Belinda Murrell: Bringing Australian History To Life | Page 19

CLASS ACTIVITIES

CLASS ACTIVITIES FOR

THE SEQUIN STAR
These are Belinda’s actual notebooks from when she was writing The Sequin Star. For each
character, she jotted down points about their personality. Ask the class to come up with
some words to describe the main characters in The Sequin Star. Do any of the words they’ve
come up with match with Belinda’s?

PRE-READING QUESTIONS
• What do you know about the Great Depression?
• Do you know any stories about the experiences of your relatives in the
1930s? Did anyone in your family struggle to find work, or lose their job, during this
difficult time for many Australians?

Newspaper pieces

Write a newspaper report describing what
life is like for families in Australia during
the Great Depression.
Consider food, work, clothes, lifestyle,
entertainment and changes to society.
Include quotes from fictional characters
to give differing points-of-view and find
images on the internet to illustrate your
story.
Now write a news piece for the same
newspaper about the circus coming to
town. Why might the tone of this story
be different to the above one? Illustrate
your circus story with a picture you’ve
painted, or design a billboard promoting
the circus.

• Have you been to a circus? What kind of circus was it? What was your favourite
act? Was there anything you didn’t like?
• What do you think it would be like to live in a circus, travelling all the time
and performing every night?

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Look around