Our Lady Help of Christians Year 4 chairs are on strike!

Year 4 students of Our Lady Help of Christians Primary School, South Lismore, have been given a wonderful opportunity to express their opinions critically with a persuasive writing task about why their chairs are on strike.

Something strange has happened at Our Lady Help of Christians Primary School, South Lismore, the Year 4 chairs...well....they’re on…strike? Year 4 students arrived at school one morning to find that their classroom chairs were stacked up and partitioned off with no idea why!

Rumours were rife; who moved the chairs? Why were the chairs stacked away? When would the students get their chairs back? Has this happened to any other class in the school? Excited discussions began, conspiracy theories ran wild, confusion and bewilderment hung over Year 4. Until a message arrived:

To Year 4,
We have had enough! Today is the day The Chairs Quit! We are sick of the way we have been treated in your classroom. WE ARE NOW ON STRIKE!!!
Sincerely, The Chairs.

Year 4 students had an exciting opportunity to express their opinions by critically engaging with the text 'The Day The Crayons Quit' by Duncan Daywalt. The student’s task was to write an opinion text from the point of view of the chairs, as to why they quit.

Students were able to determine a wide variety of reasons why the chairs had quit, from being treated disrespectfully to being exhausted from supporting the weight of the students all day, every day.

Rose’s Green Fuzzy Chair wrote:

Dear Rose,
It’s Green Fuzzy Chair here; all you do all day is rock or draw on me.
Rose, listen up! All you do is rock and swing me. You sit on me at an angle, and it hurts my neck! I hate you rolling on me sooner or later, and you are going to break my spine.
Sincerely,
Green Fuzzy Chair.

Maggie’s chair wrote:

Dear students,
We are on strike! We are sick and tired of you sitting on us and making us stink, year after year, after year.
Firstly, we are not fond of you disrespecting and hurting us by rolling on us, drawing on us and swinging on us, which hurts our legs!
Who would want to swing on a chair!
It is dangerous, and it can hurt us as well! When you swing on us, it can stretch us, and who would want a broken chair? No one!
Lastly, would you like it to be sat on every day for years? We may live forever, but our legs won’t! Not to mention your stinky, sweaty and stick bottoms! You’re making us stink!
Sincerely,
The Chairs.

Year 4 teachers were impressed with the critical thinking and engagement of Year 4’s approach to this very creative task. As a result, Year 4 students and their chairs finally came to an understanding by the end of the day.