The Lakes South Morang College Newsletter CURRICULUM
LESSONS FROM ‘HOW TO BEE’
The 5/6 VIA class have been studying a novel called How to Bee - a dystopian fiction text set in a world where bees have gone extinct and the only way to preserve the food cycle is for children to do the important work of the bees. The students have been exploring themes of environmental stewardship, hierarchy, food insecurity and the importance of bees. To consolidate their learning, students composed a "TED Talk" style presentation about the most important theme in the text, using evidence from the text to support their ideas. Here in 5/6 VIA, we have been reading a dystopian novel called How to Bee by Bren Macdibble. In the book, a young girl by the name of Peony lives on a farm in a world without bees. The extinction of bees has resulted in harmful things happening to the ecosystem, where children must pollinate flowers by hand, and Peony, being a year too young to apply, dreams of one day being a Bee. Peony’s mother did not want her to live in poverty like this, so she launched a misguided plan to “save her” by kidnapping her and making her work as a maid in a mansion for money. Her mother wanted her to have a better life with her aggressive brute of a husband, but this was not the life Peony wanted. She then makes friends with Esmerelda Pasquale, a resident of the mansion, and impresses her parents as well. Peony and Esmerelda make a plan to help her leave the mansion, which graciously succeeds and Peony finally escapes back to the farm, where she can finally live peacefully. - Racim During our “How to Bee” unit we learned a lot of things. One of the main focuses was the themes in texts. Some of the themes we explored in the book included the importance of bees, as well as the impacts of child labour and food scarcity. These were the main ones we discussed in class. We used quotes from the text to dive into the themes in a little more detail. We compared how different characters viewed the world and how the contrast between characters made the themes more obvious. We also looked at the hierarchy in the text and how it impacts different characters. For example, in the text, Peony is happy with her simple life on the farm where she eats the fruit that no one wants, whereas Esmerelda wastes food and eats fancy foods like yoghurt and passionfruit cake. Peony’s education is lessons played over the speakers, and she is happy with it, but Esmerelda goes to a proper school, and she takes it for granted . - Charlotte I n 5/6 VIA we read the novel How To Bee. We each completed a presentation, analysing the key themes in the text. This helped us show our understanding of the book, and the important ideas in it. We used evidence in the text to support our ideas and convince our audience about the main theme. The story is set in the future where bees are extinct, so children must climb trees and pollinate plants by hand in order for food to grow. The main character, Peony, is brave and determined, even when she faces difficult challenges. This book helped us understand how it could impact our world in the future. It also shows how important bees are and how much humans depend on nature. I think How To Bee is a really interesting story because it teaches an important lesson about protecting the environment while still being engaging to read. - - Amani
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