When B-Boy comes to stay overnight, Little J becomes envious of the attention he is getting from everyone. Out walking on Country, Nanna, Little J, Big Cuz and B-Boy find an injured joey. Uncle Mick, a Search and Rescue officer, tells them how to care for the joey that they name ‘Hopalong’. The children feed and look after Hopalong until Mick finds him a place in a wildlife shelter.

Engage - Pose and respond to questions, and make predictions about familiar objects and events.

Theme - FAUNA (ANIMALS)

As a class, revisit Little J’s story within episode 7, ‘Hopalong’, and ask students to recall what type of animal Hopalong was and how the family rescued and cared for it.

As a class, view this slideshow about scientists collecting wild crocodile eggs for scientific research. The last few images show hatchlings emerging from eggs:

• As extreme as it gets': crocodile egg collecting

Question students about what they observed of the young of crocodiles, the size, number, colour of eggs, the length of time from laying to hatching, where the eggs were laid and survival rates.

Ask students about their prior knowledge of crocodiles. Have students

• pose questions about why the rangers were collecting the eggs
• predict what will happen to the hatchings that have been collected
• identify the type of scientists involved in the study
• suggest reasons how the crocodile research will help protect crocodiles.

Have students nominate what type of animal a crocodile is (reptile).

Introduce a question for students to research:

• How does science classify animals? Here are some ways:
  • Vertebrate (having a backbone) and invertebrate (without a backbone)
  • Vertebrate animals include: mammals, reptiles, birds, arthropods, amphibians and fish
• Which animals belong in each classification? Suggested resources to identify the classification of animals:
  • Animal classification
  • Animal Classes
  • Classifying animals 
  • Animal Classifications

Divide the class into smaller groups and allocate one of the animal classifications (vertebrate and in-vertebrate) to each group. Have students find information on how the category is classified, and list 10-20 animals in the classification, and where these animals live. Using a map of the world, have the group label where the animals live. Once the groups have identified their animals, pay particular attention to those animals they found that live in Australian.

Invite groups to share the information each group researched. Display the information as an online album or small poster display.

As a class, ask students to classify humans (mammals) and kangaroos (marsupial), and compare the similarities and differences between them.