This week our youngest students are looking at Aboriginal Places, while slightly older students are comparing Australia to other places around the world. Our older students are starting their class election segment of work, covering several parts of the Civics and Citizenship, as well as the History, curricula.
Foundation/Kindy/Prep to Year 3
Students in Foundation/Kindy/Prep (Unit F.4), including those in combined classes with Year 1 students (Unit F-1.4) are focusing on caring for special places by looking at Aboriginal Places around Australia. Students consider their school as a special place, the local area as a place special to the local Aboriginal group, as well as other Aboriginal Places around the country. This section of work can be backed up using the Aboriginal places included in the Aunt Madge’s Suitcase Activity. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.4), 2 (Unit 2.4) and 3 (Unit 3.4) are comparing Australia with places overseas. The places chosen for comparison can be the places from the stories chosen in week 1. Year 1 students compare the landscape, weather, animals and environment between Australia and the other countries and consider how the similarities and differences influence lifestyles. Students in Year 2 undertake similar comparisons, whilst focusing on issues of scale and the impact of degree of urbanisation. Students in year 3 consider how people in each place view their local environment and how different places might be experienced differently by different people.
Years 3 to 6
Students in Years 3 (Unit 3.8), 4 (Unit 4.4), 5 (Unit 5.4) and 6 (Unit 6.4) are starting a segment where they will conduct a Class Election. In this first lesson of the 4 lesson activity, students will be selected to campaign for particular issues. These issues should result in actual results for the class in the form of a ‘political promise’, such as a day without homework or a special class activity. It is recommended that the teachers allow students to suggest issues, which can then be negotiated with the teacher. Students will be chosen to lead campaigns on each issue. Students in Years 3, 4 and 5 also consider Environmental Issues, and create a poster highlighting an environmental issue. Students in Year 6 consider Political Issues and make a poster on one of these. Teachers and students will also use resources from the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) during the course of this unit. Students also continue to monitor the growth of their plant, as their Scientific Investigation.
This week our youngest students are looking at special places locally and around Australia, slightly older students are considering plants and animals around the world, while our older students are studying aspects of diversity in Australia.
Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3
Students in standalone Foundation/Prep/Kindy (Unit F.4) and combined classes with Year 1 (F-1.4) are thinking about special places this week – what places are special to them and their families? What places are special in Australia? This focus gives the teacher a chance to guide the students through the process of considering natural beauty and how we and other agencies, such as the government, can look after special places and places of natural beauty. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.4), 2 (Unit 2.4) and 3 (Unit 3.4) are continuing their focus on the stories of families from around the world from week 1. This week Year 1 and 2 students are focusing on plants and animals from the places described in the stories in week 1. Students in Year 3 also consider the role of climate in the diversity of plants and animals.
Years 3 to 6
Students in Years 3 (Unit 3.8), 4 (Unit 4.4), 5 (Unit 5.4) and 6 (Unit 6.4) are studying different aspects of diversity this week. Students in year 3 are looking at Aboriginal people and the environment, in the context of climate. Students in Year 4 consider both Aboriginal people and technology with respect to the Australian environment. Students in year 5 are starting to consider how Aboriginal people’s interactions with the environment over millennia have set the stage for the recognition of Native Title in Australia; while students in year 6 examine the history of Aboriginal suffrage and Native Title in Australia. These studies of diversity in Australia provide information for the students to start planning a celebration of identity and diversity in the last week. Students in Years 3 to 6 also continue with their scientific experiment of growing a plant.
This week our youngest students are looking at transport in the past, slightly older students consider places that are special to people around the world and our oldest students are considering reasons why people might leave their homes to become migrants.
Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3
Students in standalone Foundation/Prep/Kindy classes (Unit F.4), as well as those in combined Foundation/Prep/Kindy and Year 1 classes (Unit F-1.4), are considering how people used to get around in the past. How did students get to school 100 years ago? Students also think about how these modes of transport moved. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.4), 2 (Unit 2.4) and 3 (Unit 3.4) are continuing their study of families around the world by looking at places that are special to these families. Students will also find these places on the OpenSTEM® “Our World” Blackline World Map, practising their Geography skills. Different year levels will consider different aspects of these places, for example, year 3 students will consider the distance, both geographic and cultural, between these places and Australia; year 2 students will consider which places are natural and which are built and their significance for the people who live there, while year 1 students will compare these places to places that their own families find special.
Years 3 to 6
Students in Year 3 doing Unit 3.8, Celebrating Diversity, will choose a migrant group to study and consider what it is like for people to leave their home country and move to another place. They will also examine the contributions which their group has made to Australian society and look at celebrations special to that group. Students in Year 4 (Unit 4.4) will consider what factors influence people to leave a place and choose somewhere else to live. Students will also examine contact between different groups in Australia and the influence migrants have had on Australian society. Students in year 5 (Unit 5.4) choose a group of migrants to study and consider the changing factors that have influenced migration to Australia over time. Students in year 6 (Unit 6.4) choose a migrant group to study and consider the conditions in the country of origin of the migrant group, how those conditions influenced the migration of those people and how those factors have changed through the course of Australian history. These examinations prepare students to consider the nature of diversity in Australian society in the next lesson.
The last term of the school year – traditionally far too short and crowded with many events, both at and outside of school. OpenSTEM’s® Understanding Our World® program for HASS + Science ensures that not only are the students kept engaged with interesting material, but that teachers can relax, knowing that all curriculum-relevant material is covered by the middle of the term, ensuring enough time for marking and preparation of reports. Furthermore, following the OpenSTEM® Understanding Our World® program across an entire year guarantees that your students have met the curriculum requirements for all of History, Geography, Civics and Citizenship, Economics and Business (HASS) and Science for the whole year, matched to their year-level, even in multi-year level classes. This term our youngest students are reviewing some of the material covered earlier in the year and then preparing for a Play (with props and dress-ups) matched to this material. Students in Years 1 to 3 examine modern families around the world and then prepare a short presentation or dramatisation based on what they have learned. Older students are studying migrants and cultural identity and using the information to plan an end-of-year celebration of cultural diversity. These students also hold a class election, with preferential voting.
Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3
Our youngest students – those in Foundation/Prep/Kindy (Unit F.4) and combined classes with Year 1 (Unit F-1.4) are start the term by reviewing Celebrations (this is a great time to grab that Class Calendar and look ahead to Christmas!). They then examine how people celebrated these occasions in the past. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.4), 2 (Unit 2.4) and 3 (Unit 3.4) start looking at Modern Families Around the World. This resource includes stories about families in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Somalia. Teachers can choose from these stories to tailor the unit to the class’s needs and interests. Students are encouraged to consider family and community structures around the world and compare them to their own.
Years 3 to 6
Students in Years 3 (Unit 3.8), 4 (Unit 4.4), 5 (Unit 5.4) and 6 (Unit 6.4) start the year by examining their own Ancestry, prior to looking at Migration and Diversity. Students interact with the OpenSTEM® “Our World” map, in order to gain an understanding of the wide range of places around the world in which Australians have their ancestry. Students in Year 3 will be focusing on diversity in Australian society over the next few weeks and will choose a group of migrants to study in more detail. Resources on several migrant groups are available to complement this unit. Students in Year 4 will focus on Australia’s connections to other parts of the world through time and will study either a group of Aboriginal people, or members of other groups with whom Aboriginal people had early contact, such as Macassan traders, or Europeans. Students in Year 5 will focus on migrants from European countries, such as the Irish, Greek or Italian communities. Students in Year 6 will focus on migrants from Asian countries, such as the Chinese or Vietnamese communities.
Students in Years 3 to 6 will also grow a plant from a seed, as a Science experiment, linked to their HASS studies. Students have the option to choose a plant brought to Australia by the migrant group or other community which they are studying. They will investigate when this plant arrived in Australia, from where it came, what conditions it needs to thrive and what cultural importance it has for the group. The linking of these areas of focus helps add additional relevance and immediacy to the curriculum material for students.
This week’s Guess the Artefact challenge centres around an artefact used by generations of school children. There are some adults who may even have used these themselves when they were at school. It is interesting to see if modern students can recognise this object and work out how it was used. The picture below comes from the Victorian Collections website, managed by Museums Australia (Victoria). This website is a great source of images and texts from bygone days.
This object is rectangular and made of a relatively thin piece of black stone,measuring 25 x 17.5 cm, surrounded by 4 pieces of wood, which are a couple of centimetres wide. The corners of the wooden pieces have been rounded. There are several sets of faint parallel lines from left to right across the front of the stone, each pair of lines separated by a small gap. The back is plain, without parallel lines. The surface of the stone is slightly scratched. The letters “O.F” have been written and slightly incised into the topmost strip of wood. There is a small hole in between these two letters.
The dark stone is a fine-grained argillaceous (clayey) rock, called slate, which breaks naturally into thin slabs. In Australia, this rock was mined in South Australia, NSW and Tasmania in the 19th century. The dark surface of the stone reminds one of an object which was common in classrooms until fairly recently. Can you guess which one? They have been mostly replaced by whiteboards in modern classrooms. Yes, it does look similar to a blackboard, but much smaller.
The spacing of the lines is also important and might look familiar. Can you think of a familiar object, also used in classrooms, that has similar lines? Especially the ones used by younger students have similar lines. Yes, pre-ruled exercise books, with spacing for upper and lower case letters have very similar lines.
So it seems that we have a small blackboard-type object marked with lines for learning to write letters. In fact, that is exactly what this is! These objects were called “slates” (I’m sure you can work out why) and were used in place of exercise books by students in schools from the time that Australia was first settled by Europeans, throughout the colonial period in the 19th century and even into the 20th century. Some schools in Queensland continued to use them into the 1960s, but in most places exercise books were used from the 1920s or 1930s.
The slates marked with parallel lines were used by younger students learning to write and form their letters correctly, but they were also used for all lessons in many classes. In fact, younger children often struggled to manage the correct use of a slate pencil. The reverse side (with no lines) was used for writing Maths sums and drawing. Until the 1930s, when the bulk manufacture of paper from pulp made from eucalypt trees made paper more readily available, paper was relatively expensive. Thus, where books were provided to students, they were only given to older students, whom, it was hoped, would make less mistakes and would therefore waste less paper. Students used a pencil made from a softer kind of slate, which made white marks on the dark slate, or chalk, to write on the slate. The slate pencil was tied onto the slate using string or ribbon, tied through the hole in the top of the frame. A damp sponge was used to erase the work. Sometimes ‘books’ of 2 or 3 slates were tied together, but usually students would have to write down their lesson, have it checked by the teacher, memorise it and then erase what they had written. This would have meant that they had no notes and had to rely entirely on what they could remember when they wrote their exams!
In practise, sponges would get lost or dirty and students would spit on the slate and rub it out with their sleeves. The wear and tear on clothes led to complaints from parents. Students would also suck on the pencils, as they worked better when damp. Concerns were made about hygiene when using slates. In 1909, a School Medical Officer in the UK managed to culture the bacteria that causes diphtheria off the slate pencils in one particular class, and there were calls for the use of school slates to be discontinued. However, it was also noted that slates were easier to disinfect than paper.
Slates were also used in homes – for writing shopping lists and the like. Archaeological excavations of houses and schools from the 19th century have shown that slate pencils and writing slates were common. However, slate was also used for roofing tiles, which does confuse the evidence sometimes. Writing slates could be used over and over, unlike paper, which could only be written on once. This made slates significantly cheaper than paper for a long time.
Can you make a list of the Pros and Cons of using slates in classrooms? What would be different if you used slates today? How do you think using slates influenced the way lessons were taught in schools? Think about what could be taught and what could not…
OpenSTEM’s ® Understanding Our World® Units are designed to cover 9 weeks of the term, because we understand that life happens. Sports carnivals, excursions and other special events are also necessary parts of the school year and even if the calendar runs according to plan, having a little bit of breathing space at the end of term can be essential for teachers and students alike. We have many suggestions for activities that can keep the students engaged and learning if there is extra time at the end of term.
So this week is the last week of scheduled lessons in our term 3 units. This week our younger students are ending the term on a high note with a class party! Older students are completing their Reflections on the term’s Scientific Report and engaging in a discussion on the role of Science in our society – always topical.
Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3
The second half of the year can be tough for younger students – they are often starting to get tired and attention may be flagging at this stage. In order to liven things up, the units for Foundation/Prep/Kindy (Unit F.3), Year 1 (Unit 1.3), Year 2 (Unit 2.3), Year 3 (Unit 3.3) and combined Foundation/Prep/Kindy and Year 1 (Unit F-1.3) have a class party scheduled for this week. A range of options are discussed in the Teacher Handbooks – building on year level appropriate material covered during the term. Our Food In the Past resource is always popular and even contains recipes tailored to match the stories covered by students earlier in the term. However, sometimes food is not practical in the classroom, in which case dress-ups, decorations and games can promote the party atmosphere! Our Games From the Past resource has a range of activities both new and familiar, which students love. These games are also matched to the places from the stories covered in the beginning of the term, allowing the teacher to provide a coherent theme for the term.
Years 3 to 6
The older students have finished or are finishing off their Scientific Reports. This week there is an opportunity for them to reflect on what they have learnt during the term. The Student Workbook guides the students through the task of looking back at their work for the term, naming the enjoyable aspects of their projects, as well as any challenges encountered. Students are encouraged to think about alternate ways they could have approached their work, as well as recapping what they have learnt (an important step in integrating their knowledge). These skills of re-evaluating their own work and the processes they used are critical in the development of independent thinking and in teaching them how to manage their work, not only as they go on towards high school, but also for work habits in later life. In addition, we suggest a class discussion on the perspectives Science provides on issues in the world. How do modern perspectives differ from historical ones and what role has Science played in changing our understanding of these issues. The discussion of these points also addresses key parts of the curriculum. Students in Year 3 (Unit 3.7) will consider how their capital city or local community has changed over time. Those in Year 4 (Unit 4.3) can discuss our understanding of Australia before Europeans arrived and around the time of the First Fleet – how has our understanding of Aboriginal Australia changed over time? Year 5 (Unit 5.3) classes can compare colonial Australia to modern Australia and Year 6 (Unit 6.3) students will consider how Australia has changed since Federation.
History and Geography are no longer boring and dry, and the material provides a wide variety of topics.
Laura Davidson, Teacher