This Week in HASS: term 1 week 2

Foundation to Year 3

Our standalone Foundation (Prep/Kindy etc) students are introduced to the World Map this week, as they start putting stickers on it, showing where in the world they and their families come from – the origin of the title of this unit (Me and My Global Family). This helps students to feel connected with each other and to start to understand both the notion of the ‘global family’, as well as the idea that places can be represented by pictures (maps). Of course, we don’t expect most 5 year olds to understand the world map, but the sooner they start working with it, the deeper the familiarity and understanding later on.

All the other younger students are learning about movements of celestial bodies (the Earth and Moon, as they go around the Sun and each other) and that people have measured time in the past with reference to both the Sun and the Moon – Solar and Lunar calendars. To make these ideas more concrete, students study ancient calendars, such as Stonehenge, Newgrange and Abu Simbel, and take part in an activity building a model of Stonehenge from boxes or blocks.

Years 3 to 6

Our older primary students are going back into the Ice Age (and who wouldn’t want to, in this weather!), as they explore the routes of modern humans leaving Africa, as part of understanding how people reached Australia. Aboriginal people arrived in Australia as part of the waves of modern humans spreading across the world. However, the Australia they encountered was very different from today. It was cold, dry and very dusty, inhabited by giant Ice Age animals (the Demon Duck of Doom is always a hot favourite with the students!) and overall, a pretty dangerous place. We challenge students to imagine life in those times, and thereby start to understand the basis for some of the Dreamtime stories, as well as the long and intricate relationship between Aboriginal people and the Australian environment.