Our Fair Inquiry has been completed and we would like to post you some of the work that was involved. The Monster Fair Inquiry integrated Visual Language, Writing, Statistics and Visual Art. 

We have made a movie to show you some of the children’s work. Clips and photographs were taken throughout the unit.

Because of the limited time frame we had, the students were asked to contribute their ideas at the planning stage as to the direction they wanted the unit to go, and indicate how they would utilise their strengths (with regard to Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence) to assist the team meet the proposed outcomes. The children decided on the groups and tasks they would take responsibility for. Some tasks were set for the entire class.

As part of the unit, Room 22 studied different writing styles. The children have written in a number of different writing styles over the term. The first pieces of writing were written by Year 3 children. Instructions for making a poster are provided by Caleb who is also in Year 3. 

Arguments were written after the class had shared recent research stating that a significant proportion of advertising on television targets children and teenagers rather than adults. We discussed the effect of slogans and how advertisements were pitched to children. We would like to share some of this writing with you.

Book Stall Break 

By Nikau

If I go to the Monster Fair I will buy lollies, lollies and more lollies.  First I will have to help mum 

with the stall and then I will buy, of course, lollies. 

This year's Monster Fair is going to be so ghoulish. The haunted house will be so dark and spooky, really quite terrifying with nightmarish creatures. There'll be ghosts flying around the school, zombies walking around and a giant fire-breathing monster with horns, claws and sharp teeth. 

I hope that my class, Room 22, gets our book stall ready on time for the fair. I don't know what I'm going to be dressing up as yet. I might go as Dracula. I really hope everyone turns up. 

The School Monster Fair 

By Lauren 

St Albans School is having a Monster Fair. Room 22 will be selling second hand books at their book stall. It's going to be a really exciting day for me. While the Year 4's have been at camp, the Year 3's have sorted books into boxes. We call that categorizing them. We have one box for girls and one for boys, books for little kids, magazines for adults and of course we have chapter books. 

There are so many books that have been given to us over the past weeks. Our Inquiry is on the book stall. My group is very strong in oral language so we have to inform everyone in the school about the book stall. Some of us are good at art, so we have decided that we should have a colouring competition. Jake our group's leader choose Jake, Willow and me. Mrs Hunter thought that Jake's artwork would be great on one of the posters. I don't know why Jake was so hard on himself while he was drawing his picture because it was great when it was finished. 

At the end of the day, I hope that all of the books at our book stall sell out. If you come to the fair, do have an exciting day just like me. 

Instructions for making a poster

Caleb

If you are going to make a poster there are a few things that you need to know.

You need to follow these steps:

Step 1: Get a piece of paper (A3 is a preferred size)

Step 2: Draw a border (make sure it is related to what you are advertising).

Step 3: Draw a picture (subject related)

Step 4: Write the slogan and information (maximum of 10 -15 words) You don’t want your consumer to get bored half way through reading your advertisement and not realise how good your product is.

Step 5: Colour the background. Be careful about the use of colours (e.g. black on white or hot colours on cold) creates a contrast.

Step 6: Draw smaller pictures if there is room. (optional)

Step 7: Laminate the poster. (optional)

Step 8: Make sure that the consumer thinks the product is something they need and not want. 

Advertisement

R-Jay

We shouldn’t watch advertisements.  The advertisement tells you that the product is strong so you buy it and then it breaks. They say machines can make you strong, but there comes a day when you get weak and fat again because you don’t use the machine.

Yes, some products have cool features that can help you, and you can get some things free, but did you need them? I still think that advertisements are not good to watch. 

Those Adverts!

Jack Haldane

I believe that we should not watch advertisements. Why?  Advertisements are bad for you. If you see an advert and it’s really cool to watch, you push what you have seen to the back of your mind, into long-term memory.

I believe that there should be a TV channel where there are only advertisements. You see, I really believe that we should not watch advertisements. 

**This was a really challenging genre for the children to write in at Year 3 and 4. We post two Year 4 pieces of writing. 

Argument about Advertisements

Hi, I'm Anastasia and I had to learn how to write an argument about advertisements. Well keep reading…

Children Shouldn’t Watch Too Many Advertisements

I think we shouldn’t watch advertisements.

We can get brainwashed and keep trying to convince our parents to buy really expensive products. That will waste their money.

I think that if we listen and look at advertisements we will get so brainwashed that we will keep asking for things that we don’t even need!

Advertisements

Written by James

Do you know that advertisements actually brainwash you? Well they do.

Commercials manipulate you so that you buy their product. In the olden days adverts were targeting adults because children would never stand up for themselves and ask for things. These days, kids always ask for new toys and new games. I believe we shouldn’t watch adverts because the producer and marketers are using us so their item sells.  But then I’ve got to respect the fact that some people might believe in advertisements.

I think they exaggerate too much and they put them all over the internet which is too much for me. I think advertisements on television and the computer are a bad way of marketing. If you hear an advert over 4 times, it gets stuck in your long term memory which means you will keep on thinking about the product and will ask for it all of the time.

Sometimes the product isn’t even quality which isn’t good.  That’s what I think about advertisements.