Diary of a Wombat

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Ask students to discuss the story 'The Wombat Diary' in theirgroups, with reference to the class timeline (displayed),and identify Mothball's main motive in life, then describe how he achieves it.

In Diary of a Wombat, the gag doesn’t rely on the accumulation plot, so it’s much more subtle. You can see it in the line, ‘Demanded oats AND carrots’. Oats and carrots have been the important twin desire lines throughout the story and they come together at the end. WHAT DOES THE CHARACTER LEARN? The human family are in opposition to the wombat not because the humans are trying to get rid of her, but because they have different goals which cannot coexist:Continue reading - give students a purpose. i.e. ask students to look for and explain the things that we know, but Mothball doesn’t. single work picture book The Children's Book Council of Australia Annual Awards 2003 2003 single work column

Source: Abstract. y What is an Ebook? What is a Book App? And Why Should We Care? : An Analysis of Contemporary Digital Picture Books Betty Sargeant, Interview with my 4 year old (who won the book by scratching her ear with her toe, just like a wombat)** This is one of my favourite picture books, ever since it first came out, and it's taken me seven years to finally get a copy - but the wait is worth it. The wombat has simple needs and lives in a wombat utopia — a rural human environment with a large supply of carrots growing in the garden, good soil for digging holes and everything else she could possibly want. The wombat’s stand-out feature is that she wants for nothing. But for narrative drive, a story requires that the main character want something.

A day by day account of the activities of ‘Mothball’ the Wombat. Written in diary (recount)format, it introduces children to the days of the week (Monday to Sunday) and times of the day (Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night) as Mothball goes about his wombat business. The daily goings-on of Mothball the wombat are described inbrief, one word sentences, (e.g. slept)with the illustrations providing much of the humour and additional meaning. How doesMothball train his humans to do what he wants them to do? Do humans make good pets? Activity9 - Explicit teaching/Joint Construction (The 'colon' and 'lists') Reviewthe use of punctuation in the story, i.e.capital letters, colons and full-stops. The diary-writing wombat’s life revolves around sleeping (lots of), eating, scratching and digging holes. Then, new neighbours appear – a human family – whom, within a short number of days, are convinced to provide the wombat with repeated gifts of carrots and oats. The book ends with: Activity 7. Guided Reading - read the story a second time. This time pausing at various points to ask questions.

I really like this book and I can see many way that can be incorporated in students learning. The book also has expressive emotions, when the wombat is expressive that he liked carrots. This is promoting good emotional development in children to be expressive of their feelings and behaviour.By the way, comic characters often have insatiable appetites. In a comedy ensemble you’ll usually get one who is obsessed with food. Wombat learns that if she makes a big enough nuisance of herself then the humans will give her exactly what she wants. They will research their pet (animal) andfind out about it's daily activities and habits,(what it likes to do), it's diet (what it eats) and how it lives with humans. Notes: Books and information about domestic animals are available in the classroom for students to use in their research. They can choose whatever pet they like, andmust refer to the criteria sheet when completing their diary writing. (see below) Before you commence - ask the students to look at the pictures to see what Wombats like to do and what they like to eat.