2.4 Message in a bottle - did you know?  (Page 2/4)

Listening Skill : LO 1

First discuss the map and point out the different features: the island, the beach where Paul and Susan are, the light house, rocky outcrop in the ocean, the island with beaches marked, the oddly shaped trees and rocks, pathways and cave. Draw their attention to the starting point. As you read, let the children trace the “journey” on their maps.

Paul and Susan live at a seaside town. They are quite used to spending time on the water in a small boat with an outboard motor. Naturally this is removed when not in use. The boats are pulled up onto the beach and overturned so that rainwater will not collect in them. Paul and Susan are usually supervised when handling the boat but would know general safety rules and be able to handle the boat on their own. This is how they managed to rescue Lisa.

After leaving a message for their parents, Susan and Paul hurried back to the beach. There were two sections to the beachfront. There was the small rocky beach where they had played and found the bottle. Further along there was a small bay and a place where the fishing boats came in. There were also a few boats that belonged to some of the people who came to the beach on weekends. Amongst them was their boat, which they often took out on weekends when their father was home, but they were not supposed to go out on their own. However, today they had to ignore the rules. Together they fetched the motor from the shed and carried it down to the edge of the sand.

“ This is a sort of emergency, “ said Paul. Together he and Susan pulled the boat down to the edge of the sea and into the water. They fitted the motor. Luckily, the sea was calm and the boat rocked gently on the little waves.

“Right. Check the map. There’s the lighthouse and there’s that group of rocks. If we go between the two we should soon see this island. It can’t be too far because she can see the lighthouse. .

Susan stowed their supplies in the locker and Paul started the motor. Soon they were between the lighthouse and the rocks.

“Can you see anything?” he asked. Susan raised her binoculars and looked around.

“No, not a thing! And we can’t go any further unless we see the island, because we don’t know which direction to take! What are we going to do?” she said.

“Let me have a look.” said Paul

“Fine. Oh, wait…there! There’s something now. Yes, it must be. It’s the island!”

Susan passed the binoculars to Paul. He also struggled to see the island at first but then managed to focus on something that had to be the island.

“That’s it!” he cried excitedly. “Lisa, here we come!”

After a while, they were much closer and the island appeared bigger. They didn’t need to use the binoculars. They began to make out trees, grass and rocks.

“ We have to look out for a small beach on the side facing the lighthouse. There is also this large odd-shaped rock. She says it looks like the head of a rhino,” said Susan.

Paul headed for the beach and they cruised slowly along examining all the rocks. None of them looked like a rhino.