Sink or Swim by Anna Mackenzie is an engaging historical story that follows Jock as he adjusts to life in Wellington after an earthquake destroys his family’s home in Hawke’s Bay. Staying with his grandparents, separated from his parents, and facing an unfamiliar school, Jock finds himself navigating change on several fronts. A challenging swimming lesson adds to his uncertainty, but an unexpected invitation from another boy offers the possibility of friendship and belonging. Through dialogue, sensory detail, and illustrations, the text brings Jock’s experiences and the historical setting to life.

Based on experiences from the author’s own family following the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, the story supports students to build empathy and explore how natural disasters affect people beyond the immediate event. It encourages learners to consider the importance of kindness, recognising strengths, and helping others settle into unfamiliar places, making it a rich text for integrated literacy, social sciences, and wellbeing learning.

 

This pack contains wide range of response activities including:

• A guided reading plan exploring key literacy elements including inference and deduction, language use, making connection and text organisation, along with key questioning to promote emotional intelligence, metacognition and compassionate inquiry. 
• An independent learning contract complete with explainer videos for activity clarity
  
• A wide range of response activities to support developing and embedding key literacy skills including sentence and word work, spelling, and cloze activities. 

Curriculum Phase: Phase 2

Year Level: Year 4

English: reading for meaning, sequencing events, making inferences about characters’ feelings and motivations, exploring perspective and themes, examining descriptive language and dialogue, interpreting illustrations, and connecting the author’s note with the narrative

Social Sciences – Aotearoa New Zealand Histories: the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, experiences of displacement, family and community responses to disaster, life in the past, and connections between personal stories and historical events

Health and Wellbeing: coping with change, empathy, friendship, belonging, confidence, recognising strengths, and supporting others through challenging experiences

Text type: Fiction, historical fiction, short story inspired by family experiences

Key words include: belonging, change, community support, displacement, earthquakes, empathy, family, friendship, grandparents, Hawke’s Bay, historical fiction, kindness, Napier, natural disasters, new beginnings, resilience, school, siblings, swimming, Wellington