Land Ahoy!– Memorable experience!

Author: Ms.Elizabeth Grobler

The Year 2 teachers introduced the first topic of the year, Land Ahoy!,on6September, and it turned out to be a very memorable Monday morning. All the Year 2 students gathered in the auditorium and were informed that Mr.Vickus had found something extraordinary washed up on the shore while spending the weekend atXiChong beach.

Mr. Vickus showed them a chest and raised a few questions: Where did the chest come from? Who did it belong to? What could be inside? Year 2 students guessed that the chest was a treasure chest that belonged to a pirate.

Just at the moment when students mentioned a pirate, a ship named ‘Black Swan’ sailed onto the stage with Pirate Captain Swan at the helm. It was a sight to behold. Captain Swan was in search of her lost treasure, and she came armed with her sword and swung it around in a threatening manner as to take her treasure back by force.

Luckily Ms. Anne soon became aware of the threat in the auditorium and immediately confiscated Captain’s Swan’s sword, since no weapons are allowed on the school premises. Students and teachers asked Captain Swan questions about her pet duck, past voyages, when she became a pirate, life at sea, surviving storms and more to satisfy their curiosity. After talking to our lovely students, Pirate Captain Swan had a change of heart and generously decided to leave her ship, ‘Black Swan’ as well as her treasure chest with the Year 2’s.

After Captain Swan left, Mr. Vickus and Ms. Angela opened the chest and revealed its contents. Students were very excited to see the contents of the chest and each time an item was revealed the students could guess what it was called as well as what the item was used for. Items from the chest were: a map (possibly a treasure map), telescope, eyepatch, hook, pirate flag, strings of pearls, gold coins, a gun and miniature replica of an old-style pirate ship. Before exiting the auditorium students passed all the items of the chest around and enjoyed a closer look.

At the end of the day students made art of seascapes with ships and ocean creatures in bottles. During the rest of the first week of Land Ahoy! students will sequence photos of the memorable experience, learn about time connectives, write a short recount, complete a pirate bubble map as a group work activity, do predictions and more sequencing of events for ‘The pirates next door’ book and come up with an alternative journey for the snail, of ‘The snail and the whale’, to explore other parts of our beautiful world.

A few of the fun activities learners will enjoy During Land Ahoy will be the making of boats and experimenting with different materials and shapes when investigating factors that make objects and ships sink or float. Students will have fun writing poems like poets, speaking, weighing and measuring booty like pirates.

They will learn how rescues happen at sea and find out about brave volunteers such as young Grace Darling, who rowed her boat across stormy seas. Students will sing sea shanties and search the school grounds for Captain Longbeard’s hidden treasure.

Year 2 students will get their sea legs on and embark on their own journeys of exploration and investigation and will no doubt make marvelous discoveries during their learning voyages. They will follow the course but also gain enough insight to navigate their own unique, independent learning much like the great explorers of the past such as Zheng He or Captain Cook. 

The terrific Teacher Crew of Year 2 are just as excited and eager as our students to set sail and embark on the Land Ahoy learning voyage and we are proud to be the navigators of these bright and brave little explorers.