RIC-6277 I can dance the Barramundi

OLD HOUSE
Preparation
• Collect pictures of older houses—preferably those from the 1940s – 1950s.
Presentation
• Share and discuss the house pictures with the class.
• Say the rhyme with the actions for the class.
• The class claps the beat while saying the rhyme.
• The class says the rhyme with the actions.
Additional activities/information
• Read the information to the class.
In 1950, Jack Smith and his wife and family moved
into their new war service home in Boronia Street.
Their house had two bedrooms and a sleep-out.
One bedroom was for the mother and the father,
the other bedroom was for the younger children
and the sleep-out on the back veranda was for the
two older boys.
The kitchen had a gas stove and an ice chest. The
ice chest was used to keep food like butter and
milk cold on hot days. Twice a week the iceman
would come to the back door of the house with a
fresh block of ice and put it in the top of the ice
chest for Mrs Smith.
There were no shops nearby and every Monday
Mrs Smith telephoned the butcher and the grocer
and gave them the weekly orders. The butcher and
grocer delivered the orders to the house on Fridays.
The baker and the milkman who drove carts which
were pulled by horses, called at the house each day.
The family would sit in the lounge room and listen
to the wireless and on cold winter nights they
would sit around the open fi replace to keep warm.
The laundry, which was part of the back veranda,
had a large copper for boiling clothes and a
cement trough and a door which led from the
laundry into the toilet. There was also a clothes
ringer with a handle which was turned by hand to
drain the clean washing.
In the backyard, Mrs Smith had a very long
clothes line and a prop she used to hoist the
washing up to catch the breeze. Mr and Mrs
smith were saving up to buy a Hills ® hoist.
The Smith family had no air-conditioning, no car,
no garage, no washing machine, no refrigerator, no
vacuum cleaner and no power mower.
Such luxury items were too expensive for most
families at that time.
©R.I.C. Publications
Low Resolution Images
Display Copy
• Discuss the difference between old houses
and houses of today.
I can dance the barramundi 26
R.I.C. Publications ® www.ricgroup.com.au
ISBN 978-1-74126-424-1