Games from India

• Ask students: Can you identify with the game Evelyn and her friends are playing? Discuss where and when imaginary games are played and what themes children use when playing them. Discuss why Evelyn uses India and hunting as her themes for the imaginary games she plays with the other children.

• Ask students to work individually to find out the connection between the British Empire and India in 1908. They should make four fact cards with the information collected. Some focus questions to help students could include:

1. What was the connection between Australia and the British Empire in 1908?
2. Why was the connection between India and Britain a hot topic in 1908?
3. Why are Australian children discussing British India?

• For more in-depth information, students can conduct research in the school or local library, or online. As a starting point, refer to the websites listed below:

1. Tabblo,'Historians' India (1903 & 1908)', http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/1357839
2. British Medical Journal, 'India in 1908', http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2332116
3. Wikipedia, 'Presidencies and provinces of British India', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_India
4. The fact cards can then be shared and displayed together on the wall or pin board. As a class, review the facts researched and discuss the main points.

Student Activity Sheet H11.1: Fact cards on British India

• Once students have completed their fact cards in Activity 1: Imaginary games, ask them to form small groups of four or five. Each group is to design and construct a board game, such as snakes and ladders, Trivial Pursuit, or Monopoly. Ask students to use the information they researched about the British in India as the basis of the questions. A correct answer will see players advance on the board.
• Additional questions could be added from their research on topics such as tigers, 19th-century Australia, children's games, or the story and characters in this episode of My Place.

Student Activity Sheet H11.2: Create a board game

• Ask students to compare the fashions in the clip with the fashions of children today. For more in-depth information, students can conduct research in the school or local library, or online.

As a starting point, refer to the websites listed below:

1. Wikipedia, '1900s in fashion', http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900s_in_fashion
2. Fashion-Era, 'Children's Costume History 1900 to 1910', http://www.fashion-era.com/Childrens_clothes/1900_1910_girls_costume_pictures.htm
3. The Costume Gallery's Online Library, 'McCall's Magazine: May 1908', http://www.costumegallery.com/McCalls/May_1908/Month.htm

• Students should choose a character from the episode, draw them a costume, name the parts of the costume and describe why they wore this attire. Ask students to design another costume for their chosen character and explain why they have dressed them this way. They could cut out their character as a paper-doll pattern and dress the doll in the new costume using paper tabs. As an alternative, students could use card and magnets to make the designs into paper dolls that they can display on a magnetic surface.

Student Activity Sheet H11.3: Paper-doll costumes

• As a class, discuss why Evelyn could be so obsessed with jungle animals and hunting. Ask students which country Evelyn was imagining she was in. Invite them to think about what might have influenced Evelyn, living in the early 19th century, to be interested in and knowledgeable about India. How do they think children accessed information and entertainment in the time before television, cinema and radio? Discuss the importance of children's books for entertainment and developing the imagination.
• Explain that one very popular author at the time was British colonial author and poet Rudyard Kipling who wrote The Jungle Book (1894), Kim (1901) and other adventure stories set in India. Read examples of some of his stories and poems to the class and discuss their meaning and relevance to children in this era in Australia.

• Use the school or local library and the internet to research Kipling and have students present a brief report explaining who he was and why he was such an influential writer. In 1907 Kipling became the first English language recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, which helps explain his popularity in Evelyn's era. Ask students to find out why Kipling wrote about India. Why do they think stories about India were so popular with young children in the British Empire at that time?
• Another children's book, popular at the time, that begins in India was The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Have students read this book, or read it to the class. The story was written and set in a similar period to this episode and will assist students to discover more about life for children at this time. What is the link to India in this story? Look at how India is represented by the author and then later by the filmmaker in the 1993 film adaptation of the novel.
• Have students use the library and the internet to find out what other children's books were popular in Australia at this time.

Student Activity Sheet E11.1: Children's books in the early 1900s

• As a class, discuss the information Miss Müller gives Evelyn about tigers. What does she say? Do students think tigers can reverse down trees? Have students consider the way Miss Müller gives this information. Do they believe her? Ask students to work in pairs to complete the following sentence on the worksheet, supporting their opinion with evidence from the text.

'We think the filmmaker wants Evelyn and the audience to see Miss Müller as a (reliable/unreliable) ... source of information because ...'

• Encourage students to consider the way Miss Müller is dressed, her demeanour and the prop she is holding (a book). Ask them to discuss and compare responses.
• As a class, discuss the importance of using reliable, authoritative sources when undertaking research. Then set groups the task of researching the question of whether or not tigers are able to reverse down trees.

• Discuss 'Tiger or scaredy-cat?' from the Odd Spot in the Melbourne newspaper, The Age, 24 September 2009. A tiger in a Bristol zoo had climbed to the top of his new five-metre-high platform and couldn't climb down. The zoo keeper thinks the tiger will come down when he is hungry, but can he climb down from the platform? Who is right? The zoo keeper who installed the platform or Miss Müller who says tigers can climb up trees but they can't climb down. Can tigers jump down from a height of five metres? You can access the Odd Spot from The Age website, http://www.theage.com.au/world/oddspot/odd-spot-20090924-g2v9.html
• Ask students to consider the concept of 'spoof' stories. Have them research other spoof stories that have been published in the newspaper or on the internet. A spoof, or parody, must contain elements of reality mixed with the unbelievable. Ask them to create a parody story of their own and identify a day in the year when it is customary to tell such stories.

Student Activity Sheet E11.2: Tiger tales and other strange stories

• As a class examine the clothes worn by the characters Evelyn, Edward and Freddie. Ask students to describe what each is wearing and to discuss why they are wearing these outfits for play. Evaluate the suitability of these garments for playing in and compare them to clothes students wear today. Examine the reasons why fashions change.
• During this process complete a class KWLH chart to record evidence of:

1. What we Know
2. What we Want to know
3. What we Learned
4. How we learned it.

• Locate images of Evelyn, Edward and Freddie in the 'Stills gallery' and download them. Ask the students to paste each one onto a separate sheet of paper. Underneath each image students are to write a description of the character's clothing, as if they were fashion reporters for a newspaper. Ask students to design a new outfit for each character. To begin this task, students should research the fashion styles worn by children of this era. Students should explain how their designs suit the personality of each character.

Student Activity Sheet: E11.3: Fashion designer