This term, the Year 6 students have been working on a Film Review Unit as part of the English program.

We have been busy reviewing and analysing a variety of short films. The students have composed paragraphs in regards to the genre, main characters, plot, themes and messages and have given a star rating out of five.

The students are learning to analyse the text structures and language features of films. They are investigating the filmmaker’s purpose, theme, plot and intended message. Characters are studied to look at the role they play within the storyline. The focus is on the explicit teaching of a variety of sentence types, paragraphing and sentence beginnings to engage the reader. Throughout the year, the girls have studied many text types including books and this Unit gives them the opportunity to study multi-modal presentations.

Please enjoy some examples of the girls’ work below.

This film starts with an inventive girl who is trying to make an aeroplane. She tries to make the plane fly, but doesn’t succeed. She sits down looking disappointed and is heartbroken. When she is about to completely give up, a strange, tiny bag falls out of the air. She goes to pick up the bag but suddenly is interrupted by a mini plane flying past her head. It crashes into a tree breaking the ship. The girl is shocked and very surprised. To make this even crazier for a human, a tiny boy comes out of the plane looking very frightened. He tries to attack and defend himself but the size difference is a setback for the little boy. The girl and boy form a friendship and try really hard to remake his plane and get it back soaring in the sky.
Claudia Driver

A girl is disheartened to find that her plane is useless. She sits down and starts to sob when a mysterious purse drops onto her head. Shortly after, a baffling contraption crashes onto the table and she is surprised to find an elf-like creature climb out from it. It suddenly breaks and the elf looks up to the many other miniature flying machines above. The tiny elf is terrified, but soon is comforted when the girl offers to help.
Fleur Angenent and Zhiyi (Eva) Mao

Dustin the pug lives a happy and loved life with his owner. His owner brings back an automatic vacuum, which eats Dustin’s food that gets dropped on the floor. Dustin has to adjust to his new companion as he slowly gets pushed aside. When a storm hits and lightning strikes the vacuum pushes it to another level. When the battery slowly runs out Dustin has to make a decision – charge it again or leave it to die.
Clara Calvert