One night, Nanna teaches Little J, Big Cuz and Levi about the star constellations through stories of the past. At school, Ms Chen encourages the students to investigate the evidence of dinosaurs. Little J and Levi set out to find evidence of dinosaurs themselves, happening upon the fossil of Diprotodon, also called Wombat Rex.

Engage - Pose and respond to questions about familiar objects and events

Theme - LIVING THINGS (PLANTS)

After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 2 ‘Wombat Rex’, engage students with the following activities about living things in their environment.

Take the class on a walk around the school grounds. If your school has a nature area (bush land or developed gardens) travel in and around this area. On this walk, ask students to observe the different plants that thrive in this environment. Prepare a map of the area where the class will walk and give each student a copy of the map. Highlight on the map the plants the students are to find, observe and document. Within the spaces left blank on the map, students are required to find the plants and draw the shape of the leaf of each plant students need to find and that grows in the designated areas.

Prepare a classification chart with images of the plants and leaves the students found, aligned with both their botanical name and their common name. Have students write the name/s of the plants they observed and drew onto their map.

Divide the class into smaller groups and have each group select one of the plants they observed and drew. The students should then research the following questions about their plant:

• Is the plant a native plant to Australia?
• In which areas of Australia does this plant usually grow?
• In which seasons does the plant flower?
• What type of climate and conditions does the plant need to grow?
• How old do you think this plant is? Why?
• If relevant, what is its Aboriginal name and/or Torres Strait Islander name?

Collect a variety of dry leaves and have students complete a large Frottage (placing the leaf under the page and completing a rubbing of the shape and texture of the leaf) of the leaves. The students can position the leaves on the one sheet of paper in a pattern design, or as an arrangement from big to small leaves, or other elected characteristics, e.g. spikey leaves, round leaves, long and thin leaves.

As an optional idea, students could start a leaf, flower and seed collection by drying and pressing the found objects and creating a specimen collection. These specimen can be kept in a class science album or photograph album.

**Teacher note: Remind students not to remove objects from ceremonial or sacred sites without permission.