Aboriginal Bush Tucker Corrorboree

A big thanks to all of the marvelous people who helped students finish their reports and provided jpg files. The children were thrilled to receive letters from PhD's around the globe. As each letter arrived, their eyes got wider. This is truly harnessing the power of the Internet in education!

Tomorrow is our big day and our web pages are nearly ready. I have done as much as possible with the students on the Web pages. They will showing their reports to their teachers and the principal plus the visitors I have invited.

So enter the dreamtime, imagine a campfire on a starry night with John Fox, Dan Buettner, all the quest team (and hopefully no snakes), and an Aboriginal guide to weave the tales and help the magic unfold.

You may not be able to be here tomorrow in person, but I am sure the children will sense it is a community of effort that helped these pages unfold.

As John Fox says,

Diggin' It,

Cheryl Vitali

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The Day of the Aboriginal Bush Tucker Corrorboree

Filling in the sky with pastels	Our Aboriginal Bush Tucker Corrorboree day had finally arrived. Student spent part of the day doing original illustrations using a variety of resources and materials. These pictures will go up in the room, and eventually will be the back covers of their Australia Quest Binders.	This student below added in a thorny devil (using the Encylopedia of Australian Wildlife).
The students all chose to do pictures that were different than their reports. They used a variety of books, magazines and photographs for inspiration and ideas. To complete the pictures pencils, pens, markers, colored pencils, and pastels were all used. Final pictures were set with hair spray and will be laminated.	From book...
to paper...	The students enjoyed this thoroughly. I keep special art supplies on hand for final pictures for special projects. Few of the children have such resources at home and this is very fun for them. It is easy to see the care they take using these materials and the quality of work it helps to inspire.	The students used a variety of materials, investing in art supplies pays off (and these weren't that expensive).
The room was also decorated as much as possible. We didn't hold the corrorboree outside, because we wanted to be able to use the computers to show highlights to our guests. So a fire was built in the room and the fan helped make it sound and look like a real fire. It was convincing as Mrs. Warren attempts to warm up her hands after yard duty!		Mrs. Vitali and Mrs. Warren decided to rest before the party and while they did Lizzy attempted to steal the emu egg!
The akubra came in handy to rescue the egg!	A koala and penguin have joined the classroom. Adding a koala is obvious. Students have also found out that endangered fairy penguins nest near Sydney Australia near the Manly Quarantine Station. Students last year wrote a letter to help protect these animals and their habitat.   Visit the Manly Station Web site.	The travel buddies and friends watch over the food. The fruit in the bowl is pineapple guavas from Mrs. Vitali's yard.
Mrs. Warren and Lizzy have become quite comfortable with each other. Lizzy reminds Mrs. Warren of the iguana she used to have as a pet.	Syd and Mrs. Vitali	It may seem hard to believe, but the students also do a lot of serious work! Please be sure to check out their student reports and some of the other links from our unit of exploration. The Corrorboree was actually held during most students' lunch recess. The fact that at least 40-50 students chose to visit and participate speaks for itself!
This loaf of damper fed nearly everyone and many took 3 or more servings. It was amazing.	Several people helped prepare a variety of food. The menu included damper (an Australian bread), yams (baked very simply like a root might be in a campfire), pine nuts (served raw), pineapple guavas (an unusual fruit to represent a fruit they may have never seen), emu jerky, chicken wings, jimaca, and marinated baby octopus. (Most students actually braved a taste of octopus and some really liked it.)	Why such unusual foods? The children loved hearing the Quest Team's reactions to eating unusual foods in the Outback. So the idea was to make as many foods as possible a new experience and similar to foods they might have in the Outback
Lizzy was the life of the party. Children loved to play with her.	A delightful time was had by all. During the Corrorboree students shared their reports with visitors and showed favorite Daily Movies and clips from Australia Quest. It was a wonderful way to celebrate our fascinating unit from "Down Under" that began with the Summer Olympics and then journeyed with the Quest team through the Outback of Australia and the depths of the Great Barrier Reef.	From 40-50 people were fed from the food provided and most took seconds and thirds. Children did eat lunch first, but it was still surprising how much they liked the new foods and how far they went.

G'day Mates,

The fire is out, the food is tucked away, and frankly I am bushed after our bush party today. I took photos (digital and otherwise) and a little video.

One student was truly enchanted with the campfire. We kept the flames going with a fan so they actually moved and made noise. She stayed right by it the entire time. When the younger children got a little lively I turned off the lights, had them get up close to the fire, and pretend they really were out in the Outback. When one crawled off, I warned about the snakes. My feet do not show well in the photos, I wore heavy hiking boots I have had for 30 years on my feet today. I was taking no chances about running into mulgas today!

A good time was had by all and the children were braver about some of the foods than the adults. One child ate four helpings of baby octopus! And they loved the pineapple guavas (which didn't surprise me).

I am not quite sure how many were at the gathering, because some ate without plates (I had toothpicks as well and much was finger food). I had all my students attend (K-5) and I invited Mr. Ware's class. I invited several teachers but what I wound up with was many students from the fourth and fifth grade classrooms which I really liked. They enjoyed it and sat and ate and viewed parts of the quest or the student reports. The students didn't know their peers were coming so they got a little shy about the idea of sharing their reports, but it all worked out just fine.

I think the lizard stole the show. Eventually one student got carried away enough I decided to treat it the way a real iguana would like to be treated and put it on a high shelf at the end of the festivities.

All told I would estimate close to 50 people came. I didn't think to have them sign in as guests. It would have been fun to have known how many were there. I wasn't expecting all the guests I did have. The one damper almost seemed like a loaf from the Bible, it kept going and going and we didn't even finish two of them. And that was surprising because nearly everyone had damper, many had more than one piece, and the pieces were not small. I had food left over, and at first I didn't think I would have enough (and the children ate quite a bit and very little was tossed in the trash). The octopus didn't run out, only a few people ate more than a small sampling of it even though it is something my family really likes. Andrew said it was like chewing a rubber band!

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Afterthought:

Fact, Fantasy, or Just Fantastic?

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We have no logical explanation for these events last Friday, but over the last two days we have read the story "The Miraculous Pitcher" by Nathanial Hawthorne which is a telling of a Greek legend (Baucis and Philemon) where the pitcher of milk did not run dry and a wonderful meal was produced from a meager supply. I mentioned how the damper seemed to keep going and going, but that was not all.

I polled 9 people in the room on how many pieces of chicken they ate. I then underestimated the numbers they gave by at least 10 pieces. We came up with 40 pieces eaten by those people alone. Then I went and asked Mr. Ware how many pieces he prepared. He said he thought about 40 pieces all told. The numbers just don't add up. After the party was over I prepared 5 plates of food for adults that were not able to come. All had a piece of chicken. I took 5 more home with me. Mrs. Klein ate leftover damper on the weekend and my family enjoyed leftovers on two different days. I didn't even think there was enough for the first wave of people when I saw how much they enjoyed the food. Maybe everyone ate far less than they thought, I really don't know the answer at all.

So what really happened on Friday? We will never really know but I like to think this quote from "The Miraculous Pitcher" explains it, 'An honest hearty welcome to a guest works miracles with any meal.'

What do you think?

Comments: e-mail, KCUSD@gsn.org
Cheryl Vitali: Project Designer & Coordinator
Copyright © Alta Elementary School All Rights Reserved
Updated 11/21/00

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