The desert safari was a place of self-discovery (not to forget sand-boarding). Spread across two separate overnight trips, for many Year 5 children, it was their first experience of time away from family. After travelling across the dunes and arriving at camp, we were quickly involved in plenty of fantastic activities, ranging from camel riding to volley ball, tug of war to sketching. Finally, we put up our tents, before nightfall. After a feast fit for a king the X-Factor judges arrived to help us flex and stretch our various talents in front of an appreciative audience (Simon Cowell notwithstanding).
The big mission was to survive the night and by lights out people were snuggled up in tents ready to sleep for a week. The mysterious night sounds, as wild life shuffled around our flimsy shelters, only added to the atmosphere! Wow, how cold and wet is the desert in the early morning? Once the extra layers were on we were whisked off to search the surrounding camp for tracks- scorpions, hares, wild cats, Mrs Tarrant-Taylor…Thank goodness for breakfast and to top it all the Falconry Show. Once we were back in school we had many stories to tell and our parents were the perfect audience.
The Year 5 ‘Survivor’ Assembly was interesting, informative and hilarious. Each class performed a chapter from the popular novel Kensuke’s Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo. The children put together the songs and dances with minimal input from the teachers.
The first class to perform was 5 Orange, who performed a funny, yet informative chapter of Kensuke’s Kingdom which demonstrated how important it is to have a balanced diet . After that was the Storm Dance, where an accurate impression of a storm took place. Next was 5 Green, who performed a re-mix of ‘I Will Survive’ which was breath-taking, followed by a PowerPoint presentation about our Year 5 Desert Safari experience. 5 Blue followed by teaching the audience different ways of surviving on a deserted island and concluded with the crowd pleasing performance of Kung-Fu Fighting. Suddenly the pirates in 5 Red invaded the stage, which was quite dramatic and lead to a battle between the pirates, Kensuke and the Orang-utans. Last but not least, 5 Yellow concluded the assembly with Michael returning home to his parents and a superb ukulele performance that no one could forget!
For the grand finale, all of Year 5 performed ‘Eye of the Tiger’ with passion and enthusiasm, scaring the audience with their realistic ‘tiger’ facial expressions.
Quotes from parents:
“The children’s voices projected loudly and clearly.” Lana Manna
“The best school play I have ever seen, very informative, interesting, great costumes and acting.” Russ Fuller.
Written by Basil Manna in 5 Green
The Year Five DESS pupils stepped back in time in January 2012 to far back in the ancient Aztec times. The whole of Year Five, even the teachers, came to school in beautiful costumes with colourful feathers and unique headdresses.
All of us (Aztecs) started this glorious day with a sacrifice and a parade in the central playground, we all enjoyed it very much, especially the priests, Mr. Jamin and Mr. Willis. Then following the sacrifice our DESS Aztecs returned to their magnificent museums. We all thank the teachers for planning this spectacular day and we can’t wait for more like this!
Deah Dhaliwal Five Red
Kensuke's Kingdom
The following is a link to the book, Kensuke's Kingdom. It is in ePub format which means you can read it on most tablet computers (including the iPad). If you are using a Windows PC or some other palm device then we recommend that you use the (free) mobipocket reader from here.
When you have installed the Mobipocket reader then download and import the Kensuke's Kingdom eBook to your computer.
ePub version of Kensuke's Kingdom [Right click and choose Save link as...]
