This term Kereru has worked very hard to create a model of a 1940's British evacuee village during WWII inspired from a novel we were reading in class called Vinnie's War by David McRobbie.

The class began drawing up plans for this many weeks ago and were already very excited at the plans they had made in the early stages. We had many clues from the novel that told us the village we were making had buildings like a church, courthouse, a primary school. But many of the other choices we ended up making we left to using our imaginations and research of villages at the time.

Once we began making it, the children would come in with joy every morning to see the progress and would end up working on the model before school and even during their own morning tea and lunch. They had so many creative ideas, bringing in many resources from home such as toy animals, tanks, cotton balls that became our trees, bamboo skewers that became our railroad. 

From start to finish it took us three weeks to make. We made mistakes almost every day with making our items either too big or too small. This was well and truly student led and a great example of collaboration - often spending many afternoons where the class would inspire each other to make many creative things such as mini bicycles or a mail box outside the post office. 

Once it was finished  we were able to share our model during the Matariki celebration at school. One of our students also had the idea of sharing all of our learning with the author of the book. So we did. Thankfully he got back to us very quickly with the following email:

• Dear Matt Hooper, and girls and boys of Kereru Class,
  Rosie Scanlan, the publicity coordinator at Allen & Unwin has passed on your e-mail which I have enjoyed reading. So many thanks to all of you for sending images of the material you produced as inspired by Vinnie’s War. It’s obvious you’ve had a lot of fun bringing the village and the characters to life in your models and in your newsletter.
  I always enjoy it when young people take the time to write saying what they think of one of my stories, or perhaps they show me work they have done. This is always one of the best parts of being a writer. So thank you all for the work you have done and for sharing it with us here in Australia.
  Well, girls and boys and Matt Hooper, you have certainly brightened my morning with your excellent words, models and images.
  With my thanks and very best wishes,
  David McRobbie

Click the links below to see our videos of how we made it and the meaning behind some of the parts of the village told by the class.

The making of Netterfold 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h3z-umBKbLqlPollXfc9pY2s-EX3c9xT/view?usp=sharing

Netterfold Village Explained
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bq2LYAsVIjIwpuhdnRZdHk2xCYJxuzdI/view?usp=sharing

Matt Hooper

Kereru Class Teacher