Y2 Landforms and Climate: Rain School by Peter Rumsford

As the first quarter of school comes to a close, the Y2s are finishing off landforms, and able to connect them to climate and lives.  

For this final week, I chose the book, Rain School by James Rumford.  The story takes place in Chad where students have to first build their school before they can begin their lessons.  The dichotomy of a dry, hot climate in the plains of Central Africa with the torrential rains of the wet season prove to be a challenge, but the children use the few materials that nature provides them - grass, saplings and mud - to construct a school. However, due to the extreme weathers, the school only lasts one school year.  

After we read the story, I ask students the following:

• Describe the land and weather in the story
• What learner profiles do you see in the story?
• What’s happening in the story?
• What’s happening to the character?  How do they change?
• What is the problem and how do they solve it?

Here are the answers of two classes. In some cases, they discussed first with each other, then shared as a group, and others we discussed as a class. Although I did guide students with prompts and stem phrases, the thoughts here are very much their own.