel." Page 29 - "It's nearly my turn… I walk off."

Pages 35-36 - "Last year...handle his own problems." Page 65 - "Hey, marathon man…They walk off."

Learning Object: Anti-bullying campaign (LO ID L940)

• Design and produce an anti-bullying brochure that is aimed at the students of your school

Learning Object: The rap machine (LO ID L459)

• Create a rap with an anti-bullying message. Record and play back to your class, or sing it live!

Diabetes

Read Pages 21 - 22 - "After the tests...and a coke in the other."

• Create a wiki that contains the words and phrases in the menu of the Learning Object, and add other relevant words too e.g. blood, sugar, hormones, diet, injections, blood sugar monitoring. Use your own words!

See Connect - Wiki

Healthy Living

Read Page 80 - "You don't have…all right with you, Mum?"

Learning Object: Healthy Life Survey (LO ID L3158)

• Interview 100 people at your school. Ask them three questions about their health habits. Why is it important to get a good range of interviewees (e.g. 50 male, 50 female, an equal number of students from each level, a number of teachers)? Make a graph of your findings. What have you learnt?

Promotion of Healthy Food

Read Page 25 - "We're there for ages…Damn! No jellybeans."

Learning Object: Advertising and marketing (LO ID L6172)

• This learning object focuses on the advertising and marketing of a soft drink. However, use the advertising and marketing techniques you have learnt to create a marketing/advertising campaign for a healthy item of food or drink.

Exercise

Read Pages 14-16 - "Mr Simpson stands...Nothing except blackness."

Pages 50- 55 - "Although I've won...I've never felt better in my life."

Learning Object: Wacky-oke song quest (LO ID L937)

• You will need a digital camera to take photos of people being lazy and moving energetically e.g. dancing, running, walking, exercising, playing sport. Write a song explaining the importance of exercising and record it
• Use PhotoStory or Powerpoint to combine your digital images and song in a presentation that will encourage people to get fit and stay fit

Evaluation

• Access RubiStar (http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php) and explore the available rubrics.
• Also access : Researching Together: Engaging minds (CD). Bendigo Senior Secondary College and School Library Association of Victoria, 2005. Go to Evidence > Collecting Evidence > Rubrics.

Teacher notes

• See the extension work - Novel Study: Individual or Group Response to Personal Reading.
• Students may select a number of tasks to do individually, or may work with partners or in teams. Perhaps six teams could be each allocated one of the tasks so that all are covered. This could lead to a class presentation.

Which elements of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards are addressed in this unit?

• Physical, Personal and Social Learning - Health and Physical Education - Health knowledge and promotion
• Physical, Personal and Social Learning - Interpersonal Development - Building social relationships; Working in teams
• Physical, Personal and Social Learning - Personal Learning - The individual learner; Managing personal learning
• Physical, Personal and Social Learning - Personal Learning - The individual learner; Managing personal learning
• Discipline-based Learning - English - Reading; Writing; Speaking and listening
• Interdisciplinary Learning - Communication - Listening, viewing and responding; Presenting
• Interdisciplinary Learning - Information and Communications Technology (ICT) - ICT for Visualising Thinking (Learning Objects); ICT for creating; ICT for communicating (if correspondence via blog, email, etc is used)
• Interdisciplinary Learning - Thinking Processes - Reasoning, processing and inquiry; Creativity; Reflection, evaluation and metacognition (if a journal and self evaluation are included)

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