Eggs for tuppence

• Ask students to research where food from the mid-19th century (Ben and Leck's time) was bought, grown or manufactured. The clip shows the boys collecting eggs from birds' nests in neighbouring bushland.
• As a class, discuss the origins of food we eat today. Ask students to consider how the food they regularly eat is grown, manufactured, bought and packaged.
• Discuss with students how some foods had not been invented in Ben's era or were unavailable in Australia at that time. Draw up a list of foods that existed in both eras, and a list of foods that are available today but were not available in the 1850s.

• Introduce the concept of mapping by showing students maps from the My Place storybook. Ask students to create a map of where Ben and Leck live, including the surrounding area where they go fishing and hunt for eggs. Students should make a comparison map of their own homes and surrounding areas. Ask students to include in these maps the places where their family shops for food. Ask students to investigate whether any of the food they eat is grown or manufactured in their local area, and to include this on their maps. As a class, students can discuss how the two maps compare and where most of their food comes from today.
• Alternatively, students could create a web page looking at what types of food are edible in their local area. Or look at the labels of foods brought from home and identify those with ingredients grown and made in Australia.
• As an extension activity, students could view the following web pages showing the weekly diet of different families from around the world. Ask students to reflect on where these different families source their food. Ask the students to consider why some of these family diets have more in common with the food from Ben's era than with modern Australia.
• The following websites may be useful:

1. Time, 'What the world eats Part 1', http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519,00.html 
2. Time, 'What the world eats Part 2', http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1645016,00.html

Student Activity Sheet H.16.3 Regular boy

• As a class, discuss the different ways they saw Ben and Leck earn money in the clip. Discuss how Ben and Leck earned money in comparison to the way children earn pocket money today.
• As a class, brainstorm a list of focus questions about jobs and money. Teachers can write these focus questions on large sheets of paper and place them around the classroom. Students can use these sheets as a graffiti wall, responding to each question in order to explore their thoughts and feelings on the theme of jobs and pocket money. Students move around the room writing their responses, drawing pictures and recording their thoughts on each sheet of paper.
• The following websites may be useful:

1. Associated Content, '5 House Chores Your Children Can Take Care of for You', http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/296676/5_house_chores_your_children_can_take.html
2. Victorian Nursery 19th Century Children, http://www.angelfire.com/ar3/townevictorian/victoriannursery.html
3. Life in the first half of the 19th century, http://collaborationnation.wikispaces.com/Life+in+the+First+Half+of+the+19th+Century+CJE+09

• Ask students to use a Venn diagram comparing the ways children earned money in the 1850s with how children earn money today. Ask students to describe what is different about some of the jobs and what is similar.
• Divide the class into two groups to debate the topic 'Kids of today have it too easy - they should work harder for their pocket money'.

Student Activity Sheet H.16.4: Jobs and pocket money

• As a class, watch the clip, Eggs for tuppence, and list each of the characters that are included in this part of the story.
• Create a word wall filled with words and phrases from the clip that are not often heard today. For example, Joss House, tuppence, threepence, shilling and plover.
• As a class, examine the first part of the clip carefully and ask students to describe what each person seated at or near the table is doing. For example, Ben is counting his money, his mother is sewing and his father is asleep in a chair. Describe the house as well, noticing in particular any examples of simple or complex technology, such as the candle for light, a lantern, iron frypans and pottery containers. Encourage use of rich descriptive vocabulary, for example, carefully counting his money; rustic table and chairs. Add these phrases to the word wall.
• Discuss what the audience learns about the currency used in 1858 by watching this clip. Ask students to note down all the information they can about money, and any messages the clip conveys about it, such as how precious it is. Look closely for clues in the dialogue and action, such as Ben hiding his money from his father. Have students research the currency of the 1850s using the internet and reference books in the library. They could name the coins used in the scene, and find out their value today using currency converters on the internet.

• Ask students to think about and to suggest how the lives of these people might be similar to or different from their own lives. The following questions can help to guide the discussion:

1. Why might the family have a candle burning?
2. Do you think the family is wealthy? Use evidence from the clip to explain your ideas. 
3. What might be some reasons why the father is sleeping? 
4. What type of money is Ben counting? What does it tell you about when the film is set?
5. Why do you think Ben might be working to earn money? 
6. Why do you think young children are not allowed to work today?
7. Why do you think Ben's mother might have warned Ben not to let his father see his money?

• Have each student use Student Activity Sheet E16.3 Character relationships to write three sentences describing relationships in the clip. Students might explore various relationships, for example, between Ben and his father, Ben and his mother, Ben's parents, Ben and Leck, the children and their customers. Ask each student to read their sentences to the class, providing an example from the clip to support the ideas contained in their sentences.
• Place the students in groups of three. Ask each group to select three characters from the clip, and then have them improvise a short role-play that demonstrates the chores they think each character would do. Have students focus on the roles of different genders, and on the relationships between the characters.

Student Activity Sheet E16.3: Character relationships

• Introduce students to the concept of social class. Have them research and discuss factors that contributed to the divisions of society during the 1850s, looking at the backgrounds of the people who flocked to the goldfields: Europeans, Americans, Chinese, South Americans, etc. Play the clip, Eggs for tuppence, and examine how language and gestures help identify the divisions in social class between the characters. As a class, devise a pyramid of social divisions that would have been prevalent in the 1850s on the goldfields. List the different nationalities and place them within the divisions of the triangle. Discuss how these social divisions would have come about and/or been made.
• As a class, discuss the concept of 'stereotypes'. Provide examples for students to consider, for example, witches and ogres in fairytales are generally considered evil or 'bad', while princes and princesses are kind and 'good'. Explain that stereotypes are generalisations that often offer a judgement on the character and actions of a person that is not always a fair or accurate depiction of them. Ask students to list characteristics of a 'good' stereotype and characteristics of a 'bad' stereotype.
• Discuss with students reasons why stereotypes are used in books and films, explaining how they can quickly convey an idea to an audience. Point out that authors and filmmakers can use stereotypes to lead people to form a positive or a negative impression about a person or a group. Play the clip asking each student to use Student Activity Sheet E16.3 It's not fair to identify stereotypes that are evident, and associated generalisations, for example, Ben's mother is sewing, depicting the role of women at this time and the traditional clothing worn by Leck identifies him as Chinese.
• Ben has trouble selling his eggs because many people are loyal to Leck. Conduct a class vote to find out how many students think it was wrong for Ben to try to take away Leck's business. Invite each student to put on an imaginary pair of Leck's shoes to help them consider how Leck might have felt when he had to compete with Ben to earn money. Have students share thoughts and feelings about Ben's actions, then ask each student to create and display a mind map exploring other ways Ben might earn money, rather than impacting on Leck's business.

• Following Ben's comment that the cat was lucky to get out alive, Ben's father chastises him, telling him not to talk like that. He says, 'This world will never be a decent place until all men learn to get along like brothers' Discuss what Ben's father's words imply about his point of view in relation to racism. Contrast this with what his words reveal about the place of women in society at this time.
• Leck is a significant character in this episode providing an opportunity to discuss reasons why Chinese people came to Australia at different times. Discuss reasons why Leck's family might have come to live in Australia? Ask students to conduct research on the internet or using reference books in the library to find out when and why Chinese people came to Australia. Students could develop a timeline of Chinese migration to Australia. The timeline should include dates, images and reasons for Chinese people coming to Australia.

Student Activity Sheet E16.4: Stereotypes