Picture Book Curriculum – Issue 4: The Arrival by Shaun Tan

 

Visiting Salt’s Mill in Saltaire, near Bradford, is one of life’s great pleasures. A Victorian mill transformed into the most spacious, atmospheric and beautiful book shop you can imagine. Yes, there’s also products for the home, restaurants, an antique shop and many works of art by Bradford’s own David Hockney displayed, but it has always been the bookshop that has held a special place in my heart.

Why?

Well, on the third floor, there is one table there, a regular circular table which is the first piece of furniture you reach. Every time I visit this table has the most incredible books on display; books that anyone (apart from @smithsmm probably!) may never have seen.

About twelve years ago when I ventured excitedly towards ‘that table’ I came across ‘The Arrival’ by Shaun Tan. I was a consultant at the time who encouraged the use of picture books as an incredible tool for learning, so I knew of his work on ‘The Viewer’, ‘The Rabbits’ and the wonderful ‘The Lost Thing’, but this was a new one on me. I think many of you have had that same feeling as you have discovered the book in the years since its publication. I could not put it down. I could not believe the amount of time, Tan must have put into this book. This book was special.

At the earliest opportunity I shared ‘The Arrival’ with colleagues and then to teachers in Lincolnshire and I’d like to think I did my bit to promote this visual treasure. I emailed Shaun Tan at the time to express how incredible I thought this work of art was and to say we were now using it in schools because the opportunities were endless. His reply is still attached to a print I own from ‘The Arrival’. I remember asking him whether there had been interest from any film companies at the time and he said that there had been many, particularly from the UK.  Amongst the many teachers who were using the book in 2007/8 was @SarahLouP. Through the source material and her exceptional teaching the children produced writing of such quality.  On my (very hopeful) request, Tan sent a thank you card to them for using ‘The Arrival’ with an original piece of artwork on it.

It has been wonderful to see how ‘The Arrival’ has taken off in this country over the last decade or so and it remains not only my favourite book but my favourite one to use in school and is a huge part of our Year 6 curriculum at BcL.

In the English section, I have organised the ideas into the chapters of the book and created a name for each one to help. Thank you again for reading #PictureBookCurriculum – I hope you find the ideas useful. This is very much the tip of the iceberg.

ENGLISH:

Chapter 1: Departure

• Mystery Cards: give the children each individual image one at a time from the start of the book (below). Ask them to develop a storyline from each image and build a plot. It’s interesting to see how often the Titanic plays a part! Obviously it’s imperative the children do not know the story at this point.
  
• If you were a migrant moving to a new land, what would you put in your suitcase?
• Wrap a personal photo in brown parcel wrap. Write about it’s meaning to you.
• Collect metaphors for the threat (the creature’s tail) that appears to be hanging over the town.
• Drama: recreate the still images using sepia photography. Alternatively, make them come to life through scripting a scene, like the one around the dining table or at the train station.
• Compare and contrast the table scene at the beginning of the story with the one at the end. How have emotions changed? What has stayed the same?

Chapter 2: The Arrival 

• The journey on the ship is mainly kept from us. Recount the journey on the boat and the people he may have met. Alternatively, write as another person on the ship who is observing our traveller.
• Drama: Interview the migrant coming into the country. What would you ask? What would you want to know? As the migrant, what would  you want to ask? 
• Describe the bustling town scene using your senses and #DetailDetectives strategies (beehive/story-line/jig-saw) @DetailDetects1
• Describe the traveller’s guest house room. How is it different from his home?
• Ask the children to only communicate using drawings as our migrant has to do initially to help people understand.
• Inspired by the scene in which he opens the suitcase and remembers his family, write emotively about that moment. If he could hear the voices of his family from the suitcase, what would they be saying to him.
• There is a hidden letter in the suitcase from his daughter/wife. What does it say?
• Recount his journey so far as he looks into the suitcase and the emotions he has experienced.
• Present a vlog of the first day in the new home. (create a contrasting one later in the story as he settles down)

Chapter 3: Discovering 

• Write a non-chronological report about a creature which lives in this land or create your own.
• Explore the use of ‘a story within a story’ as seen when our traveller meets numerous people from this new land
• Explore dialogue between characters to develop the punctuation of speech.
• Write the narrative for the girl’s story as she recounts her life in child labour
  
• Describe ‘the land of the giants’ (above) and the subsequent escape.
• Present the above as a news item to camera

Chapter 4: Hope

• Recount the old man’s recollections of war and the reason why he had to find a new home
• Write a job application for one of the positions shown.

Chapter 5: The Arrivals

• Write a poem showing how time passes (the life cycle of the flower)
• Write a letter home sharing his quest for employment and make the letter into an origami bird.
• Compare the departure to the families arrival in Chapter 5.
• How does the girl feel when she finally arrives in the new land? Write a diary of the first days in the new land.

MATHEMATICS: 

As always, if it’s tenuous don’t do it, but there are opportunities to explore the use of 2D and 3D shapes to create landscapes. Our migrant also plays a game later in the book using shapes. The children could create their own point-scoring game using shape. Any story involving a different currency opens up the opportunity of comparing values.

HISTORY: 

• Make comparisons between the girl’s experience in child labour/slavery and those in the past, e.g. Harriet Tubman (The Underground Railroad) and Victorian workhouses.
• Research Tan’s inspiration for the boy with the placard.
• Explore migration and the reasons for it.
• Research boat journeys made by migrants both historically and in present times.

GEOGRAPHY:

• Research great historical boat journeys discovering ‘new’ worlds.
• Map reading: explore the symbols used on ordinance survey maps and use maps of other countries to show how symbols help travellers who speak different languages (these can be found cheaply in many charity shops).
• Explore maps from other countries to find key rivers, mountains, cities and landmarks.
• Create a map of the new land our traveller has migrated to. Use references from the book to help.
• Our traveller experiences many new foods; taste a range of exotic foods and locate the country/climate they are grown in.

ART:

• Shaun Tan uses clay to visual his ideas. Create a creature that would live in the new land from clay.
• Recreate the end pages of the book using sepia/pencil portraits from the class.
• Origami: explore making a range of different birds/creatures
• Cloud Art: investigate the different cloud formations as our traveller observes on his journey. Create a piece of art showing these changes.
• Shaun Tan takes everyday objects and shapes and imagines them at a different scale, which is how his buildings are often formed. Take an everyday object and design a building from it.
• Hands play such an important part in the ‘The Arrival’. Create hand-inspired artwork to show love, friendship and hope. (RE links)
• Paint the same flower through four seasons
• Recreate the soldier’s footsteps through different terrain using photography.
• Explore the links between Nevinson’s ‘Paths of Glory’, war photographs by Frank Hurley and ‘Parade to War’ by John Steuart Curry with the war scenes in Chapter 4 (Thank you @MissSMerrill for these ideas)

• Retell an extract of the story using photography with children taking on the roles.

PSHE: 

• Explore the feelings of loss/sadness when someone departs
• Wrap a picture/present for a loved one
• Which origami animal would you make to send back with a message to your family?
• Look at a range of different picture books which explore migration.
• Write a letter of acceptance to a friend expressing the qualities you recognise in them.

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY:

• Design a mode of transport which could at home in the new land.
• Create a 3D model, using a range of construction  techniques, of the families home town, complete with the metaphorical threat.
• Follow recipes which include a range of exotic foods, e.g. an exotic fruit salad. Why not invite parents along to taste?
• Design and make a musical instrument to fit into the scene in Chapter 3.

COMPUTING/IT: 

• Create a soundscape to a selected extract, e.g. the land of the giants image.
• Produce news items for significant extracts from the story, e.g. the recollections of the citizens
• Use green screen to recount key emotive moments in the story.
• Create an animation of an origami creature moving

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: 

• The bird could be seen as a symbol of hope throughout the book. Investigate whether there are other stories from religions which explore this idea.
• Design a giant gateway to a city (like the one shown in Chapter 2) which expresses a hand of friendship, hope and togetherness. Other values could be used.

• A key theme of the story is ‘new beginnings’- how could this be linked to religious stories?
• How do the family put their trust in him?
• Which values do you feel are represented in ‘The Arrival’? Express why.
• At which points of the story are certain values expressed by those he meets?

VALUES: 

• Hope
• Friendship
• Courage
• Compassion
• Trust
• Peace

HOOKS:

• Suitcase including a wrapped photo frame
• Each child is given an origami bird with a message inside
• Recreation of the dining table at the start of the story
• Clay models of creatures

I do think that if I sat down again to create ideas for how ‘The Arrival’ could be used across the curriculum many different thoughts would come to mind and I may follow this up in the future with part 2! However, whether you use the book in school at the moment or plan to do so in the future, I hope you find the blog useful.

And Shaun Tan, thank you.

Karl Duke

MrD:HT

@KarlDuke8

@DetailDetects1