During the first week of Term 3, Grade 3/4 Doran read a novel recommended to us by Amelia and Victoria. We enjoyed it so much that we finished it by Thursday!
John is obsessed with dominoes, but not with playing the traditional game. Instead, he is obsessed with toppling. He spends hours setting up spirals, ramps, patterns and lines of dominoes all for that satisfying topple. Beginning with a small push in the right direction, everything falls as it is meant to. When John’s friend Dom falls sick and is diagnosed with cancer, it is John and his friends’ worlds that fall apart. Can they face Dom and support him through this uncomfortable illness? It’s hard for all at first but John and his friends find a way to comfort Dom and laugh with him again. They even find support and understanding from an unlikely source within their class, the school bully.
As a class we found that this novel was perfect for us and it answered lots of questions that we have had at the moment. We were surprised by how similar the class is in the book, to what our class has been dealing with in the last few months. We have passed it on to 3/4 Davey and we hope they are enjoying it as much as we did.
Last Friday we celebrated finishing the novel by inventing the best domino topples we possibly could. We had to work as a team and be forgiving because one tiny touch and every domino would go toppling down…
We watched word record topples on You Tube and our favourite was ‘275000 Dominos- Enjoy your life’ which our class is a theme our class is trying to live by.
What are the important themes that you took from the novel Toppling?