They Came On Ships!

Today Charlie came to school and brought along some pictures of his ancestors and a painting of where they used to live. One of the things that Charlie shared with us was that his ancestors came to New Zealand on ships, 150 years ago.
Miss B: Why did they come on ships?
R: Because their feet were sore.
Eva: because they had no cars and they were poor.
Charlie: Because they wanted to get to New Zealand.
Miss B: How do people get to New Zealand now?
Amelie: Cars
Eva: In planes
Campbell: Maybe in a train.
Thomas: Trains can’t go in water.
Charlie: It was over seas.
Claire: They didn’t feel well.
Charlie: They didn’t feel good on ships, someone died on the ships because they were really, really sick.
Campbell: I spewed up on a boat before.
Hannah: there was only water around to get to New Zealand.
Miss B: so they could only come to New Zealand by water.
Charlie: Because they didn’t have aeroplanes.
Miss B: How did our ancestors move on land?
Lily: Walked
Amelie: Cars
Claire: Pretend Legs.
Hannah: They might have run
Amelie: Sprinted.

We wrote a list of all of the ways we move around now and then wrote a list of how we thought they moved in the past.
Now: car, plane, scooter, rollerblades, taxi, train walk, tram, boat, bike, rollerskates, van, bus, trucks.
Then: Feet, ships.

I then read the children a brilliant book called the Tree by Bob Darroch, where each page shows the tree in another era of New Zealand history. The children