Goanna ate my homework: YEAR 1-Science-Engage

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.

Engage - Pose and respond to questions about familiar objects and events

Theme - LIVING THINGS

Gather together samples, images, and objects of living and non-living things, such as plants, snakes, spiders, insects, birds, mammals, marine animals, trees, flowers, vines, grass, rocks, bones, plastic items, wooden items, glass items, sand, etc. If there is concern over collecting objects/artefacts from particular areas students can use frottage.

On the floor, place two hoops labelled with ‘living’ and ‘non-living’ and ask students to select objects from the collection and place it in a category. Once placed they must explain to the class why they decided that the object belonged in the group.

For consideration: Aboriginal spirituality believes that after The Dreaming the ancestor spirits they changed into trees, the stars, rocks, watering holes or other objects. Therefore, everything is still living. A good Dreaming narrative to go with this is the story of the Glasshouse Mountains, Qld:

The language of the Kabi Kabi people of the Sunshine Coast is used in the names of towns and places on the Sunshine Coast:

  • Caloundra – from kalowen-dha or kalowen-ba, meaning 'a place of beech trees'
  • Coochimudlo – from coochi or kutchi (meaning red), meaning 'red rock of the island'
  • Dunethin – from dhu-yungathim, meaning 'trees swimming'
  • Maroochy – from marutji (red beak), the name given to the black swan
  • Nambour – from namba, meaning 'the white paper bark of the tea trees'
  • Noosa – from noothera or nuthuru, meaning 'shady'

Place three hoops, labelled with ‘plants’, ‘animals’ & ‘minerals’ and ask students to select objects from the collection and place it in one of these categories. Once placed they must explain to the class why they decided that the object belonged in the group.

Place two hoops, labelled with ‘indigenous/native’ and ‘non-indigenous/non-native’ and ask students to select objects from the collection and place it in one of these categories. Once placed they must explain to the class why they decided that the object belonged in the group.

Place six hoops, labelled with mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, arachnids, and ask students to select objects from the collection and place it in one of these categories. Once placed, they must explain to the class why they decided that the object belonged in the group.

Place two hoops, labelled ‘toxic/poisonous’ and ‘non-toxic/poisonous’, and ask students to select objects from the collection and place it in one of these categories. Once placed they must explain to the class why they decided that the object belonged in the group.

At the start of each selection process, have students pose questions about the criteria of each grouping. The objective is for students to decide on a category and be aware that objects in everyday life can be categorised. Getting the category ‘right’ is secondary to the attempt to consider the grouping and concluding.

Have students suggest more groupings that they can use to group the specimens. Their suggestions might include:

  • farm animals, zoo animals, household pets, garden creatures, home creatures, bush animals
  • animals that walk, fly, swim, live on land, live in the water
  • animals with scales, feathers, fur or hair, beaks (or other characteristics).

Develop a table that students can nominate animals, plants and inanimate objects into a category or many categories. Design, construct, and play a Bingo game using the words associated with the categories, and living Australian animals.

Suggested resource: