A possum disturbs Old Dog, and a ‘cranky’ magpie swoops at anyone who steps into the backyard. Little J and Big Cuz share a room and when Little J steps on Big Cuz’s art project, a disagreement over territory ensues. The result is a clear dividing line to mark their individual territory. But they discover they have to compromise on a shared space, and cooperate in order to move in and out of the room, and to get past the swooping magpie in the backyard. Their joint, inventive solution wins high praise from the class at ‘show & tell’.

Explore - Sort and record information and data, including location, in tables and on plans and labelled maps.

Theme - MAPS

After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 12 ‘Territories’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about place, maps and boundaries.

Introduce the concepts of basic mapping with students using resources such as:

• Sequential development of understanding maps Australian Geography Teachers Association
• Sequential development of understanding elements of maps (PDF)
• Basic Map Drawing Skills

Provide students with examples of a variety of old and new maps, including atlases and touring maps. Have students observe and list the common elements they see for all the maps they examine.

• Australia on the Map
• Maps of Australia
• Maps of Australia
• A gallery of maps

Explore the ways that maps represent features such as land features, water, roads and settlements. Point out to students the special features on maps, and the terms applied to these features, including:

• title and/or description
• legend, explaining the meaning of symbols
• the convention that North is at the top of the map (older maps often included a North arrow or compass rose)
• the scale, indicated both in bar form and written as a statement (a ratio).

Some maps include a location diagram, where the map shows a small area in large scale. For definitions of geographical terms, refer to Humanities and Social Science Years F-6/7_ Glossary_Australian Curriculum v8.3.

As a class, examine an aerial photograph of Curtin Springs cattle station, near Uluru, Flying the Outback.

Ask students to explain the similarities and difference between an ‘aerial photograph’ and ‘a map’. Explore this image and have students find the roads or tracks, the houses and sheds, water tank, cultivated hay gardens, and any other features. Have students define which features are ‘natural’ and which are ‘constructed’.

Divide students into pairs and provide each pair with one of the images. One student has the image and the other does NOT see it yet. The first student describes to the second student all the features they see in the photo, natural, constructed or unknown. The second student takes notes. Allow 2 minutes.

When time is up, both students look at the photo and review the list of features to find if there is anything they have missed. They add additional items to their list.

Students can decide whether each item on their list is a natural feature, a feature constructed by people, a feature managed by people, or unknown (needing further research). They can draw their own map of the place from memory, or use an App such as Scribble maps.

List of images:

• Aerial view of the Whitsunday Islands, Queensland 
• Aerial views of central Australia
• A coastal farm, Tasmania 
• Cooktown, Queensland 
• El Questro Wilderness Park, Kimberley Region, WA 
• Great Ocean Road, Victoria 
• Roads and MacDonnell Ranges near Alice Springs, NT 
• Warraber Island, Torres Strait, Queensland 
• Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges, South Australia 

Discuss the identified features of each image with each group and as a class explore and identify the features students marked as ‘unknown’. Have students conduct further research into these features, using people, books, atlases and the internet as sources of information.