Lockdown by Nan Blanchard is a reflective fiction text that weaves everyday family life with national experience to explore how children coped during the Covid-19 pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand. Through the voice of Izzy, a nine-year-old girl living in a small household “bubble” with her mum and grandpa, the story captures the confusion, humour, and sadness of sudden change when schools close and families are separated. The narrative shows how Izzy misses her dad and worries about her mum, who is an essential worker at a supermarket, while also highlighting the small moments of connection that bring comfort, such as class Zoom meetings and shared laughter.

As Izzy and her friends create a “club” for children who cannot see their whānau, the text explores resilience, kindness, and problem-solving through simple actions like writing letters, visiting teddy bears in windows, and planning surprises for others. By focusing on children’s voices and practical ways of supporting emotional wellbeing, the text reflects how community and creativity helped people stay connected during a time of isolation. Warm, honest, and gently humorous, the text supports students to understand recent history through lived experience and voice.

The text is ideal for integrated learning across literacy and health, supporting inquiry into emotions, relationships, community support, and resilience during times of change in Aotearoa New Zealand.

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 (NZC Levels 2–3): reading for meaning and enjoyment, identifying character thoughts and feelings, understanding narrative structure, making connections to personal experience, exploring dialogue and author’s message

Health and Physical Education: wellbeing, emotional awareness, relationships, coping strategies, kindness, resilience, communication

Social Sciences – Aotearoa New Zealand Histories: recent history, community experience of the pandemic, continuity and change, identity and belonging, family and whānau life

Text type: Fiction, personal recount, reflective narrative

Key words include: Covid-19, lockdown, pandemic, essential workers, supermarket, family, whānau, grandparents, missing loved ones, bubbles, Zoom, online learning, club, kindness, empathy, resilience, wellbeing, emotions, worry, hope, connection, community, letters, surprises, teddy bears in windows, everyday life, recent history, Aotearoa New Zealand