One night, Little J hears the nocturnal Barking Owl and becomes fascinated by how the owl stays awake at night. In the morning, he is woken by the carolling of magpies and on the way to school, he is swooped by Maggie, the magpie. Miss Chen teaches the class about nocturnal animals.

Explain - Use a range of methods to sort information, including drawings and provided tables and through discussion, compare observations with predictions

Theme - DAY & NIGHT

Revisit the story of Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Night Owl and Morning Maggie’ and ask students to suggest what ‘nocturnal’ means. Have students suggest what they see when they look up at the sky at night.Watch the video clip/s and discuss how the sun and moon travel and change appearance across the day sky and night sky:

• NASA Education – Moon Phases Demonstration  
• Earth rotation: night and day (game)  
• Changes in the sky

Give students a globe and a lamp to explain the movement of the sun to cause day and night on the earth. Direct students to include specific terms in their explanation, such as, north and south hemispheres, equator, Earth’s axis, the north and south poles, twilight, sunrise/dawn and sunset/dusk.

To reinforce students’ understanding, read/view the book,

• Branley, F. M. & Dorros, A. (1986). What makes day and night. New York: Crowell.

Night Walk:

Switch out the lights and darken the room, to present different scenarios for ‘nocturnal’. If possible, apply a night sky or star constellation decal (glow-in-the-dark) to the ceiling. Students could make their own stars and celestial objects using plain sheets of ‘glow-in-the dark’ decal sheets, combining them to make constellations and then stick them on the classroom walls or ceiling (within safety regulations). Also, hide nocturnal animals in the room, e. g., an owl in a tree hole, a bilby and wombat in a ground hole, a bat on a branch of a tree. Shine the torch to reveal each animal and explain their specific nocturnal characteristics.

Ask students to identify other Australian nocturnal animals that they can add to the night scenarios. Access, Australian Nocturnal night animals for validation of the students’ suggestions.

In groups, have students select an additional animal to add to the ‘noctunal’ room scenarios.

Each group can make a three-dimensional model of the animal using play dough, plasticine or papier mache, or create a drawn and painted cut out. They could also construct a small habitat for the animal to hide in.

Place all the additional nocturnal animals in the room, and conduct another ‘Night walk’ where the students explain the specific characteristics of the nocturnal animal they created.

Have students enter the data and research about the nocturnal Australian animals and their habitats into their science journal.

“A science journal is a record of a students’ observations, experiences and reflections. Each entry is dated and annotated by the student. Annotations may include written labels, drawings, diagrams, charts, small specimens, photographs, and graphs. Student engagement and learning is evident in the science journal.”

Sourced from: Primary Connections, Linking science with literacy