More fables: The magic fish and The town mouse & the country mouse

Stage 1 and Early Stage 1 students are studying fables this term. These Youtube videos will support the reading.

The magic fish, or The fisherman and his wife, is often categorised as a Grimm’s fairy tale, but it also has an obvious moral.


The fisherman and his wife

Two parodies of the same tale:

The magic fish – Fractured Fairy Tales


Fractured Fairy Tales – The fisherman and his wife


Aesop: biography of a great thinker


The town mouse and the country mouse – Aesop’s fables


City mouse and country mouse


Мышь vs. Печенька (Mouse vs Biscuit)

After reading several versions of the famous Aesop’s fable, the students created their own interpretation of “City Mouse & Country Mouse” as a PhotoPeach slideshow. A combined effort of brainstorming, storyboarding, set creation, photographing, and joint construction of text!


City Mouse & Country Mouse

Learning about Buddhism and Judaism

The following Youtube clips should provide some field knowledge for the Stage 2 students’ research into Buddhism:


BUDDHISM the history and belief explained (using first five mins only)


What is Buddhism?

Mahabodhi Temple at dusk 6
“Mahabodhi Temple at dusk 6” by Triratna Photos on Flickr Creative Commons


Facts about Judaism

Facts about fish

Stage 1 and Early Stage 1 students are studying fables this term and every second week, we are concentrating on gathering factual information on one of the animals/concepts featured in the fable.

These Youtube videos will be useful for “Fish”:


How do fish live under water?


Setting up a goldfish aquarium


How the seahorse got its shape — by Nature Video

Investigating world religions

Stage 2 students are studying world religions and festivals in their HSIE work. A useful website should be Religion for kids.

These Youtube video clips will be our starting points to start explore essential field knowledge:


Religion Global History Timeline 1 min 30 sec (Was: History timeline: world religions conquest map HD)

See also:
The world must watch this video to respect Vedic Hinduism (from “Proud Hindus of India”).
The link above does not allow embedding of the clip into a blog entry.


Krishna: history or myth 1
(First few minutes are a broad overview of Hinduism; then moves to Krishna sect.)


Hindu creation story


Explanation of the Hindu Gods


Hindu Gods Ganesh

Akshardham Temple, Delhi
“Akshardham Temple, Delhi” by travfotos on Flickr Creative Commons


5 Pillars of Islam – part 1 | Cartoon by Discover Islam UK


The 5 pillars of Islam animated in English (includes previous clip at the beginning)

Taj Mahal
“Taj Mahal” by ndj5 on Flickr Creative Commons

Restoring endangered animals

In 2011, our Stage 3 classes created digital slideshows as persuasive texts in a Guided Inquiry unit, Endangered animals: beyond the rainforest, which focused upon rainforests in HSIE (human society & its environment’s Global Environments: Rainforests) and endangered animals in science & technology (Ecosystems).

A data crash of the Photo Peach servers, in December 2012, meant that the visual elements of the final products were lost. I am slowly restoring the students’ work from the archived storyboards, and the salvaged captions and comments on the old slideshows. I have restored the slideshows on my own (paid) PhotoPeach site, rather than the free s3penrithps page we originally created, because I can download archived versions as part of my subscription, and safeguard against losing them again.


by Tamara, Nandita & Riley (2011)


by Tahlia, Christina, Corey, Angela & Christian (2011)


by Tom, Matt J. & John (2011)


by Naomi, Bernise & Quinn (2011)


by Tristan & Luke (2011)


by Trent, Michelle & Latisha (2011)


by Jeremy, Lisa, Kayla, Emily & Phoebe (2011)


by Monique, Courtney, Patrick & Milo (2011)


by Jade, Lauren & Kiesha (2011)

Some of the original storyboards are linked at the Endangered animals: beyond the rainforest blog, plus programming, supporting documentation and a research article.