Sainsbury’s Christmas ads

UK department store Sainsbury’s features Judith Kerr’s famous book character, Mog the cat, in an advertisement for the Christmas season. These ads are also excellent examples of persuasive visual texts.


Sainsbury’s official Christmas advert 2015 – Mog’s Christmas calamity


Sainsbury’s official Christmas 2014 ad – 1914

And the current ad is:


Sainsbury’s official Christmas advert 2016 – The greatest gift

Revisiting the ugly duckling

The last time The ugly duckling came along in our K-2 literacy cycle, I made use of some personal photos taken of a Hans Christian Andersen memorial statue at Sydney’s Observatory Hill.


The ugly duckling – Silly symphony Walt Disney 1939


Our Khaki Campbell ducks~


Khaki Campbell… ducks a must see!!!

Make way for ducklings, the famous picture book by Robert McCloskey, and based on a real life event, is also immortalized in statue form at Boston Common, USA. These statues get dressed thematically at various times of the year.

The intelligence of crows

Students in Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 have been studying the Aboriginal Dreaming Story of “How the birds got their colours”. This week, they are investigating birds. Our playground is currently well-populated with large crows (or ravens?) and the students have been enjoying (or being blamed for) their hilarious antics: tossing scraps out of the bins, stealing shiny rocks from a memorial garden, and frog-marching pigeons out of the playground.

I found some fascinating Youtube videos that demonstrate the intelligence of crows, as they complete an exercise involving a three-step plan, and then an eight-step plan.


Crow intelligence – multi-step tool action test


Are crows the ultimate problem solvers? – Inside the animal mind – BBC


Smart crow uses cars to crack nuts in Akita, Japan near Senshu Park

Remember Aesop’s fable of “The crow and the pitcher”?

Causal understanding of water displacement by a crow

Investigating the Rainbow Serpent

Early Stage 1 and Stage 1 students are learning about Aboriginal Dreaming stories.


The Rainbow Serpent


The Rainbow Serpent (by Dick Roughsey)


Batik painting, inspired by Dick Roughsey’s Dreamtime picture book, The Rainbow Serpent


Rainbow Lorikeets wild and free in their native Australia

Hickory dickery dock… and mice

Stage 1 and Early Stage 1 students are learning about the nursery rhyme, “Hickory dickory dock”.


Hickory dickory dock nursery rhyme with lyrics – Cartoon animation rhymes & songs for children


Hickory dickory dock | Super simple songs


Peppa Pig Cuckoo clock


How to care for a pet mouse

More about whales

Past student book rappers created a digital slideshow on Photo Peach to accompany our work on the Aboriginal Dreaming story, How the whale got a hole in his head:


How the whale got a hole in his head


Humpback whale shows amazing appreciation after being freed from nets

Additional audiovisual resources on whales, starfish and barnacles, used in previous years of the cycle, are HERE.