Where the Forest Meets the Sea: 1

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We leave wowed by this ancient, beautiful meeting place of forest and sea, and hope it remains protected until we return. This has always been one of my favourite illustrated childrens books. Jeannie Baker's collages of the ancient Daintree rain forest and tropical waters are vivid, as is the environmental message that her books convey. Cape Trib Horse Rides offers the only beach ride in the area. Riding through forest, along riverbeds and to the sea gives us two hours of total tranquillity. Steve, the guide – in his Akubra, sleeveless denim shirt and Blundstones – is a dead ringer for Crocodile Dundee, but less of a risk-taker. “They call it the Therapy Ride,” he says as he sweeps his tanned arm in the direction of Myall Beach. “All your troubles disappear in a place like this.”

Once students have finished their worksheets, display them around the room. Students are to conduct a gallery walk and, as a class, discuss the question: ‘What is something you found interesting, surprising, common, etc. about everybody’s think boards?’ What really appeals to me about this book are the illustrations which are collages constructed from different materials including modelling clay, papers, natural materials and paints. The illustrator, Jeannie Baker, made two trips to the Daintree forest to research and collect the materials. Each time I read the book, I find new images and shadows hidden in the rich, textured illustrations and I feel the urge to reach out and touch them. Present students with a statement along the lines of: ‘The Daintree Rainforest is a good topic for a children’s book.’ Around the room place four signs that say ‘strongly agree’, ‘strongly disagree’, ‘agree’ and ‘disagree’. Have students stand next to the sign that reflects their opinions most strongly. We walk with him among the ancient trees as he pretends it is a time long ago, when animals that are now extinct or rare lived in the forest and aboriginal children played there. But for how much longer will the forest still be there, he wonders?

Using a variety of non-fiction texts, brochures (collected prior to the start of this unit) and the Internet, direct students to research the Daintree Rainforest in groups of three. Each group will have their own graffiti board to record interesting facts, post pictures and pose questions that arise during their research. Interacting with others – Listen to and respond orally to texts and to the communication of others (ACELY1646) It is here to we discover the exact location from which Jeannie Baker drew her inspiration. Oliver Creek is accessed by one of Cape Tribulation’s three boardwalks – Marrja, Kulki and Dubuji – each designed to allow tourists to explore the area without damaging the precious ecosystems and all manageable for children.

Through a short oral presentation, students should demonstrate an understanding of the features of the different environments, and how the characters interact with it. Collect some of the natural materials found in the text, and then perhaps classify the materials for a science lesson, and then proceed to makeindividual collages for an art class. I would recommend this book for kids from EYFS stage to year 2. There is lots of scope for discussion around this book, for example, talking about the things which the boy encounters, comparing and contrasting the boys environment to places your pupils have been, trying to find things hidden in the illustrations and considering what it would be like if the trees were cut down and replaced with buildings. Group discussion – Students talk about text and make text-to-self and text-to-world connections [evaluating and understanding] The boy in Where the Forest Meets the Sea imagines all kinds of things through the trunks of the trees and leaves of the forest. Children imagine what they might have seen before writing their own story.In this story, Jeannie Baker shows us how things change, but through the eyes of a Australian young boy. This story is based in North Queensland, Australia and we walk through a lovely, tropical rainforest with this young boy and his father- as he pretends to walk through time, past, present and future. We go from seeing extinct and pre-historic animals, to seeing the furture vast developments of green-land becoming industrialised. As we look into the future aprehenisions for the forest, we (along with the boy) are faced with the question: How much longer will this forest be here? Hopefully it's her idea & not pinched from someone. (I'm always nervous of high profile people who fed on their peers' ideas, energy, and support it's my forever disclaimer. And honestly, if I found out they were the vampire type of people, I'd erase their work from my mind).

Ask students if they have read a Jeannie Baker book before. If so, does that experience help them predict anything about this book? So yes, while I have generally rather enjoyed (and most definitely academically appreciated) Jeannie Baker’s Where the Forest Meets the Sea and have on an entirely aesthetic and visual level absolutely cherished the detailed and intricate collage like illustrations, in my opinion, Where the Forest Meets the Sea would probably if not even actually work much better as a wordless offering, namely because Baker's artwork is just so much more detailed and intricate than her rather sparse and in my opinion quite majorly unimaginative text (which I also tend to think rather does limit the pictures as a whole, since the fact remains that without the author/illustrator's limited and limiting narrative, there would in my opinion be much more scope for the imagination, for independent storytelling, as well as discussions concerning Australia's rainforests, their grandeur, but also the modern, mostly man-made threats they are currently facing and experiencing).

http://www.australiancurriculumlessons.com.au/2014/07/27/forest-meets-sea-inferential-comprehension-lesson-plan-f12/ After crossing the river by car ferry, we meander up the winding highway to Cape Tribulation. The teenager has a slight breakdown when he realises there’s no telephone service in the area and even the people who live in town can’t use mobiles. Students should demonstrate an understanding of each character’s relationship to place and how it has different meaning for different characters over the passage of time. They should also show an awareness of the themes that the author is trying to portray in the book.