Little J feels lucky when he wears a new pair of yellow undies. After Old Dog destroys them, he loses his confidence. Big Cuz saves the day with the remnants of the undies made into a sweat band, and Little J finds confidence to play the basketball game and win the day.

Elaborate - Create events and characters using different media that develop key events and characters from literary texts

Theme - GAMES

After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, episode 1, ‘Lucky Undies’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of Little J’s sense of luck and superstition.

In Episode1 ‘Lucky Undies’, Little J becomes a star basketball player when he is put under pressure to ‘score a basket’. Playing any game requires skills, equipment, strategies and players who understand the rules.

Find out what games each student likes to play. List the nominated games, and add a few sporting games, quiz games, electronic games, etc. Provide each student with three star stickers: one gold star, one silver star and one yellow star. Each student can put each of their three stickers against any three games that they feel are ‘best at’ (gold), ‘good at’ (silver), and ‘still learning’ (yellow). Organise the class into smaller groups depending on their ‘best’ preference.

Option 1

Each group can make an instructional video on how to play their favourite game, or how to learn one major skill of the game. For example, for basketball the skill may be a lay-up, dribbling or shooting. The audience for the video will be those students who didn’t elect this game. In the video, the group should explain and/or demonstrate the game’s rules, skills, equipment, and major strategies in order to entice others to play. The groups should draft the procedural information in steps, and decide who will demonstrate, who will narrate, who will film, who will assist, who will complete the film title, credits, etc.

Suggested resources for filming the demonstrations:

• Storyboard Generator
• Video production tools
• 22 of the newest apps to make videos in the classroom

Option 2

Each group holds a training camp for the other students to demonstrate and explain how to play a non-Indigenous or a traditional Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander game. Each member of the group takes responsibility for teaching/demonstrating one skill. If there are enough students, they could also play a demonstration game. This resource has many games that can be selected:

• Yulunga_ Traditional Indigenous Games

Option 3

Introduce students to traditional Aboriginal games and/or Torres Strait Islander games that they may have not played before, e.g.

• Yulunga_ Traditional Indigenous Games

Select a few games to play as a class or in small groups. Ask students who play the games to write a procedural text for playing the new game. They should list and describe the game’s rules, skills, equipment, and major strategies.