Where’s Aaron: FOUNDATION - Media Arts - Engage

The class is taking turns hosting ‘Aaron’ the class mascot, taking him on adventures. It is Little J’s turn, so Little J, Nanna, Big Cuz, and Old Dog take Aaron on Country to look for mica rock, and along the way they photograph the expedition. Distracted by the events of the day, Little J loses Aaron and the family enrols the help of Uncle Mick, a Search and Rescue officer, to return him.

Engage - Explore ideas, characters and settings in the community through stories in images, sounds and text

Theme - STORY PRINCIPLES

Before viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, ask students to predict what they think the story is about by reading the title of the episode. Ask students who they think Aaron is and what happens to him. Have students respond to why the episode has a title with a question, and who is invited to answer the question. Also, where possible access the Little J & Big Cuz picture book and/or eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”

Introduce the concepts of (media) ‘artists’ and (media) ‘audience’. Refer to The Arts, Glossary, Australian Curriculum.

Explain that these two concepts media artist and media audience are linked – the media artist writes, makes and/or produces a story to be read/viewed/responded to by the media audience, and that the media audience may sometimes read the media differently to how the media artist intends it to read. This mismatch of reading is called ‘viewpoints’, and how an audience reads a media story depends on various conditions, such as age of the audience, ethnic background, prior experiences, and understanding the complex nature of storytelling, etc.

After viewing the Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their development of media language and understanding of story principles.

Prepare a worksheet or make a Quizlet, where the order of the events in the episode are mixed up and the students are required to re-order them correctly. This activity allows students to identify the sequence of actions that lead to at first losing, and then rescuing Aaron the class mascot.

Encourage students to identify the events that occur in these parts of the story:

The beginning:

  • Who are the main characters?
  • Where does the story take place?

The middle:

  • What happens to build tension?
  • What is the dilemma or climax of the story?

The end:

  • How is the problem resolved?
  • Who is the hero that saves the day?
  • How do the other characters react?

Explore other picture/animation stories so that students can interpret the same three parts of the story in each:

  • Allen, P., Who Sank the Boat? (1998), Penguin Books Australia 
  • Polacco, P., The Keeping Quilt. (2001), Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
  • Hutchins, P., Rosie's Walk, Little Simon; Brdbk edition 
  • Smith-Yualug, C. & Martins, F.  (2012). The haunted billabong.  [Killara, NSW]: Indij Readers
  • Kelly, J. & Russell, S., The Min Min, Indij Readers
  • Roland, H., The Wombats Go On Camp, (2013), Allen & Unwin
  • French, J. & Whatley, B., Diary of a wombat. (2002). Sydney, NSW: Angus & Robertson.
  • Parker, N. J., (2004). Willow the wombat. Armadale, Victoria: Brolly Books.

Students can practise identifying and ordering of events as a storyboard with the following games:

Provide students with a six-frame storyboard template. Invite students to create their own story. They need to plot the story within the storyboard:

  • 2 frames for the beginning,
  • 2 frames for the middle
  • 2 frames for the end of their story.

Invite students to draw their characters around the outside of the storyboard and use simple/stylised figure shapes inside the frames. The objective of this activity is for students to ideate the sequence of events in their story and how to understand the process in communicating the action on screen.

Suggested resources

Display the students’ storyboards in the classroom and invite each student to share their story with the class.