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’.

Explain - Interpret data and information displayed in pictures and texts and on 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 students to the book, My Place, by Nadia Wheatley & Donna Rawlins. As you read the book, show and explain to students the place map that  relates to the individual stories of the children. The story of My Place goes back in time, over 200 years, from 1988 to 1788. So the map of the same place over time becomes less urban and more rural as time goes backward. Some of the maps are published at My Place – My Place Geography, ACTF. Compare the hand-drawn maps in the book to the more stylised maps of the website.

Access the Mapping - Basic Map Drawing Skills, Geography Teachers’ Association of Victoria (GTAV) PowerPoint presentation from the Geography Teachers’ Association of Victoria which outlines the BOLTSS approach to basic mapping skills and identification. Introduce students to three or four of these concepts: Border, Orientation, Legend, Title.

Divide the class into pairs and have each pair access one of the maps below. Have students identify

1. the land/sea feature/s that acts as the border,
2. the orientation of the cardinal points of the compass in relation to the map
3. the natural and man-made elements of the legend and how they are drawn
4. the title and url of the map.

Selected images and maps to use with this activity:

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

Once students have completed the task, ask each pair of students to find another pair of students who used the same map and compare results to see if they all agree with the responses to the questions. The group of four should join with another group of four to also share their findings.