Miss McPherson's writing class have read the story "Torty and the Solider".

The story is of a New Zealander, Stewart Little, who went to war in the medical field. He found a tortoise in Greece, which got run over by a gun cart right in front of him! Stewart took care of Torty and eventually brought her back to New Zealand on a hospital ship, the Marama. Torty was estimated to be approximately 100 years old when Stewart found her, she has since been cared for by his family here in New Zealand. Amazingly, Torty is still alive and is the oldest living WW1 veteran in New Zealand.

We did a lot of sharing with peers and then imagined we were on the hospital ship making our way back to New Zealand with Torty - below are a couple of examples of our writing from the week.

Chloe K:
"Dear Mum, have you heard of Torty the tortoise? I am on a hospital ship with old soldiers. I feel scared. I can hear nurses rushing to soldiers about to pass away. I smell medicine and blood. I get super scared when I smell blood because that means some thing happened! I can see people running throw with people in stretchers. ONe time I even saw a tortoise! When I asked what had happened I was shocked. They told me that the tortoise was run over by one huge wheel. I saw wheel marks on it! They told me that a soldier yelled "Watch out!" but it happened and that's all they told me after that sad story. When I went into the main part of the hospital ship where the sick people are, I saw some nurses with a frown on their face. This is the reason why, they were carrying a coffin and lifting someone in to it because he had died over night. I cried, he got buried under the ground in the hospital ship wood. 

Crusoe:
"Dear Nana, have you heard the story of Torty the tortoise? I'm on a medical ship. I feel upset and I feel like crying. I also smell the sea water. I see blood. I'm on a ship with Torty, she's doing well. I am going to war now, I hope I survive. I have eaten lots of food. I am a medic."

Grace Oh;
"Dear David, have you heard of Torty the tortoise? I am on a hospital ship with Torty. I feel very sad. I can hear the tortoise hibernating. I smell medicine. By the way I am a nurse. Also I can see people dying and them being very sick. I feel really sad. I look at the dying people and I think if it was me. I feel very sorry for them but luckily I can help them because I am a nurse. All these soldiers died for us in the army, it must of hurt. It is a bit scary looking at the people dying. Some of them are really injured, blood comes out of them. It also must of been hard to leave their families."

Cooper:

"Dear Dad, have you heard of Torty, the tortoise? I am on a hospital ship with Torty. I feel sad that some people are not feeling well. I can hear people crying that they need medicine. I can smell peoples blood. I can see people trying to help other people."

Wow, reading some of the writing from my class have sent shivers down my spine! I am really impressed with how well the students have worked this week on a challenging topic.