Nursery rhyme persuasive writing... I DOES IT

so I do a persuasive writing ayup
POSTPOSTPOST - here ya go XDD :D

Everyday thousands of them are read around the globe to children everywhere, but what are we really reading? That’s right I’m talking about nursery rhymes. Have you ever wondered about what these poems we recite so much off by heart actually mean? Did you know that most nursery rhymes originate from historical events such as black plague, slavery, death and injury? Three blind mice being chased by the the farmers wife who wields a carving knife, silver bells and cockle shells in Mary’s garden, a ring of rosies and a pocket full of posies.

These seem to be silly nonsensical verses which are fun and appeal to children but the truth is that many nursery rhymes have a dark side. I’m strongly opposed to nursery rhymes being told to children. What messages are being sent to our kids and siblings? 

Here are some of our favourite classic nursery rhymes and the darker meaning behind them, take “Ring around the Rosie’” for example. 

“Ring-a-ring-a-roses

A pocket full of posies,

Ashes! Ashes!

We all fall down.”

This is supposedly referring to the Great Plague of London in 1665. The rash you would get (“roses”), herbs and spices to “purify” the air (“posies”), and finally sneezing and dying (“we all fall down”). This rhyme is also said to be sang by children during the European Black Death of 1347. The “ring” referring to the red spot that you would have if you had the disease. This ranks 9th place on the “Top ten Nursery Rhymes” national Booktrust list in the UK which surveyed around 2,500 people to find out the nations favourite nursery rhymes.

Another one of our favourite poems gone horribly wrong, “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary” about a little girl who tends to her flower garden decorating it with beautiful silver bells and sea shells? Sounds nice doesn’t it?

 But sadly the Mary in this story actually refers to Mary Tudor (Mary I of England) also known as Bloody Mary. Mary was a Catholic and known to have killed many Protestants. England at the time was divided by the two religions.

“Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells and pretty maids all in a row”

It’s been said that the garden refers to the growing cemeteries as she kills Protestants. Silver bells and cockle shells were instruments of torture and “pretty maids” were devices used to behead people, just a coincidence perhaps?

 She was also said to have inspired the “Three Blind Mice” rhyme about three Protestant bishops that plotted against her. When she discovered this she had them tortured and killed. The bishops were portrayed as the mice in the poem blinded by Mary’s weapons of torture. Luckily these gruesome tales don’t have a rankings on the most popular nursery rhymes list. 

How about this.. ever listen to the words of the poem, “Clementine”? This poem is downright sinister even without a hidden meaning.

“Oh my darling, oh my darling,

Oh my darling Clementine,

Thou art lost and gone forever,

Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

Drove the ducklings to the water,

Ev’ry morning just at nine,

Hit her foot against a splinter,

Fell into the foaming brine.

Ruby lips above the water,

Blowing bubbles soft and fine,

But alas, I was no swimmer,

Neither was my Clementine.

In a churchyard near the canyon,

Where the myrtle doth entwine,

There grow some rosies and some posies,

Fertilized by Clementine.”

Now that is just nasty! Flowers fertilized by a dead girl? Are you seriously going to sing this to children? This song or poem is said to be the words of a lover singing about the daughter of a miner in the 1849 California Gold Rush. He loses her when she drowns in a freak accident and in the real version results to Clementine’s little sister except that verse is usually left out of children’s books replaced by something else because it doesn’t seem morally appropriate. Apparently having Clementine’s dead body fertilize the soil around her grave is morally appropriate.

Are you really going to read these horrible poems to your young children and siblings? Practically encouraging them to sing about death and disaster? So... who really killed cock robin? I did mummy! It was fun!

Coming Soon to a Cinema Near You... 1000 Failures!

IZZY'S TURQUOISE MUFFINS!!!!!!!!

DESSERT DE GEMMA DE NEW ZEALAND QUI EST à KAWAU ISLAND POUR LES VACANCES

(its french so figure it out! :P )

Earlier on 2day I said i would put a post about the concoctions that my sister and me made so here it is!!! At first I wanted to make chocolate centered lollipops. But that didn't work so I tried making the lollipop, minus the stick. But! That didn't work either! The sugar wasn't melting either! And when it did melt... it wouldn't harden! (do not say I'm impatient and that I should have waited longer for it to set because 3 hours had passe and they didn't harden!) so I ended up flinging them into the freezer and hoping that they would make a good dessert... When we got them out of the freezer to get dessert made the sugar had turned to a syrup and was floating on top so I spooned it out and used it for a sauce and with the left-over chocolate center I used it as a side, sorta thing... wasn't what I was expecting... Sorry if i said that i would bring one back 2 school for you cause I have a feelin' it's not gonna happen... my sisters turned out better than mine! (for the first time eva!) well actually I dibs good presentation but hers smell like they taste good (hey, hey, hey... i wasn't hungry...:P) Anyway i only JUST managed to get a picture of my dessert cause I had almost finished eating it! It would have looked much better if it wasn't "half-eaten" :D Hope your having fun this holidays!

Gemma

P.S. I watched the movie "Tale of Desperaux" tonight

P.P.S. Still haven't made t-shirt

P.P.P.S. I've almost finished my 'scratch off the ink to reveal silver' thing

P.P.P.P.S. Bye!!!!!!

Camp Kokako Lodge!

On the 9th of March the year 6's went on camp to Kokako Lodge. Here is my umm.... diary? Of things that happened this week. I woke up at 6:00 in the morning on Monday and started getting ready for camp it was really exciting, I wondered what it would be like and what my cabin group would be like. Then after getting ready my dad dropped me off at school then I got my stuff packed into Rebecca's car to leave after that all the year 6's were asked to gather in the school hall to mark of the roll call. My group was second to be called out so my group left second (of course)

In my transport group I was with Rebecca and Clinton. We were in the lead because we had a short cut but then Rebecca's dad realized he forgot his phone which meant we had to go back. After we had gone back to get the phone me and Rebecca drew pictures of Clinton with a moustache. I wonder how he felt being the only boy? Well I guess Clinton had Rebecca's dad to talk to. He pretty much just sat and read the map the whole time other than threatening to draw pictures of us with moustaches!

When we got there we put our suitcases in our cabins. I was in the cabin group called Rimu with Georgia, Kimberley, Izzy (Haines), Ilma, Sarah and Sandra, Harry Coopers mum. After we quickly threw our suitcases in the room we were called to the hall. (the hall at Kokako Lodge, not at school!) When everybody got there the teachers and instructors talked a little bit about the camp and who they were. The owner of Kokako Lodge is called Brenton, he works alongside his dad. Another instructor is called by his nickname 'Sea Jay'. He was the one who worked with the kayaks.

After the orientation we had morning tea. For morning tea we had something from our snack box. In my snack box I had some rice wheelies, packeted prunes, milkies and splitemz. I had some splitemz, they are roll ups. When we were eating morning tea we had to sit in our activity groups. My activity group is called Echo. The people with me in Echo are Jasmine, Me, Raynah, Harry, Thomas S., Thomas E., Marcella, Riki and Sandra the parent who is also in my cabin group.

After morning tea we did ABL activities (Activity Based Learning) Echo's first activity was a magic helmet race where we pretended there was a big hole and only the person who was wearing the magic helmet could get across and the magic helmet couldn't be worn back by the same person or thrown. we did piggy backs and it didn't work that well because my group had and uneven number (9). So some people had to piggy back 3 people! I had to be piggy backed first by Riki and Riki had to hold Marcella! It was really funny! We had to try 3 times before we made it across! but only 6 people got to the other side before the time limit ran out!

The next activity was hut building. The aim was trying to make the tallest free standing tower. My group won the record for the tallest tower.

After that activity we went to the rope challenge where you had to get the rope to your side and get all the people in your group to the other plank of wood on the other side. Usually in this game it's really easy but the instructor just to be tricky told us to take off our jackets so as soon as we put them down he said that we can't pick them up again to use to get to the other side because he said the 'sharks' ate them so we some how got it by flapping our hats at it creating wind! But as soon as we had 2 people across to the other side it was time for the next activity so we didn't get to finish!

The next activity was to get all the people in your group to the other side using stepping stones and every stone had to be stepped on at all times otherwise it would get taken away. Thomas E. was the person who went first and he kept losing all the stepping stones so at the end one person had to do a really long jump to the end and as soon as we started when had to have 3 to a stepping stone! At the end he got really mad and said it was our fault! (I have no idea why, some sort of sore loser thing)

The last (but not least) activity was the plank race where there was 4 planks of wood with straps on them where you put your feet in and walked like 3 legged race. Once again Thomas E. went in the front and lead and he was such an idiot! He kept saying left and right but not moving his own feet! Then he was yell "Why aren't you moving your feet you idiots!" But he was in front and HE wasn't moving so everyone else would try to move but we couldn't! At the end we didn't win the race because no one made it to the end in time!

Then it was lunch time. For lunch we had food from our packed lunch that we had for the first day. After lunch we had our first activity sessions my group, Echo had abseiling as their first activity. I was glad about that because I didn't want to do something as wet as kayaking or as high as the high ropes on the first day of camp.

We headed towards the abseiling cliff. I hadn't abseiled down a cliff or anything like that before. I'd only been down an abseiling wall at a past school camp, year 5 camp at camp M.E.R.C. it was only 2 days long. When we got to the abseiling area the cliff didn't look so high and it looked pretty easy. Every body had a practice run with a rope attached to a tree on a little hill, that was mega easy to. After every body had a practice we started to do the real thing one by one we got our harnesses on then we got in a line I was in front of Jasmine next to Sonia. When we watched other people they went so slow but it didn't take very long to get down. When it came to my turn I was after Jasmine because she decided to push in front! When I had climbed all the stairs to the top of the cliff Jasmine was already up there. When you are at the bottom it doesn't look very far down but at the top it looks majorly far down! Jasmine was scared so she didn't want to do it, she even didn't go down with the instructor when he offered! My friend Georgia went down with the instructor because she didn't want to do it by herself, I wonder why Jasmine didn't want to go with the instructor?

Morning tea time! Everybody grabbed a quick snack then continued with their group to the next activity