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This Week in HASS – term 4, week 7

This week our younger students are preparing for their play/ role-playing presentation, whilst older students are practising a full preferential count to determine the outcome of their Class Election.

Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3

Our youngest students in Foundation/Prep/Kindy (Unit F.4) and integrated classes with Year 1 (Unit F-1.4) are working on the costumes, props and practising getting into character for their People in the Past play. These activities help students to understand the differences and similarities between our lives and those of people in the past. Teachers can use the activities to facilitate discussions around these points. Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.4), 2 (Unit 2.4) and 3 (Unit 3.4) are also preparing for their Different Families Around the World presentation. Students in Year 1 are concentrating on identifying different family members and their roles within the different family structures. Students in Year 2 focus on where the families live, what places are special to them and compare these to the students’ own lives. Students in Year 3 examine communities and how celebrations and special occasions within the community are shared by the families.

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 in the midst of their Class Election activity. This week they determine the outcome of the election, an exciting moment! The result is determined by a full preferential vote count. Using the resource, Preferential Voting, students learn how preferences are allocated on a vote by vote basis. Students who have been chosen to be Election Officers will lay out the ballot papers according to the first preference votes, and then re-allocate the votes according to second preferences, choosing the candidate with the lowest number of votes as the first to have their votes re-allocated. This process is repeated until only 2 piles of votes (for 2 candidates) remain. The teacher can then explain that this stage is called “Two Party Preferred”. Finally the winning candidate, with the highest number of votes, is announced and students then compare this result to the first preference vote to see if there have been any changes. Where there is a clear winner, there will often be no changes, but in a tight result the flow of preferences can make a significant difference.

Undertaking this activity themselves, seeing the votes counted and re-allocated according to preferences and comparing what happens at different stages of the process gives student a deep understanding of how our Australian electoral system works. This will stand them in good stead as they grow up to be responsible citizens with a full understanding of their civic duties and rights and the power of their vote and how to use it effectively.

This Week in HASS – term 4, week 6

This week our youngest students are starting work on their Class Play, slightly older students are choosing a family group from around the world for a role play activity and our oldest students are holding a Class Election! What an activity-filled week!

Foundation/Prep/Kindy to Year 3

Our youngest students in standalone Foundation/Prep/Kindy classes (Unit F.4) and those in integrated classes with Year 1 students (Unit F-1.4) are starting activities for their Class Play, People in the Past. Resources are provided for students to choose a character, based on the stories read in Week 1 of this term. The students can choose to learn a simple line of text, just talk about their character, make up their own play, or draw pictures if they prefer not to dress up. Resources are provided for costume ideas for each character, as well as props, which can all be made from craft materials, mostly paper cut-outs coloured in and glued onto card. Teachers can use these ideas to discuss the different ways of life and material culture associated with people around the world at different periods in the past. The activities assist students to more deeply engage with the practical issues of life in the past.

Students in Years 1 (Unit 1.4), 2 (Unit 2.4) and 3 (Unit 3.4) are also expanding on the stories covered in Week 1. The resource, Different Families Around the World, examines family structures in the same parts of the world as in the stories from Week 1. In groups, the students choose a family group for a role play activity – students choose family members within the family group. Students in Year 1 compare these family groups to their own families – what is similar and what is different? Students in Year 2 are also considering the places special to these families. Students in Year 3 consider the family as part of the community and what aspects are similar or dissimilar to Australia. Over coming weeks students will develop a role play/ dramatisation or presentation about their chosen family group, highlighting aspects covered during the term’s work. Students need to consider and represent where these families live, what places they frequent, what their lifestyles are like (including celebrations) and the roles of different family members in the home and in the community.

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 holding their Class Election this week. Before voting begins, the class does an activity demonstrating voting by a Show of Hands. The teacher then presents information from the resource: Australia’s Secret Ballot so that the class can discuss the pros and cons of different voting systems, including the secret ballot. Ballot papers are then handed out and names checked off the electoral roll by the Election Officers. Students vote and place their ballots in ballot boxes. All ballot boxes are sealed at the conclusion of voting and a check is made for missing ballot. Finally the Election Officers open the ballot boxes and a First Preference Count is undertaken openly, in front of the whole class. The First Preference Count gives preliminary results. However, the full preferences count will be made in the next lesson, enabling students to have time to absorb the flow of events in greater detail.

As well as assisting students to consider the reasons for a secret ballot and preferential voting, these activities prepare students to become active members of their community in the future and to fully understand Australia’s voting system, before they need to take part in it.

Election Activity Bundle

For any Australian Curriculum HASS topic from Prep to at least Year 6, we can safely say “We have a resource on that!”

So when, like here in Queensland, an election is suddenly called and teachers want to do some related activities in class, we actually already have the materials for you as these topics are covered in the Civics & Citizenship Australian Curriculum in Years 4, 5 and 6. To make selecting suitable resources a bit easier, we have assembled an Election Activity Bundle containing everything you need, available for just $9.90 for non-subscribers.

Children are interested in topical issues in society and their local community. After all, it’s adults making decisions now about issues that will affect our children. And regardless of what opinions we hold on particular topics, learning how the voting system works, with assistance from free additional resources by the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission), is useful. With our Election Activity Bundle, you have everything you need to guide the learning process.

Serendipitously, classrooms and schools running with our units actually will cover these topics in this term as well, around now in the week planning.

This Week in HASS – term 4, week 4

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.