Year 5 have been reading The Arrival by Shaun Tan

Year 5 have been reading The Arrival by Shaun Tan. The Arrival is a visual narrative - told solely through visual media. It tells the story of a man who migrates to create a better life for his family in a distant land of opportunity.  Using freeze frames, role play and thought tapping, children have examined the many reasons why people have to leave their countries such as immigration, travel and seeking refuge or asylum.

Over the last few weeks,  children have been developing their inference skills by detecting the unspoken hidden meanings within the story. They have also developed their use of powerful vocabulary, modal verbs and sentence openers (subordinate clauses and fronted adverbial clauses) in their writing to create narratives for Shaun Tan's wordless images.

 
We hope you enjoy reading an extract below that accompanies the image of a woman and her child:

 
Wishing for my father, I trudged noiselessly through the gloomy unlit buildings which dominated me and my mother. The dragon tails swirled above us in the starless sky. I sensed death everywhere, it was spreading like wild-fire!

 
No light lit our path. I felt abandoned and rejected from all the people of the world. Sobbing, my poor mother looked down. I tried to comfort her, but I couldn't. A knife pierced my heart. I realized that I needed my farther.
 
by Sidath 5A