Hillview State School Years 1, 2 and 3 students were thrilled when many of their grandparents, including some of their great grandparents and a grandaunt, came to the school near Beaudesert to share a recent Grandparents Morning.
This was the last activity for the Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge Book rap in which the class took part alongside students from other schools in Australia and overseas.
Hillview teacher and book rap coordinator Cherrol McGhee said a book rap was a discussion about a particular book conducted on the internet by emailing to a list created for that book on the oz-teachernet.
While the coordinator was responsible for composing and posting the rap points(open ended discussion points), teachers and students were responsible for the discussion.
"The students enjoyed this discussion very much, particularly as author Mem Fox is a favourite with most of them," Mrs McGhee said.
The following is the students' e-mail message in the discussion.
Hello Rappers,
My special people in my family are my pop and my grandma. I have four grandmas and pops. I love my grandme and pop.
We are going to have a grandparents morning. We are having it on Wednesday 8 April. We are asking our grandparent's to bring something that reminds them of their school days. We are going to write a little story about it and then we are going to do some plays for them. After that we are going to take some photos of us with our grandparents.
To finish off the morning we are going to have morning tea with them. We are doing the cooking the day before. We are using the computer to make some cards.
Bye for now,
Bradley and Years 1,2 and 3 Hillview SS
Mrs McGhee said there was much excitement when the grandparents, grand-aunt and a number of mums and dads arrived. A special part of the day saw the elderly guests share mementos of their childhood days. " All the treasures which they had brought with them were shared and there were many memories rekindled of what school was like in the 1940s and 1950s" Mrs McGhee said.
The children and the grandparents completed a survey about when and where they started school, what it was like and their fondest memory.
Another highlight of the day saw students perform plays to the delight of their elderly guests.
Mrs McGhee said photographs were taken of the students and their guests during morning tea.
"Now new memories will be rekindled when the photos are sent to each set of grandparents with a thank you note from their grandchild," she said.
As published in the EDUCATION VIEWS May 1 1998 (Queensland, Australia)
Copied and written by Cherrol McGhee May 1998.
