Right Under Your Nose: YEAR 2 - Science- Elaborate

When the power goes off, Big Cuz, Nanna, Little J and Old Dog go to the beach. They use bread to catch hermit crabs, which in turn are used to catch a ‘bluebone’ fish. Big Cuz learns how to fish, Nanna makes a fire to cook the fish, and Little J finds a large clam shell to take to school the next day.

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

Theme - FISHING

Revisit Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 4 ‘Right Under Your Nose’, and ask students to recall the type of fish Big Cuz caught at the beach: a Bluebone. Ask students if they have ever seen or eaten a Bluebone fish. Show the class an imageor video clip of the fish.

From the ‘Western Blue Groper’ PDF, have students complete a question sheet about the characteristics of the fish, such as:

  • Where would you fish for Bluebone Groper in Australia? (Shark Bay, Western Australia)
  • Is the Bluebone Groper related to other fish in Australia? (Eastern Blue Groper found in southern Queensland, Wilson’s Promontory, Victoria, and South Australia)
  • Which type of habitat does a Bluebone Groper prefer? (Shallow waters around reefs)
  • What do Bluebone Groper’s usually eat? (bloodworms, prawns, shells, crabs and sea urchins)
  • How long does the Bluebone Groper live? (up to 70 years, but doesn’t grow bigger after reaching 30 years of age)
  • How big does a Bluebone Groper grow to? (It can grow up to 1.7 metres and weight up to 40 kilograms))
  • How big does a fish need to be before you can eat it? (approximately 820 mm, only the mature female fish should be eaten
  • What special characteristics does the Bluebone Groper have? (It is be able to change sex from female to male, once it has matured).

View ‘a-Kuridi: The Groper’
This is the story of a groper visiting different areas and creating country until it becomes sleepy and disperses itself over the land to become the dreaming and formations of the earth.

Have students access an archive of Australian fish to find a fish they would like to know more about, particularly those fish in their local area. Online archives include:

Using the questions above as a guide, have students prepare and present a poster presentation using Glogster, or PowerPoint. Each student should illustrate and label the parts of their fish and write their responses to the questions using a fish template. The template and responses should be entered into their Science Journal.  can be found in the following resource:

A Science Journal is a record of a student’s 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.

Access resources on how Aboriginal peoples and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples fished, and the types of technologies they used to trap and catch fish. Discuss and display images of fishing in canoes, fish and eel traps. Suggested resources:

Excursion/Incursion: With the assistance of a local Elder, or recognised representative, take students to a local creek to demonstrate how a traditional fish trap was made. Using cane and found/recycles materials, make a woven eel trap basket.

Examine artworks, paintings and sculptures of Aboriginal artists and/or Torres Strait Islander artists that recorded the traditional ways of fishing and trapping. Suggested resources:

Design a fish:

Have students play “Exquisite Corpse” to design a new fish. Divide the class into groups of three. Give each group three sheets of thin cardboard, one per student. Explain that all students will be contributing to the drawings of each fish. Ask each student to divide their piece of cardboard into three equal parts. They can either rule division lines or crease the paper.

Start by having the first student draw and colour an imaginary head to the fish. Then they fold their drawing so it can’t be seen and pass their drawing to the student on their left, and all three students rotate their drawing to the next person. The second student draws and colours the body of the fish, folds the drawing away, and passes to the third student who draws the tail of the fish.

When all rotations are complete, unfold the imaginary fishes, cut out and make a fish mobile.