Australian Animals
Horsham 298 Year Prep
Content/Subject Learning Outcomes
VELS Standards Level 1
See attachment
Essential Question
What is an Australian Animal?
Unit Questions:
What are some Australian Animals?
What are some characteristics of Australian animals?
What habitats do Australian animals live in?
What foods do Australian animals eat?
Habits of Mind to be focused on for development
Asking Relevant Questions
This Habit of Mind has been introduced and reinforced to children during ‘Show and Tell’ time and class discussions.
The unit will be designed to develop the children’s understanding of what a question is, what a relevant question is and why we ask relevant questions. It is anticipated that at the end of the unit the children will be able to ask a relevant question, identify/explain a relevant question and that they will be able to continue to ask relevant questions in other areas of their schooling and lives.
DeBono’s six thinking hats will be further explored. Presently the children have used the yellow and black hat. The whiteand red hat will be introduced through out the unit.
The children will also useclassification grids to sort animals in various ways. Throughout the year they have been involved in sorting according to different criteria.
Children will be introduced to pictorial rubrics to self assess their use of relevant questioning.
Assessment
A Pre-test will be given to children at the start of the unit. They will be given a page of pictures of animals and be required to sort according to Australian animals and Exotic animals.
This will then be given to the children and the end of the unit to see if they can clearly identifywhich animals are Australian and which animals are Exotic.
During the unit children will be involved in activities that will be used to monitor the children’s understanding of Australian animal characteristics, habitats and foods. Anecdotal notes will be used to record this.
Asking relevant questions will be teacher assessed and self-assessed by children. This will be done using a simple picture rubric.
Terrible! / Not So Good / Okay / Really Good / Great!Children will get a copy of this at different times throughout the unit and be asked how they think their questioning is going. They will then colour in the face that they think is appropriate to how they feel about the progress on their questioning. The teacher will then do the same in order to give children feed back about how the teacher thinks their questioning is developing.
Learning Experiences
Lesson 1
Children will revisit the Habit of Mind Asking Relevant Questions. A discussion will be held to talk about what a question is, what a relevant question is and why we would ask a relevant question. The discussion will also involve explaining that the new topic for Humanities is Australian animals, and that the students will be focusing on improving their questioning, their asking of relevant questions, and understanding why we ask relevant questions. A poster will be made of what a good question is and what makes a question relevant. Children will also make their own question dice that can be used throughout the unit. Children will be introduced to the question ‘stickers’. During the unit if a child asks or identifies a relevant question they will get a sticker with a question mark to wear.
As an animal is talked about it, a picture will be pasted onto a classroom, and individual map of Australian.
Lesson 2
The unit will start with an excursion to the HallsGapWildlifePark. The visit to the wildlife park will involve a tour to see both Australian native animals and exotic animals. They will have the opportunity to view animals, and to pat and feed other animals.
Children will be encouraged to ask questions about things they do not know or would like to find out.
Lesson 3
A recount of the excursion to Halls Gap will start the lesson. Children will be encouraged to ask any questions that they have about the excursion, keeping in mind that they need to ensure that it is a relevant question. At the end of the retell/discussion children will be prompted to discuss questions and whether or not they were relevant questions.
Children will then complete the pre-test of sorting animals according to Australian and Exotic animals.
Lesson 4
Children will watch a video of Australian animals. Before watching the video, children will be asked to think of a relevant question about the video that they may have. At the end of the video children will be invited to ask their questions. They will then complete a rubric of how relevant their question was, with the teacher giving them feedback.
Lesson 5
Kangaroos
The focus of this lesson will be kangaroos. The children will be asked, prior to the lesson, to write a question about kangaroos that they would like to find out about. If children have trouble in thinking of a question, they can roll their question dice in order to give them a starting point for their question. They can then put their question into the giant kangaroos pouch. At the start of the lesson a question will be taken out of the pouch and read to the children. They will then be asked if the question is relevant. A discussion will then proceed in an attempt for other children to answer the question. If the children are unable to answer the question, then the teacher will take on the role of answering the question. Children will self evaluate their question using the rubrics and the teacher will also evaluate and then provide feedback the children.
Children will do an individual activity of colouring and cutting out a jigsaw of a kangaroo, then putting it together and paste in their Integrated Studies book.
Lesson 6
Koala
Children will brainstorm what they know about koalas (what they eat, their habitat, their characteristics). Children will then be given the opportunity to ask any relevant questions in order to find out something they still do not understand or would like to know.
Children will then make the cut and paste heart koala (
Lesson 7
Wombat
Read the book ‘Diary of a Wombat’. Children are then invited to ask any relevant questions they have about the story. Children will be introduced to DeBono’s white hat. The class will then list facts about wombats on butcher’s paper, with the white hat at the top. Children will the draw 3 things they know about wombats and something they still do not know. At the end of the lesson children will come back with what they still do not know in the form of a question. Children will be required to self-assess their question with the rubric, and this will then be assessed by the teacher and feedback given to the students.
Lesson 8
Emu/Birds
Read ‘Edward the Emu’. Children will be introduced to the red hat. After reading Edward the Emu, children will be asked to write a sentence about how Edward the Emu felt. They will then present this to the class. The class will have the opportunity to ask any questions about why the presenter thought that Edward felt that way.
If time at end children may make an emu mask.
Lesson 9
Dingo
Read ‘Wombat Stew’. A class oral re-tell will take place and the characters will be discussed. Children will use DeBono’s yellow and black hat to brainstorm the good and bad things about the characters. Children will then develop a question that they would like to ask one of the characters in the story. Children may use the question dice to help them. The questions will be read and the grade will assess as to whether it was a relevant question or not. If there is time, a discussion could be held as to how the animal might answer the question.
Lesson 10
Possum
Revisit DeBono’s white hat. As a class, use the white hat to brainstorm facts about possums. Children can ask any relevant questions they may have about possums that they still have.
As a grade the children will make Possum peanut-butter balls.
In reading groups during the week, children will be involved in sequencing the steps in making peanut butter balls. Before they take part in the sequencing they will be asked if they have any relevant questions about making the balls. This is an opportunity to sequence the steps orally and consolidate the idea before they are required to sequence the pictures individually.
Lesson 11
Crocodile
Children will use DeBono’s white, black and yellow hat to discuss crocodiles. Children will ask any relevant questions they have about crocodiles.
Children will then classify Australian animals into different criteria eg what does it eat, how does it move (land, air, water) or its characteristics (eg. Fur, scale, feathers)
Children will be given the opportunity to share their work with a partner and their partner will then attempt to ask a relevant question that they have about the classification. They may use their question dice to help them with a question. The other person will then use the rubric to assess their partner on the relevance of the question they asked.
Lesson 12
Echidna
Children will brainstorm what they know about echidnas. They can then ask relevant questions to find out more that they would still like to know. Children will self assess themselves on their questions using the rubric, the teacher will then do this and give feedback to the children.
Children will use DeBono’s black hat to write some things about ‘What is wrong with having spikes’.
Lesson 13
Children will complete the post test of sorting Australian and Exotic animals. They will compare this to their pre-test to see what they have learnt.
At the end of this unit, time will be taken to discuss with the children what they have learnt about questions, asking relevant questions and if they can identify another time they have used relevant questions outside this unit of work. Children will also look back at their teacher and self assessments to see how they have improved.
Australian Animals
Literacy Activity Ideas
- Peanut Butter Balls
Sequence pictures/sentences after making peanut butter balls
- Read and Match Koala activity
- Read and answer Koala activity
- Read and multiple choice koala activity
- Australian animal word find
- ‘What am I book’
- Koala body to write story in
- Emu body to write story in
- Mother Kangaroo What do you see sheet
- Emu read and make egg
- Write about Emus in oval, paste on head and concertina legs.
- Australian animal bingo.
- Write about animal and make animal out of shapes.