Goanna ate my homework: FOUNDATION-HASS-Elaborate

Little J shares his bird feather collection with B-Boy. In school, Little J promises to find bush tucker to share with the class. The problem is that he doesn’t know how to find bush tucker. He enrols the help of Big Cuz and Nanna to teach him ‘proper way’ to identify and track animals. The group finds emu eggs but overnight a greedy goanna eats them. Nanna comes to the rescue by making spaghetti bolognaise for the class.

Elaborate - Present narratives, information and findings in oral, graphic and written forms using simple terms to denote the passing of time and to describe direction and location

Theme - BELONGING

Set up a reading corner with books illustrating different landscapes and Aboriginal stories and/or Torres Strait Islander stories with the theme of ‘belonging’. Discuss what the students learn about a sense of ‘Place’ from reading or sharing these stories.

  • Baranjuk, Musk Duck, The Wally Cooper story
  • Norrington, L. & Huxley, D.  (2007). You and me: our place.  Kingswood, SA :  Working Title Press
  • Richardson, T. & Houston, B.  (2012). My home Broome.  Broome, WA :  Magabala Books

View a selection of video stories from:

Examine the different style of animation used by the students to illustrate their story, e.g. stop-motion, narrator/presentation, audio/image.

Have student create or tell a story about their special place. Record each story and upload them for use in the presentation. Students can select which form of presentation they wish.

Create a stop motion animation of a story set in the student’s papier-mache landscapes and using the animals identified there as characters. The story can be sourced externally, i.e.; from a story book or film, or it can be original work.

Apps, software and resources to help with animation include:

Host a ‘movie afternoon’ to showcase the finished stop motion films. The afternoon could be a community-wide screening or simply with other classes and year levels within the school.