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.
Evaluate - Compare observations with those of others
Theme - MINERALS
Evaluate what students have learnt (know and can do) from the activities in relation to the Science curriculum.
Assess the success of the module through reflecting on students:
As a culmination of their learning in this module, have students:
Student evaluation tools
Students could self-evaluate their learning using a ‘monitoring’ journal (physical or digital) where the teacher lists the key understandings and concepts students needed to acquire through the module.
Where applicable, a self-evaluation could be constructed as a poll rating their responses using:
Use Early Years writing using rubrics to provide feedback to students using the rubric.
Students can use a learning worm to evaluate their work, adapted from:
Teacher reflection tools
Reflect on your teaching of the module. What worked well? What needs more work? What would you add/change/omit in future?
Ask students to rate your efforts and recommend areas for improvement. You may wish to refer to broader resources for reflection or for gaining feedback, for example:
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.
Elaborate - Represent and communicate observations and ideas in a variety of ways
Theme - MINERALS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their investigation of observable properties of minerals and how minerals are used in Australian households.
Revisit information about mica: what it looks like, how it flakes into sheets, what happens when we shine light on little pieces of mica, and how it was traditionally used by Aboriginal peoples and/or Torres Strait Islander people.
Make available for the class a selection of crystallised stones (minerals) for students to touch and directly observe. Choose a mineral and view it from every angle.
Introduce the term ‘properties’ of minerals and have students predict what this term means (hardness, lustre, colour, density (streak, fracture and cleavage).
While handling/observing the crystalline minerals, have students compare five stones. Create a comparison chart with the names of the five stones and have students enter a mark on a scale to assess the properties of each.
Explain the use of the term ‘crystalline’ and have students observe the crystal structure of each stone. Crystals might be formed near the surface of the earth or deep underground as molten rock (magma) from a volcano cools. Each crystal has a different structure and this is what determines its light-reflecting properties (including lustre and colour), the shapes it breaks into, and its hardness.
Explore images of crystals and gemstones from around the world on websites such as:
Provide students with a box containing a variety of building blocks, including blocks similar to Lego, foam balls and tooth picks, different shapes or counters, etc. and have students create an imaginary crystal structure. Make sure that students understand that once they have a simple structure with three of the same objects joined, they need to repeat the same structure, attach them to each other to complete the crystal shape.
Students select and arrange a dozen or more blocks or counters into a repeating pattern.
Ask students to experiment with making different repeating patterns and discuss how there are many ways these simple building blocks or shapes can be combined.
Have students investigate the Opal as a unique crystal found in Australia. Introduce students to Opal and its significance for Aboriginal peoples and the opal-producing arid areas of Australia.
Suggested resources
Alternatively, have students grow their own crystals.
Salt Crystal Experiment
Suggested resources
Have each student enter the information about the significance of the Opal to Aboriginal peoples into their science journal, along with the properties of minerals, their predictions, procedures and evaluations for making crystals and the meaning of crystalline, and any accompanying images and diagrams about crystals and minerals. The journal records all the observations, research, evaluations and reflections a student has about the science they discover.
“A science journal is a record of a students’ 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.”
Sourced from: Primary Connections, Linking science with literacy
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.
Explain - Use a range of methods to sort information, including drawings and provided tables and through discussion, compare observations with predictions
Theme - MINERALS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their investigation of minerals such as mica and ochre and their observable properties and uses.
Little J finds mica rock on country. Explain that some of the other names for mica include ‘cats gold’ and ‘glimmer’. Discuss with students why Little J is interested in mica, and what is special about it. Revisit the facts about mica:
Mica rock particles glitter in the sun. Mica appears to be made from thin sheets (sediments) set together to form a solid ‘igneous’ (volcanic) or metamorphic rock. Under a microscope, these sheets look like (polygonal and hexagonal) crystals. Mica is also form in combination with Fluorite, Muscovite (potassium mica), Lepidolite, Phlogopite (magnesium mica), and vermiculite (hydrated mica). Two rocks never look the same in shape. Mica, Mining Link
Suggested teacher resources:
Provide students with samples of gneiss and granite which contains mica. Have students use the magnifying glass to hunt for mica ‘glints’ or sparkles.
“Mica is shiny and flakes easily into small, flat pieces that catch the light when they are embedded into other types of rocks. One way that these shiny little flakes get into other rocks is when they are washed into oceans and the sea bed by rivers and floods, and settle, with other particles, in the sediment at the bottom. This is how some sedimentary rocks are formed.” Mica, Mining Link
“In central Australia, Aboriginal peoples operated mines where they extracted red and white ochre for making paint that was used for rock art, body paint and in ceremonies. Ochre is essentially iron oxide. The most highly prized white ochre is a type of white ochre that shimmers. When painted on the body, and seen in a firelight, it seems to glow. This is because this type of ochre has tiny pieces of mica in it, like glitter. The iridescent (shimmering) ochre was mainly found at Parachilna in South Australia. Because of this scarcity, Aboriginal peoples came from as far away as Cloncurry, Queensland, to trade for this special ochre. The distance between Parachilna and Cloncurry is over 1300 km.” Mining by Aborigines – Australia's first miners,
Examples of other traded commodities:
Mica experiment
1. Gather the following items for the experiment:
2. Fill all the jars ¾ full of water.
3. Add one tablespoon of damp vermiculite to each jar.
Secure a lid and shake the jar. Have students predict what will happen, and observe and record what does happens.
Turn off the lights and shine a torch through the liquid. Have students predict what will happen, and observe and record what does happens (shining glints of light can be seen when the mixture is shaken).
4. Add milk to all but one of the jars of water until each jar is almost full. Ask students to predict and observe what happens to the way light behaves when a torch shines light through the liquid. (The particles of protein and fat in the water disperse the light and the whole jar glows.)
5. Put one jar of milk and water aside. Then add just one additional ingredient to each of the remaining three jars: a teaspoon of vinegar; a teaspoon of vegetable oil; a drop of food colouring. Shake the mix and observe each jar. Ask students to predict, observe and record what happens in each jar.
6. Label the five jars:
7. Document the properties of light when a torch is shone through the jars in a dark room. As a class, explore words such as ‘pearlescent’, ‘luminous’ &/or ‘luminosity’, and ‘translucency’. Allow the vermiculite to settle at the bottom of the jar and predict what happens when flakes of mica settle at the bottom of water and merge with other particles into sedimentary rocks.
Have each student enter the information on how Aboriginal peoples and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples used mica, their own predictions and results of the experiment, and any accompanying images and diagrams about mica into their own science journal. The journal records all the observations, research, evaluations and reflections a student has about the science they discover.
“A science journal is a record of a students’ 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.”
Sourced from: Primary Connections, Linking science with literacy
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.
Explore - Participate in guided investigations to explore and answer questions
Theme - MINERALS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their investigation of mica, and its properties as a mineral. Revisit the definition of mica and compare it to common rocks.
Have students pose and respond to questions about the mineral Little J was referring to and wanting to find in the episode. Write the term ‘mica’ on the board/IWB, and the questions the students are required to find answers to, such as:
Survey the class to see if students have any prior knowledge of mica, and if possible, bring a sample of mica to class for students to examine. Divide the class into smaller groups and each group elects to find information for one or more of the questions, listed above.
Once all groups have located the answer to the question, develop a fact sheet with the combined information, and selected images. Use this as a template for other minerals found in Australia.
Have students suggest and/or find the names of other minerals and an image of a selection of minerals. There are over 4000 minerals found in Australia. Suggest to students the following minerals, such as, iron ore, gold, diamonds, quartz, feldspar, silver, copper, tin, bauxite, calcite, gypsum, pyrite, ruby, sapphire, opal, nickel, hematite, lead, magnesium, malachite, etc.
Direct students to the following websites for information:
Invite students to work in pairs, and select one of the minerals to complete an information sheet on, similar to the questions sheet they completed for mica. Once complete, encourage students to share their findings and contribute their information sheet to a class compiled gallery/album of Australian minerals.
As a class, watch these videos:
Have students recall the ways Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples used minerals, and which minerals they used.
Enter the worksheets, information, images, and diagrams about minerals and rocks into the individual student’s science journal. The journal records all the observations, research, evaluations and reflections a student has about the science they discover.
“A science journal is a record of a students’ 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.”
Sourced from: Primary Connections, Linking science with literacy
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 - Pose and respond to questions, and make predictions about familiar objects and events
Theme - MINERALS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their investigation of rocks and minerals.
Ask students if they are familiar with the terms ‘Animal, Vegetable, Mineral’. List the terms on the IWB/board. Invite students to define what they think the terms mean and the difference between the three. Download the two student activity sheets for students to complete:
Have students discuss the differences between the three categories and propose an accepted definition for each. Concentrate on the understanding of a mineral, and introduce a scientific definition, such as a mineral is:
Sources of information
Ask students to suggest names of other minerals they know, such as gold, diamonds, tin, copper, etc., and have the class test each suggestion against the definition. Use the resource, Rocks and Minerals, to check the facts about each suggestion.
Encourage students to pose and respond to questions about the difference between a rock and a mineral. Provide samples of rocks and minerals for students to make a comparison and observe differences. Support matreails can be found at
Essentially, rocks are made up of different minerals (and sometimes fossilised carbon), but minerals are mainly made of a single mineral (and sometimes a combination of two minerals).
Enter the worksheets, information, images, and diagrams about minerals and rocks into the individual student’s science journal. The journal records all the observations, research, evaluations and reflections a student has about the science they discover.
“A science journal is a record of a students’ 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.”
Sourced from: Primary Connections, Linking science with literacy
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.
Evaluate - Evaluate what students have learnt (know and can do) from the activities in relation to The Arts: Media Arts curriculum.
Theme - MEDIA PRODUCTION
Evaluate what students have learnt (know and can do) from the activities in relation to The Arts: Media Arts curriculum.
Assess the success of the module through reflecting on students:
As a culmination of their learning in this module, have students:
Student evaluation tools
Students could self-evaluate their learning using a ‘monitoring’ journal (physical or digital) where the teacher lists the key understandings and concepts students needed to acquire through the module.
Where applicable, a self-evaluation could be constructed as a poll rating their responses using:
Use Early Years writing using rubrics to provide feedback to students using the rubric.
Students can use a learning worm to evaluate their work, adapted from:
Teacher reflection tools
Reflect on your teaching of the module. What worked well? What needs more work? What would you add/change/omit in future?
Ask students to rate your efforts and recommend areas for improvement. You may wish to refer to broader resources for reflection or for gaining feedback, for example:
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.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of story, character, setting, and sound.
The story of Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, is about the class mascot, Aaron. Have the students suggest what a mascot is, and why it was so important for Little J that he take Aaron with him on Country. Have students recall how Monty was upset that he couldn’t take Aaron home with him the next day. It seems that the class has a special attachment to Aaron and they believed the doll represented them and/or their class in some way.
Explore students’ experiences of mascots, such as at sporting events, or Olympic mascots. Have students consider what mascots are used for:
Invite students to design and construct their own class mascot doll. Have the class discuss what type of mascot would represent them: human or animal, male or female, sporting or artistic, etc. Have students brainstorm what characteristics the mascot doll should represent. Considering the symbolic elements (covered in 5E stage: Explain) have students consider what colours or designs the mascot could have. Once they have drafted their ideas, provide students with different recycled materials and have students construct their design. Explain that their task is to take the mascot home with them over a weekend, or overnight, and create a photo story about an adventure the mascot has.
Photostory:
Each student should draft ideas for their mascot’s adventure using a:
Explain to students that the sequence of the photographs needs to be able to tell the story with or without narration:
Students can use digital cameras to photograph, and select the 5-10 photographs they feel will tell their story. Upload photos to a slide sequencing program like PowerPoint, input any narration and/or sound, and display photo stories to share with the class.
Sample photo stories: Photo Stories by Julia.
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.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of story, character, setting, and sound. Also access the Little J & Big Cuz eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
The story of Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, is about the class mascot, Aaron. Have the students suggest what a mascot is, and why it was so important for Little J that he take Aaron with him on Country. Have students recall how Monty was upset that he couldn’t take Aaron home with him the next day. It seems that the class has a special attachment to Aaron and they believed the doll represented them and/or their class in some way.
Explore students’ experiences of mascots, such as at sporting events, or Olympic mascots. Have students consider what mascots are used for:
Making a modelling clay mascot
Invite students to design and construct their own class mascot doll. Have the class discuss what type of mascot would represent them: human or animal, male or female, sporting or artistic, etc. Have students work in pairs and brainstorm what characteristics the mascot doll should represent. Considering the symbolic elements (covered in 5E stage: Explain) what colours or designs should the mascot have.
Once the pair have drafted their ideas, provide students with coloured modelling clay and have students build their mascot design.
Stop-motion animation
Provide an illustrated task sheet showing how to make a ‘stop-motion’ animation, adapted from
Have students watch example/s of stop motion animations that use basic materials, for example:
Invite students to watch the ‘2016 Screen It winners’, which is a competition for students who make stop-motion animation.
Have students discuss what stories the films portrayed, and how they were constructed. Demonstrate and explain the principles of stop-motion animation and have students develop a check list of the media elements they need to consider in designing and producing an animation. Remind students that they need to also design and construct a set that the mascot will move around in. Using recycled boxes and toys, have students build a small set, and use a desk lamp for lighting.
Each group/pair needs to:
Allocate areas of the classroom where the pairs/ groups can work.
Access and demonstrate a selected software program:
Invite students to share their ideas with the class, and evaluate the success of the animations as a promotion for their class mascot.
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.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of story, character, setting, and sound. Also access the Little J & Big Cuz eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
The story of Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, is about the class mascot, Aaron. Have the students suggest what a mascot is, and why it was so important for Little J that he take Aaron with him on Country. Have students recall how Monty was upset that he couldn’t take Aaron home with him the next day. It seems that the class has a special attachment to Aaron and they believed the doll represented them and/or their class in some way.
Explore students’ experiences of mascots, such as at sporting events, or Olympic mascots. Have students consider what mascots are used for:
Making a cloth mascot
Invite students to design and construct their own class mascot doll. Have the class discuss what type of mascot would represent them: human or animal, male or female, sporting or artistic, etc. Have students work in pairs and brainstorm what characteristics the mascot doll should represent. Considering the symbolic elements (covered in E5 stage: Explain) what colours or designs should the doll have.
Once the pair have drafted their ideas, provide students with a calico/hessian doll template and have students decorate it as per their designs. Have students sew around the shape leaving a small section open to fill the doll with stuffing (shredded paper, cushion stuffing, etc.) and finish the sewing to seal the gap.
Invite students to create an example of promotional material, e.g. advertisement, poster, banner, sticker for the mascot doll who is the main character in a new animation. Refer to the Little J & Big Cuz Promotional trailer for ideas.
To design the advertisement/poster, students should include
Students should develop and apply both the technical elements and the symbolic media elements (as covered this module’s Explain stage (Symbol)).
Once students have completed the mascot doll and the poster, they are to promote their production to the class in the media genre of an advertisement.
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.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of the media genre and the film poster. Also, where possible access the Little J & Big Cuz picture book and/or eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
Access the Little J & Big Cuz Press Kit and download the character image files and any promotional materials. Explain to students that broadcast media needs to be promoted to its intended audience and that promotional materials are important to understand the characters and story of the program.
Promotional materials can involve:
As a class, inspect the Little J & Big Cuz promotional material and ask students if they have purchased promotional materials for other TV programs or films they have liked. Have students list what they have and compare the commonalities of which promotions attract them as an audience.
Nominate students to explain what methods producers and broadcasters use to entice people to buy or watch their program. Ask students to predict what the purpose of each the promotional materials listed above could be, for example:
Working as individuals or in pairs, have students select one of the video clips below and design and create a promotional poster for the clip. The poster should include:
Each clip tells one of the Aboriginal Dreaming stories:
Invite students to share their posters and ideas with the class, and evaluate the success of their poster as a promotion for the Dreaming story.
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.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - CHARACTER
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of media genre. Also, where possible access the Little J & Big Cuz picture book and/or eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
Have students view the following clips:
Have students compare and explain what the difference is for the way each of the film clips are produced. Discuss that the clips represent distinctive styles or genres of film production. See if the students can guess which video clip belongs to which category.
Divide the class into groups and have each group re-watch a video clip and collaborate on the characteristics of the style or genre they are watching. Share these suggestions with the class and allow others to add to the list. Have the groups also suggest the purpose of, and the intended audience for, each of the genres.
Purposes:
Audience:
Ask students to keep a media diary (for a short period of time, if possible, a week), noting the
Compile the class viewing trends from all students to collate which media productions are most commonly viewed, on which broadcast technology and when. Have students add to the list any additional genres, such as news, comedy, and advertisements he like and watch which are outside the viewing r collection time.
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.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - SYMBOL
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of the conventions of media production and symbolic elements. Access the Little J & Big Cuz eBook for “Where’s Aaron”. As the students read the story each frame will respond with different sounds that are elements to the specific part of the story.
Have students identify in Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, the following technical elements that media producers use to create their story:
Have students consider what other elements in the animation assist the audience to understand the meaning of the story and react to it.
Select one of more of the Aboriginal Dreaming stories and/or Torres Strait Islander Bipo Bipo Taim (Before Before Time) stories, such as:
Have students watch the video clips and retell the stories in their own way. Have students describe if they feel the stories are happy or sad, or a mixture of both. Have students explain how they knew to describe the stories in the way they did. Focus their attention on the technical elements used to make the video clip: story, setting, character and sound. Ask students to suggest in what ways did the action in the video clip reinforce their thinking.
For example, use Girawu The Goanna, and ask students to explain how, at the start of the video clip, did the filmmaker give the audience a sense that the animals were desperate for water? Students may respond with suggestions, such as: the Kangaroo was crying; the crow was squawking; and the koala was lying on the ground looking as if he was dead. Ask students to study each of these actions and sounds separately, and assess if everyone in the class would read the intention of the filmmaker as the same.
Introduce students to the ‘Symbolic Elements’:
In pairs, using a I Think, I See, I Wonder visual thinking strategy, invite students to identify and explain the symbolic elements used in any of the Aboriginal Dreaming stories or Torres Strait Islander Bipo Bipo Taim (Before Before Time) stories. Ask students if they feel that the meaning of the story is enhanced because of these elements.
Ask students to draw or photograph a picture or scene where they have used one or more symbolic elements. Have students share their story and image with the class, and have the other students guess which symbolic element they have used.
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 so 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.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - FRAMING
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of the conventions of media production, framing and composition. Also, where possible access the Little J & Big Cuz picture book and/or eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
Read/view the book, Where the Forest Meets the Sea, by Jeannie Baker. Ask students to identify the different types of framing used in the illustrations:
Discuss the features of each type of frame to communicate how the audience should view the ‘detail’ in the story. If a close-up is used, what is the detail the director wants the audience to see? For example,
Have students also notice the angle of the frame. Is the scene shot from?
Have students explore the effect that using different camera angles has on how the audience views each scene. Ask students to count how many times Jeannie Baker uses the various frames in the scenes of frame in her story,
Re-watch Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, and using a pre-prepared worksheet with the various scenes listed, ask students to nominate the type of framing used and the angle the scene is shot at. Ask the class how the different choices of frames and angles might affect the way the audience relates to the action in the story.
Focus students’ attention on the photographs that Nanna took of Little J and Big Cuz on Country. Ask students to identify the ways Nanna used framing and angles. If available, have students use digital cameras or iPad cameras to take a variety of images applying their understanding of framing and angles. Have students display their different shots and label them for the different framing types.
Invite students to share their images and ideas with the class, and evaluate the success of the photographs to display the correct frames and angles.
Suggested teacher resource: Shot types
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.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - SOUND
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of the conventions of media production and sound production.
Have students identify the following in Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’:
Re-watch the episode with the sound turned off. Have students suggest what is missing that assists the audience to understand the story.
Direct students to the element of sound, and have them focus on the ways in which sound is produced for media:
Have students identify how each of these types of sound are evident in Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’. Replay the episode and stop at the parts of the episode that have the diverse types of sound. Prepare a worksheet with the parts of the episode listed, and have students list which sound device was used.
Access the Little J & Big Cuz eBook for “Where’s Aaron”. As the students read the story each frame will respond with different sounds that are elements to the specific part of the story.
Introduce the term Foley artist, who is the person who makes sound effects for film. Ask students to suggest how the Foley artist produces sound. Watch a video clip for ways to produce sound.
Suggested resources
Have students assess what equipment they can use to make sound aligned to the action in a segment of Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’. Collect ordinary objects within the classroom that make a sound. Have students explore how the combinations of instruments can create different sounds that replicate usual/expected sounds for the human ear, such as the sound of paper moving on a desk, different sounds of walking for different people like Little J, Big Cuz and Big Dog walking in the house, on Country, the owl’s wings flapping, Nanna using an iPhone, drawing in the sand.
Invite students to use the objects found in the classroom to produce a sound, and then record it. As a class, listen to the individual sounds and suggest which part of the episode the sounds could be used for.
Sequence the sounds made by the students into a recording, using Cool Tools for Schools from Audacity, or similar software, and play the sound track over the animation sequence. Have students assess the skills of their product and what they need to improve, e.g. timing, variety, authenticity, etc.
Suggested resources:
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.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - ANIMATE
After viewing the Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of the story ladder used in comic strips and cartoons. The ‘Little J & Big Cuz’ picture book and/or ebook, “Where’s Aaron?’, could also be used here.
Revisit the story ladder structure of stories: beginning, middle and end.
Have students explore the story in Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’ to identify the elements of the episode story that apply to each section. Re-play the animation and stop it as a ‘frame by frame’ analysis. Ask students to:
As a class, examine examples of static comic strips so that students can identify how each comic strip presents the story through frames using text and image. Examples could include,
Japanese comics (manga) and animation (anime), for example:
Comic strips and their animation adaptions
Marvel comics:
Videos clips/animations of popular story books:
Aboriginal Comics (Comic Vine)
Have students pose and respond to questions about the differences between the two representations, and what elements are additional in the film/animation versions of the story compared to the static version: movement, sound.
Introduce students to technical conventions of media using ‘The Lost Thing’, ACMI (Teacher resource).
Introduction to animation
Show students how to make a 10–20-page flip book using a simple symbol/character, such as a balloon growing larger and bursting, a smile growing broader and wider, a flower adding more petals, etc.
Have students think through the movement they want the object to do, such as bursting, growing larger or adding extra leaves, etc.
Provide students with a set of ‘post it notes’ or a stapled template of paper pages and show students where each of the images need to be drawn. Use a felt pen/marker to draw the object.
As an extension activity, students could use either of these resources,
or, a simple PowerPoint slide sequence application to create an animated object.
Display all attempts and have the students share their ideas for their animations and explain how they made the object move and what they could do to extend the movement.
Further resources:
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 - CHARACTER
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of character, and the role various characters play in the story. Also, where possible access the Little J & Big Cuz picture book and/or eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
Have students list the characters in the episode, and discuss what each character looks and acts like, and who their favourite character is. Working in pairs, have students select a character and complete a ‘character profile’ including information about their age, likes, dislikes, attitude, phobias, personality, gender, physical abilities, humour, expression, clothing, etc.
Introduce students to several types of character biographies, such as movie star/celebrity profiles, ‘Wanted’ posters, Horoscopes, Obituary, Birthday notice, Wedding announcement, and/or Anniversary announcement. Each style requires diverse types of information about the character, and presents a different viewpoint about the character. Each of these writing styles also requires an unique design and information layout, for purpose and focus. Engage students with a variety of profiles to compare the different points of view.
Access and use the Little J & Big Cuz Press Kit to read how the producers outline the types of characters in the series. Students can download or copy images of each character and compare their understanding of the characters with the official version. They could annotate the image of each character with words that apply to that character.
Introduce the term ‘stereotype’ and have students suggest what they understand by the term. Alert them to the idea that all media characters are constructed as a stereotype so that the character will relate to, and be accepted by, a universal audience. For this episode, poll students, using Kahoot, to find out which of the characters they identify as:
Have students imagine if they were a character in Little J & Big Cuz, and have them design what their character would look like, and what the Little J & Big Cuz series Press Kit would write about their character.
Suggested resources
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 - SETTING
After viewing the Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of setting. Also, where possible access the Little J & Big Cuz picture book and/or eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
Ask students to re-watch the episode and to identify the different settings used: the backyard, the classroom, different areas on Country, inside Nanna’s house, etc. Have students pose and respond to questions about the significance of setting or place in order to tell the story, as well as questions about how the audience views the scene because of the setting.
View examples of short stories where the setting and sound are important to convey meaning to the story. Suggested resources
Story Monster is a fun online literacy game that uses the moving image to promote student learning. In the game, you'll design a hungry monster who loves to gobble up words. But your monster will need help with what to eat - he can only be fed well-structured sentences.
Telling a story
1. Decide the setting.
Have students collect different photographs of scenery and settings from magazines, newspapers or from the web. Categorise the images as indoors and outdoors. Mix and match a pair of scenes, and using a four-frame storyboard template, glue one scene onto the first frame and another onto the third frame. This will leave frames 2 and 4 empty. Propose to students that their task is to complete the other scenes for a story of their choice so that the story sequences from the first scene to the last scene, e.g. a character starts to move from a bedroom and where does a character walk to get to the garden?
Suggested resources:
2. Choose the character.
Invite students to choose one of the characters from Episode 8. Then make or draw copies of the character so that every student receives four copies of the same character.
Have each student position two of their character cut-outs, one each within two of the pasted scenes.
3. Decide the new episode.
Invite each student to imagine a story that involves their character interacting within the new scenery. They will need to fill the two blank scenes, either by drawing the scenes or by finding more photographs of relevant scenery to paste in the frames.
Remind students that the story they tell has to have a beginning, middle and end:
The end: problem resolved and the hero of the story is established.
4. Build the story. If possible, have students write four sentences, one for each scene, to help build the story.
Invite students to add speech bubble dialogue to heighten the character’s relationship to the narrative.
Ask students to pose and respond to questions about how they can change the time of day in the images by using assorted colours and shading the scenes darker.
5. Sound and music.
Depending on the medium of the story, have students upload sounds, music, or recorded narrative to enhance the meaning of the story.
6. Display the presentations to the class.
Invite students to evaluate the types of symbolic elements (the scenery, sound and tempo of the music) selected for the story, and explain how each element contributes to the meaning of the story.
Optional storyline
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:
The middle:
The end:
Explore other picture/animation stories so that students can interpret the same three parts of the story in each:
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:
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.
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.
Evaluate - Evaluate what students have learnt (know and can do) from the activities in relation to The Arts: Media Arts curriculum.
Theme - MEDIA PRODUCTION
Evaluate what students have learnt (know and can do) from the activities in relation to The Arts: Media Arts curriculum.
Assess the success of the module through reflecting on students:
As a culmination of their learning in this module, have students:
Student evaluation tools
Students could self-evaluate their learning using a ‘monitoring’ journal (physical or digital) where the teacher lists the key understandings and concepts students needed to acquire through the module.
Where applicable, a self-evaluation could be constructed as a poll rating their responses using:
Use Early Years writing using rubrics to provide feedback to students using the rubric.
Students can use a learning worm to evaluate their work, adapted from:
Teacher reflection tools
Reflect on your teaching of the module. What worked well? What needs more work? What would you add/change/omit in future?
Ask students to rate your efforts and recommend areas for improvement. You may wish to refer to broader resources for reflection or for gaining feedback, for example:
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.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of story, character, setting, and sound.
The story of Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, is about the class mascot, Aaron. Have the students suggest what a mascot is, and why it was so important for Little J that he take Aaron with him on Country. Have students recall how Monty was upset that he couldn’t take Aaron home with him the next day. It seems that the class has a special attachment to Aaron and they believed the doll represented them and/or their class in some way.
Explore students’ experiences of mascots, such as at sporting events, or Olympic mascots. Have students consider what mascots are used for:
Invite students to design and construct their own class mascot doll. Have the class discuss what type of mascot would represent them: human or animal, male or female, sporting or artistic, etc. Have students brainstorm what characteristics the mascot doll should represent. Considering the symbolic elements (covered in 5E stage: Explain) have students consider what colours or designs the mascot could have. Once they have drafted their ideas, provide students with different recycled materials and have students construct their design. Explain that their task is to take the mascot home with them over a weekend, or overnight, and create a photo story about an adventure the mascot has.
Photostory:
Each student should draft ideas for their mascot’s adventure using a:
Explain to students that the sequence of the photographs needs to be able to tell the story with or without narration:
Students can use digital cameras to photograph, and select the 5-10 photographs they feel will tell their story. Upload photos to a slide sequencing program like PowerPoint, input any narration and/or sound, and display photo stories to share with the class.
Sample photo stories: Photo Stories by Julia.
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.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of story, character, setting, and sound. Also access the Little J & Big Cuz eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
The story of Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, is about the class mascot, Aaron. Have the students suggest what a mascot is, and why it was so important for Little J that he take Aaron with him on Country. Have students recall how Monty was upset that he couldn’t take Aaron home with him the next day. It seems that the class has a special attachment to Aaron and they believed the doll represented them and/or their class in some way.
Explore students’ experiences of mascots, such as at sporting events, or Olympic mascots. Have students consider what mascots are used for:
Making a modelling clay mascot
Invite students to design and construct their own class mascot doll. Have the class discuss what type of mascot would represent them: human or animal, male or female, sporting or artistic, etc. Have students work in pairs and brainstorm what characteristics the mascot doll should represent. Considering the symbolic elements (covered in 5E stage: Explain) what colours or designs should the mascot have.
Once the pair have drafted their ideas, provide students with coloured modelling clay and have students build their mascot design.
Stop-motion animation
Provide an illustrated task sheet showing how to make a ‘stop-motion’ animation, adapted from
Have students watch example/s of stop motion animations that use basic materials, for example:
Invite students to watch the ‘2016 Screen It winners’, which is a competition for students who make stop-motion animation.
Have students discuss what stories the films portrayed, and how they were constructed. Demonstrate and explain the principles of stop-motion animation and have students develop a check list of the media elements they need to consider in designing and producing an animation. Remind students that they need to also design and construct a set that the mascot will move around in. Using recycled boxes and toys, have students build a small set, and use a desk lamp for lighting.
Each group/pair needs to:
Allocate areas of the classroom where the pairs/ groups can work.
Access and demonstrate a selected software program:
Invite students to share their ideas with the class, and evaluate the success of the animations as a promotion for their class mascot.
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.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of story, character, setting, and sound. Also access the Little J & Big Cuz eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
The story of Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, is about the class mascot, Aaron. Have the students suggest what a mascot is, and why it was so important for Little J that he take Aaron with him on Country. Have students recall how Monty was upset that he couldn’t take Aaron home with him the next day. It seems that the class has a special attachment to Aaron and they believed the doll represented them and/or their class in some way.
Explore students’ experiences of mascots, such as at sporting events, or Olympic mascots. Have students consider what mascots are used for:
Making a cloth mascot
Invite students to design and construct their own class mascot doll. Have the class discuss what type of mascot would represent them: human or animal, male or female, sporting or artistic, etc. Have students work in pairs and brainstorm what characteristics the mascot doll should represent. Considering the symbolic elements (covered in E5 stage: Explain) what colours or designs should the doll have.
Once the pair have drafted their ideas, provide students with a calico/hessian doll template and have students decorate it as per their designs. Have students sew around the shape leaving a small section open to fill the doll with stuffing (shredded paper, cushion stuffing, etc.) and finish the sewing to seal the gap.
Invite students to create an example of promotional material, e.g. advertisement, poster, banner, sticker for the mascot doll who is the main character in a new animation. Refer to the Little J & Big Cuz Promotional trailer for ideas.
To design the advertisement/poster, students should include
Students should develop and apply both the technical elements and the symbolic media elements (as covered this module’s Explain stage (Symbol)).
Once students have completed the mascot doll and the poster, they are to promote their production to the class in the media genre of an advertisement.
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.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of the media genre and the film poster. Also, where possible access the Little J & Big Cuz picture book and/or eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
Access the Little J & Big Cuz Press Kit and download the character image files and any promotional materials. Explain to students that broadcast media needs to be promoted to its intended audience and that promotional materials are important to understand the characters and story of the program.
Promotional materials can involve:
As a class, inspect the Little J & Big Cuz promotional material and ask students if they have purchased promotional materials for other TV programs or films they have liked. Have students list what they have and compare the commonalities of which promotions attract them as an audience.
Nominate students to explain what methods producers and broadcasters use to entice people to buy or watch their program. Ask students to predict what the purpose of each the promotional materials listed above could be, for example:
Working as individuals or in pairs, have students select one of the video clips below and design and create a promotional poster for the clip. The poster should include:
Each clip tells one of the Aboriginal Dreaming stories:
Invite students to share their posters and ideas with the class, and evaluate the success of their poster as a promotion for the Dreaming story.
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.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - CHARACTER
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of media genre. Also, where possible access the Little J & Big Cuz picture book and/or eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
Have students view the following clips:
Have students compare and explain what the difference is for the way each of the film clips are produced. Discuss that the clips represent distinctive styles or genres of film production. See if the students can guess which video clip belongs to which category.
Divide the class into groups and have each group re-watch a video clip and collaborate on the characteristics of the style or genre they are watching. Share these suggestions with the class and allow others to add to the list. Have the groups also suggest the purpose of, and the intended audience for, each of the genres.
Purposes:
Audience:
Ask students to keep a media diary (for a short period of time, if possible, a week), noting the
Compile the class viewing trends from all students to collate which media productions are most commonly viewed, on which broadcast technology and when. Have students add to the list any additional genres, such as news, comedy, and advertisements he like and watch which are outside the viewing r collection time.
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.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - SYMBOL
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of the conventions of media production and symbolic elements. Access the Little J & Big Cuz eBook for “Where’s Aaron”. As the students read the story each frame will respond with different sounds that are elements to the specific part of the story.
Have students identify in Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, the following technical elements that media producers use to create their story:
Have students consider what other elements in the animation assist the audience to understand the meaning of the story and react to it.
Select one of more of the Aboriginal Dreaming stories and/or Torres Strait Islander Bipo Bipo Taim (Before Before Time) stories, such as:
Have students watch the video clips and retell the stories in their own way. Have students describe if they feel the stories are happy or sad, or a mixture of both. Have students explain how they knew to describe the stories in the way they did. Focus their attention on the technical elements used to make the video clip: story, setting, character and sound. Ask students to suggest in what ways did the action in the video clip reinforce their thinking.
For example, use Girawu The Goanna, and ask students to explain how, at the start of the video clip, did the filmmaker give the audience a sense that the animals were desperate for water? Students may respond with suggestions, such as: the Kangaroo was crying; the crow was squawking; and the koala was lying on the ground looking as if he was dead. Ask students to study each of these actions and sounds separately, and assess if everyone in the class would read the intention of the filmmaker as the same.
Introduce students to the ‘Symbolic Elements’:
In pairs, using a I Think, I See, I Wonder visual thinking strategy, invite students to identify and explain the symbolic elements used in any of the Aboriginal Dreaming stories or Torres Strait Islander Bipo Bipo Taim (Before Before Time) stories. Ask students if they feel that the meaning of the story is enhanced because of these elements.
Ask students to draw or photograph a picture or scene where they have used one or more symbolic elements. Have students share their story and image with the class, and have the other students guess which symbolic element they have used.
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 so 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.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - FRAMING
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of the conventions of media production, framing and composition. Also, where possible access the Little J & Big Cuz picture book and/or eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
Read/view the book, Where the Forest Meets the Sea, by Jeannie Baker. Ask students to identify the different types of framing used in the illustrations:
Discuss the features of each type of frame to communicate how the audience should view the ‘detail’ in the story. If a close-up is used, what is the detail the director wants the audience to see? For example,
Have students also notice the angle of the frame. Is the scene shot from?
Have students explore the effect that using different camera angles has on how the audience views each scene. Ask students to count how many times Jeannie Baker uses the various frames in the scenes of frame in her story,
Re-watch Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, and using a pre-prepared worksheet with the various scenes listed, ask students to nominate the type of framing used and the angle the scene is shot at. Ask the class how the different choices of frames and angles might affect the way the audience relates to the action in the story.
Focus students’ attention on the photographs that Nanna took of Little J and Big Cuz on Country. Ask students to identify the ways Nanna used framing and angles. If available, have students use digital cameras or iPad cameras to take a variety of images applying their understanding of framing and angles. Have students display their different shots and label them for the different framing types.
Invite students to share their images and ideas with the class, and evaluate the success of the photographs to display the correct frames and angles.
Suggested teacher resource: Shot types
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.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - SOUND
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of the conventions of media production and sound production.
Have students identify the following in Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’:
Re-watch the episode with the sound turned off. Have students suggest what is missing that assists the audience to understand the story.
Direct students to the element of sound, and have them focus on the ways in which sound is produced for media:
Have students identify how each of these types of sound are evident in Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’. Replay the episode and stop at the parts of the episode that have the diverse types of sound. Prepare a worksheet with the parts of the episode listed, and have students list which sound device was used.
Access the Little J & Big Cuz eBook for “Where’s Aaron”. As the students read the story each frame will respond with different sounds that are elements to the specific part of the story.
Introduce the term Foley artist, who is the person who makes sound effects for film. Ask students to suggest how the Foley artist produces sound. Watch a video clip for ways to produce sound.
Suggested resources
Have students assess what equipment they can use to make sound aligned to the action in a segment of Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 12 ‘Where’s Aaron?’. Collect ordinary objects within the classroom that make a sound. Have students explore how the combinations of instruments can create different sounds that replicate usual/expected sounds for the human ear, such as the sound of paper moving on a desk, different sounds of walking for different people like Little J, Big Cuz and Big Dog walking in the house, on Country, the owl’s wings flapping, Nanna using an iPhone, drawing in the sand.
Invite students to use the objects found in the classroom to produce a sound, and then record it. As a class, listen to the individual sounds and suggest which part of the episode the sounds could be used for.
Sequence the sounds made by the students into a recording, using Cool Tools for Schools from Audacity, or similar software, and play the sound track over the animation sequence. Have students assess the skills of their product and what they need to improve, e.g. timing, variety, authenticity, etc.
Suggested resources:
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.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - ANIMATE
After viewing the Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of the story ladder used in comic strips and cartoons. The ‘Little J & Big Cuz’ picture book and/or ebook, “Where’s Aaron?’, could also be used here.
Revisit the story ladder structure of stories: beginning, middle and end.
Have students explore the story in Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’ to identify the elements of the episode story that apply to each section. Re-play the animation and stop it as a ‘frame by frame’ analysis. Ask students to:
As a class, examine examples of static comic strips so that students can identify how each comic strip presents the story through frames using text and image. Examples could include,
Japanese comics (manga) and animation (anime), for example:
Comic strips and their animation adaptions
Marvel comics:
Videos clips/animations of popular story books:
Aboriginal Comics (Comic Vine)
Have students pose and respond to questions about the differences between the two representations, and what elements are additional in the film/animation versions of the story compared to the static version: movement, sound.
Introduce students to technical conventions of media using ‘The Lost Thing’, ACMI (Teacher resource).
Introduction to animation
Show students how to make a 10–20-page flip book using a simple symbol/character, such as a balloon growing larger and bursting, a smile growing broader and wider, a flower adding more petals, etc.
Have students think through the movement they want the object to do, such as bursting, growing larger or adding extra leaves, etc.
Provide students with a set of ‘post it notes’ or a stapled template of paper pages and show students where each of the images need to be drawn. Use a felt pen/marker to draw the object.
As an extension activity, students could use either of these resources,
or, a simple PowerPoint slide sequence application to create an animated object.
Display all attempts and have the students share their ideas for their animations and explain how they made the object move and what they could do to extend the movement.
Further resources:
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 - CHARACTER
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of character, and the role various characters play in the story. Also, where possible access the Little J & Big Cuz picture book and/or eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
Have students list the characters in the episode, and discuss what each character looks and acts like, and who their favourite character is. Working in pairs, have students select a character and complete a ‘character profile’ including information about their age, likes, dislikes, attitude, phobias, personality, gender, physical abilities, humour, expression, clothing, etc.
Introduce students to several types of character biographies, such as movie star/celebrity profiles, ‘Wanted’ posters, Horoscopes, Obituary, Birthday notice, Wedding announcement, and/or Anniversary announcement. Each style requires diverse types of information about the character, and presents a different viewpoint about the character. Each of these writing styles also requires an unique design and information layout, for purpose and focus. Engage students with a variety of profiles to compare the different points of view.
Access and use the Little J & Big Cuz Press Kit to read how the producers outline the types of characters in the series. Students can download or copy images of each character and compare their understanding of the characters with the official version. They could annotate the image of each character with words that apply to that character.
Introduce the term ‘stereotype’ and have students suggest what they understand by the term. Alert them to the idea that all media characters are constructed as a stereotype so that the character will relate to, and be accepted by, a universal audience. For this episode, poll students, using Kahoot, to find out which of the characters they identify as:
Have students imagine if they were a character in Little J & Big Cuz, and have them design what their character would look like, and what the Little J & Big Cuz series Press Kit would write about their character.
Suggested resources
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 - SETTING
After viewing the Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of setting. Also, where possible access the Little J & Big Cuz picture book and/or eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
Ask students to re-watch the episode and to identify the different settings used: the backyard, the classroom, different areas on Country, inside Nanna’s house, etc. Have students pose and respond to questions about the significance of setting or place in order to tell the story, as well as questions about how the audience views the scene because of the setting.
View examples of short stories where the setting and sound are important to convey meaning to the story. Suggested resources
Story Monster is a fun online literacy game that uses the moving image to promote student learning. In the game, you'll design a hungry monster who loves to gobble up words. But your monster will need help with what to eat - he can only be fed well-structured sentences.
Telling a story
1. Decide the setting.
Have students collect different photographs of scenery and settings from magazines, newspapers or from the web. Categorise the images as indoors and outdoors. Mix and match a pair of scenes, and using a four-frame storyboard template, glue one scene onto the first frame and another onto the third frame. This will leave frames 2 and 4 empty. Propose to students that their task is to complete the other scenes for a story of their choice so that the story sequences from the first scene to the last scene, e.g. a character starts to move from a bedroom and where does a character walk to get to the garden?
Suggested resources:
2. Choose the character.
Invite students to choose one of the characters from Episode 8. Then make or draw copies of the character so that every student receives four copies of the same character.
Have each student position two of their character cut-outs, one each within two of the pasted scenes.
3. Decide the new episode.
Invite each student to imagine a story that involves their character interacting within the new scenery. They will need to fill the two blank scenes, either by drawing the scenes or by finding more photographs of relevant scenery to paste in the frames.
Remind students that the story they tell has to have a beginning, middle and end:
4. Build the story. If possible, have students write four sentences, one for each scene, to help build the story.
Invite students to add speech bubble dialogue to heighten the character’s relationship to the narrative.
Ask students to pose and respond to questions about how they can change the time of day in the images by using assorted colours and shading the scenes darker.
5. Sound and music.
Depending on the medium of the story, have students upload sounds, music, or recorded narrative to enhance the meaning of the story.
6. Display the presentations to the class.
Invite students to evaluate the types of symbolic elements (the scenery, sound and tempo of the music) selected for the story, and explain how each element contributes to the meaning of the story.
Optional storyline
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:
Explore other picture/animation stories so that students can interpret the same three parts of the story in each:
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:
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.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Evaluate - Propose a range of alternatives and test their effectiveness when solving movement challenges
Theme - ROLE MODELS
Evaluate what students have learnt (know and can do) from the activities in relation to the Health and Physical Education.
Assess the success of the module through reflecting on students:
As a culmination of their learning in this module, students could:
Student evaluation tools
Students could self-evaluate their learning using a ‘monitoring’ journal (physical or digital) where the teacher lists the key understandings and concepts students needed to acquire through the module.
Where applicable, a self-evaluation could be constructed as a poll rating their responses using:
Use Early Years writing using rubrics to provide feedback to students using the rubric.
Students can use a learning worm to evaluate their work, adapted from:
Teacher reflection tools
Reflect on your teaching of the module. What worked well? What needs more work? What would you add/change/omit in future?
Ask students to rate your efforts and recommend areas for improvement. You may wish to refer to broader resources for reflection or for gaining feedback, for example:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Create and participate in games with and without equipment
Theme - ROLE MODELS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about playing games/sport that enhances the way they think about strategy.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.
Focus on: foot placement, balance and agility.
Variations:
Design an obstacle course
Variations: Add to the course, extra challenges that test other parts of the body, such as:
Remind students that to be skilful at physical activities, the whole body must be engaged.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Describe ways to include others to make them feel they belong (ACPPS019)
Theme - ROLE MODELS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about building relationships with peers, and belonging.
Focus students’ attention on the way Little J persisted in his quest to entice Big Cuz and Sissy to include him and play his game. Have students consider what would have happened if the girls continued to exclude Little J, or if Little J excluded Big Cuz from playing his game.
Talk to the students about consequences, and that the decisions each person makes, and the actions they take, have consequences. Watch the video clip, Fishing, My Place Ep. 25 ‘Before Time: Bunda’, at My Place for Teachers website, ABC TV.
As a class, discuss how Bunda’s father was trying to teach the boys to work together, as this would ensure their survival in the bush.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.
Cooperative games
Introduce students to a couple of cooperative games/challenges where the individual and/or the group needs to make decisions about their actions to benefit the group.
Divide the class into groups, and have students devise a cooperative activity that they could teach another group. Ask students to explore the types of challenges encountered in the tasks they have already attempted, and what skills for team work they need to have in order to succeed.
Provide a selection of simple equipment and found/recycled materials for experimenting with, such as rope, blankets, balls and beanbags. In their groups, have students design a game or challenge, test it, revise and demonstrate it to others. Once resolved, have these students teach the game/challenge to the other groups. A suggested resource is The Wellbeing Hub.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Use strategies to work in group situations when participating in physical activities
Theme - ROLE MODELS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about participating in physical activities.
Explore students’ experiences of teamwork. In particular, discuss examples from sport and games when it’s important to communicate with your team mates, such as when passing a ball, or stepping together in a three-legged race. Invite students to participate in this low contact challenge focusing on control and communication.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.
Carrot catchers
Name circle
Focus on: movement sequences, respecting others’ instructions
This is a great beginning of year activity but it also acts as a positive enforcement that each student’s own choices are respected by the group.
As a class, list the team games/sports that the students play, e.g. basketball, AFL, Cricket, NRL, soccer/football, tennis, relay swimming, etc. Have the students who play the same sport make a group.
As a group, big or small, have the students select a skill drill that they can teach other students, and that requires communication between two or more people to perform it, e.g. for basketball ‘Suicide passing drill’, for soccer ‘dribbling in and around a circle of players’, swimming ‘relay touching and diving’.
Have the groups explain why they have chosen the drill and how it is important to communicate while performing it.
Suggested resources:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Describe their own strengths and achievements and those of others, and identify how these contribute to personal identities
Theme - ROLE MODELS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about identifying good role models.
Provide a selection of books for students to read about various people/characters that others admire, such as:
Revisit Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, and have students suggest the types of personalities or celebrities that would appeal to Little J and to Big Cuz. Have students consider that Little J designed and built a challenging obstacle course based on an adventure/survivor television show where he was a compere; and Big Cuz created a Talent Quest game where she was the star singer.
Have students suggest real-life TV personalities/celebrities that both Little J and Big Cuz may have been emulating, e.g. compere Jeff Probst (USA) or Jonathan LaPaglia (AUST.) from the TV show ‘Survivor’, or compere Phil Keoghan compere of The Amazing Race (USA), or contestants in talent quests, e.g. Jessica Mauboy and Casey Donovan who appeared in Australian Idol, or Dami Im who represented Australia in Eurovision 2016, among others.
These links may help to identify people who are good role models for younger students:
**Teacher note: Warning Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students if they are to view images and names of deceased peoples.
Ask the class to nominate who are their idols and what qualities these nominations must embody to be regarded as a ‘star’. Provide each student with a star diagram and have them find an image of their idol and glue it into the centre of the star. Label the star with the name of the person, and their achievements.
Provide a list of words that describe ‘fame’, and have the students choose words to write on/around the star that indicates what type of person they are, such as hard working, happy, generous, talented, funny, beautiful, outgoing, respected, thoughtful, creative, energetic, etc.
If students know their idol in real life, have them share any stories and experiences they have of meeting the idol. If not, ask students how they know this idol is like what they think. Explain that sometimes we may not know the people we idolise, but we feel they portray some traits that we, as individuals, can read/feel about them.
Have students use another star diagram and draw into the star someone that they actually know, as a ‘star’ person. Again, use the list of adjectives to select different words to describe the person. Have students assess which star was easiest to find genuine words to describe them.
Invite students to design and make two greeting cards, one to send to their celebrity/idol congratulating them on their success and saying how much the student admires them, and one to the person they know and admire, expressing similar sentiments to the first. Compare the choice of images and words and the description of who each student admires.
Suggested resource: The Hero book: Learning Lessons from the People You Admire
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Perform fundamental movement skills in a variety of movement sequences and situations
Theme - MOVEMENT
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about performance and movement skills.
Revisit the three-legged race scene, and focus students’ attention on the skills needed to perform this type of race. Students should be directed to skills such as balance, coordination, control, timing, rhythm, perception, concentration, strength and speed, etc.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.
Have students attempt a three-legged race, and slow down the action so that they are moving one step at a time. Have students list the parts of their bodies that are used to make the action of running: legs, feet, arms, head, body, etc. Students should list almost all parts of the body to realise that the momentum of movement is a coordination of all muscles, bones and nerves, etc.
As a class, view the video clip: Man running slow motion with mountain backdrop. Have students analyse the way the man is running and what is happening to his arms and legs while running. Have students practise their own slow-running style.
Explain to students that many Aboriginal dances and/or Torres Strait Islander dances imitate the movements of animals they know and hunt. These movements are then adapted for tracking, hunting and for dancing. For example,
Have student devise their own movements from their experiences of animals they are familiar with. The movements can involve, running, hopping, skipping, etc. Ask students to explain their movement/s and how it resembles the animal of their choice.
**Teacher note: Warning that some Aboriginal dance moves and/or Torres Strait Islander dance moves can only be performed by certain genders. It is important to not have students imitate Aboriginal dance moves and/or Torres Strait Islander dance moves without cultural permissions; students can adapt these movements to their own invented movements.
Have students participate in the following movement games:
The Chase
Focus on: throwing, dodging, following simple rules
The runners that get through with the fewest hits are celebrated as the fastest and most agile.
So are the pitchers who make the most hits without breaking the rules are the most accurate.
Allow each group to participate as being a pitcher, or runner, and a line-keeper.
Discuss the strategies and techniques with the class to encourage reflection, as students swap roles.
Variations
This course can be run as a relay race. Assign points for each ‘hit’, e.g. 3 points if hit by the first pitcher and 1 point if hit by the last one. The runner with the fewest points wins.
Gorri
Focus on: throwing, aim, hitting a moving target.
To play the Aboriginal target game, Gorri, players must stand behind a line and attempt to hit a large ball that has been rolled down the line by a fellow student. For full instructions, background and variations, go to Gorri, Yulunga, Traditional Indigenous games, Australian Sports Commission.
After the games, ask students to reflect on what they learnt, and devise a statement about how these types of movements help young people develop skills for working together.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Recognise similarities and differences in individuals and groups, and explore how these are celebrated and respected
Theme - IDENTITY
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about respecting others’ differences.
Ask students to focus their attentions on the games that Little J and Big Cuz chose to play. Big Cuz chose to play inside and create a game pretending to be a TV Quest star, and Little J chose to build an obstacle course outside, pretending to be a compere of a TV show.
Introduce the nursery rhyme, What are Little boys made of? (early 19th century)
What are little boys made of?
What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails
And puppy-dogs' tails
That's what little boys are made of
What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice
And everything nice [or ‘all things nice’]
That's what little girls are made of.
Have the class listen to and/or read the lyrics, and pose and respond to questions about the meaning of the poem. Explain that, in times past, people recognised that little girls and little boys behaved differently, spoke differently, and played differently. Have students consider if that is true today.
Divide the class into two teams, the girls’ team, and the boys’ team. Using a Venn diagram, ask the teams to create two lists, ‘games that girls play’ and a second list of ‘games that boys play’ and any games that both play could be listed in the overlapping area.
Have the groups submit their diagrams to compile a class list. Examine the games that only girls play and the list that only boys play, and ask the other teams if they have ever played a game of (whatever the students suggest?). If the answer is ‘yes’ then add the game to the middle section. Eventually, most, if not, all of the games should be in the middle section.
Highlight to students that while girls and boys have many similarities, likes and behaviours, that individually, all people are slightly different from others. This is what makes us all unique. Have students draw an outline of themselves on a sheet of paper, and have all students individually list or illustrate around the shape the games they playing, the art they like creating, the subjects they like speaking about, and the people they like spending time with, etc. Students can cut out pictures from magazines to add to the image.
Give the image the title, ‘Who am I?’ Display all the images in the classroom and have other students guess who they think each person is.
Suggested resources in respect to identity
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Propose a range of alternatives and test their effectiveness when solving movement challenges
Theme - EMOTIONS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about coordinated movement, communication, and cooperation.
These activities are good for outdoors on a hot day, as they involve water. They also require students to coordinate their movements quite carefully. Take the class outdoors and explain that there are a number of ways we can play games that require coordination as well as cooperation.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.
Cooperative cups
Focus on: hand-eye coordination, group communication and cooperation.
Variation:
If the students get really good at the game, ask them to walk a very short distance carrying the cup full of water without spilling it.
Suggested resource: Cup and String Challenge
Water caterpillar
Focus on: cooperative solutions and accuracy.
Variations
To make this easier: provide larger vessels and less water.
To make this harder: place the students an arm’s length away from each other so that they cannot twist around and reach each other easily.
Be sure to tell them that they get points for making sure the water gets to the rear person. Therefore, the objective of the game is accuracy and cooperation, not speed!
Suggested resource: Communication, Coordination and Cooperation Games
Water colours
Focus on: visualising, measuring, precision, and ensuring no team member is left without water.
The winning team is the first in which all members have a half cup of green or purple coloured water, and no team members have an empty cup.
Explore students’ observations about the games played and encourage a discussion about cooperation and the positive feelings that result when everyone is working together in a group.
Suggested resources for alternative cooperation games:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Identify and practise emotional responses that account for own and others’ feelings.
Theme - EMOTIONS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about sharing, respecting others, and coping with frustration.
Focus students’ attention on the different emotional reactions Little J has during Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’. Outline the sequence of scenes and have students suggest how he was feeling, e.g.
and
Ask students to plot on a graph or Roller-coaster’ chart how Little J’s emotions swung from high to low throughout the scenes in the episode.
Have students reflect on what happened to them yesterday and how their emotions changed from the time they woke up in the morning till they went to bed at night. Ask students to suggest what happened to them and how their emotions changed throughout the day.
Invite students to plot a graph that reflects the highs and lows of their day. As a class, list the events in their day that make them ‘positive’ about themselves, and the events that make them ‘negative’, that is, frustrated and/or angry.
Have students consider that everyone has similar triggers that make them feel better about themselves; this usually reflects how included/accepted they are by others. Reflect on how Little J felt excluded from the game Big Cuz and Sissy were playing, and on how Big Cuz felt excluded from the game Little J and Sissy were playing. Have students reflect on their own behaviours to members of their class, school, and/or family; have the students suggest ways they could make others feel (more) included.
Set a challenge for students to have a photo taken with one new school friend every day for a week. Post these photos on the class webpage/blog/community/notice board and write a caption for the photo describing the emotion they felt when finding a new friend.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Evaluate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - MEDIA
Evaluate what students have learnt (know and can do) from the activities in relation to The Arts: Media Arts curriculum.
Assess the success of the module through reflecting on students:
As a culmination and extension of the learning activities in this module, students could:
Student evaluation tools
Students could self-evaluate their learning using a ‘monitoring’ journal (physical or digital) where the teacher lists the key understandings and concepts students needed to acquire through the module.
Where applicable, a self-evaluation could be constructed as a poll rating their responses using:
Use Early Years writing using rubrics to provide feedback to students.
Students can use a learning worm to evaluate their work, adapted from:
Teacher reflection tools
Reflect on your teaching of the module. What worked well? What needs more work? What would you add/change/omit in future?
Ask students to rate your efforts and recommend areas for improvement. You may wish to refer to broader resources for reflection or for gaining feedback, for example:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about producing a Reality television – Game Show.
Remind students of some of the story elements particular to this genre of television production:
Little J designed his own obstacle course and reality show called ‘Brave J’s Outback Adventures’, where he was the host/compere of the show and explained the challenges confronting the contestants to the audience.
Three groups of people are usually involved in producing television game shows.
Divide the class into separate production teams, each working on a separate reality Game Show.
Each production team must list the jobs that need to be completed by the team, allocate roles to its group members, and sequence the actions for their production so everyone is aware of the order of the contestants, and of the scenes in the show.
Every student should have a role to play in the production.
Among the tasks to be done, each production team needs to:
Impress on students to rehearse each segment of the show (the beginning, the middle and the end) to make sure everyone in the team is aware of the process before production starts.
After the show has been produced, each student should evaluate their part in the production, and recommend how the team could work together more effectively for future productions.
Suggested teacher resources
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about producing a news or sports report for Little J’s and Big Cuz’s school sports day.
Divide the class into smaller news teams of approximately six students:
Each group should create a list of the jobs to be completed in order to present their news program.
The groups should also:
1. Storyboard the news item’s story arc and include the timing/sequencing of the news report
Things to consider include:
2. Prepare the set and production equipment
Things to consider include:
provide a framing plan of different shots to take of the action and competitors, etc.
3. Post-production elements of editing the news report.
Things to consider include:
Each student should evaluate their own production, and recommend how the team could work together more effectively on future productions.
Suggested production resources:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about producing a Talent Quest as an example of Reality television. .
Remind students that Big Cuz designed her own Talent Quest where she was to sing, impress the judges, and win. Instruct students that they are to design their own talent quest.
Divide the class into three groups:
Each group is asked to develop a list of jobs (similar to those listed above and below) that members of their group are required to complete (in order to produce the class Talent Quest). Every student in the class should be responsible for one role in the production.
As a class, the students should also
Agree on the style/format of the show – is it similar to The Voice (judges turning around), X-Factor, or Australia’s Got Talent?
Storyboard the story arc and the timing and sequencing of scenes. They should also include opening titles, music theme, host introduction, synopsis of the show, introduction of contestants, length of performances, audience appreciation (sound of clapping and canned laughter), end of show judging, the announcement of the winner/s, the trophy presentation, closing music and credits.
Have students rehearse each segment of the show (beginning, middle and end) and make sure that each student is aware of the process and the interchange of scenes (timing and sequencing).
Allocate a space (classroom or other) and time for the performance (10-15 mins), and possibly the filming, of the Talent Quest.
Invite students to evaluate the class production, and recommend how the production teams could work together more effectively for future productions.
Suggested resources for making a media production include:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - SETTING
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about location, setting, and of how changing location and setting can change meaning.
Introduce the word ‘Setting’, and ask students to explain what they understand by the meaning of the word and how it relates to the setting where Little J set up the obstacle race in the backyard.
Have students suggest the objects used to make the obstacle course in a backyard, e.g. swinging tyre, old mattress, blanket on the clothesline, etc. Have students think about and suggest which objects in their own backyards would make a good obstacle course. Have students complete a list of items and/or drawings of what they would use for an obstacle course in their backyard.
Propose to students that if they were to change the setting of the obstacle course, would it change the type of obstacles they would use, e.g. if they lived in the mountains and it snowed; if they lived underwater; or, if they lived on the moon, etc.
Provide students with access to images of different terrains, and have each student select a landscape different from Little J’s backyard scene. If possible, print out the image and have students design an obstacle course appropriate for the features of this different terrain. Large digital landscape photographs of a wide range of Australian ecosystems, including natural and built environments, can be found at Gulliver Media Wildlife Image: Resources for Schools.
Encourage students to position a sheet of clear plastic over the photograph and to draw their obstacles on the plastic sheet but still referring to the image below. Provide whiteboard markers to draw on the transparent plastic. On completion, project the acetate (plastic) overlay sheet over a large projected image of the background setting on the IWB, or on-screen in a digital image making program such as ShowMe or Paint.
Invite students to share their ideas with the class about their imaginary obstacle course with the class and describe the type of obstacles they invented (adventure competition, outback survival, rope course climbing and skateboarding, etc.).
Explore and list words to describe the various landscapes, and discuss if they are dramatic and active words or quiet, sleepy words. Ask students to visualise a craggy landscape, rocky outcrops and cold, rushing rivers of Brave J’s outback, focusing on how the adjectives tell us that the landscape is wild, exciting and dynamic.
Have students also name their course, e.g. Little J’s Icy Wonderland, or Little J’s Submarine Garden, etc. Display the newly invented obstacle courses in their new terrain settings for the class to view and reflect on.
Suggested software programs for editing images:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - GENRE, TRAILERS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about filmed commercials as advertising.
As a class, view the trailer for the Little J & Big Cuz Trailer. Discuss with the class what they think the purpose of a production’s Trailer is, and prompt responses about its use for advertising for the show. Have the students suggest in what ways the Trailer is ‘selling’ the production to an audience.
Explain to students about how advertising is used to persuade people to ‘act’ on something they see, such as buying, selling, phoning, protesting, watching, etc. As a persuasive text, this trailer contains some features that would attract a young audience, and different features that would attract their parents.
Have students work in pairs to view the trailer again and come up with three messages about the animation series that the producers and/or broadcaster want an audience of children to know about the series. The pairs should also suggest two messages that the producers want the parents to know about the series.
As a class, watch the trailer without the sound and deconstruct the different scenes to see how the trailer was made, such as use of
Re-watch the trailer with the sound turned on, and have students identify which sounds accompany the different scenes:
Have students determine how many different scenes from the animation series appear in the trailer and what is the dominant sound technique used.
Have students suggest the effect the trailer has on the intended audience. Ask students if they think it appeals to a young audience, or is it made for an older audience? And, do the students like or dislike it?
Watch a selection of the following trailers for children’s movies and television shows and have the class review the clips identifying the production features (image effects, sound effects):
Divide the class into small groups and have the groups select either
The groups should develop a storyboard or ‘story arc’ as a Trailer concept for either one of the suggested television shows, listed above.
Remind students that they could use an animation mashup with scenes from the episode and/or insert live action interviews with the characters and the actors who play them. The group can act out or explain the trailer to the class. The students can find setting stills for Little J and Big Cuz at Scene Builder.
Suggested teacher resources:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - GENRE, NEWS REPORTING
After viewing the Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of news reporting as a media genre.
Have students watch examples of news reporting, such as:
Have students identify what a news reporter’s main role is, such as presenting facts about an event to an audience. Ask students about how a news reporter collects specific information/facts about an event/incident for their report, such as on location interviews with people who experienced or observed the event/incident. Student responses should also include that reporters ask questions of the people (participants/observers) who were present at the event/incident, or are experts about a topic.
Divide the class into groups of six students, and have each group recall and discuss the ‘obstacle course’ competition in Little J’s backyard. Have each group allocate the roles of the five characters who were in Little J’s backyard at the time (two contestants- Big Cuz and Sissy, the host – Little J, and two bystanders - Nanna and Old Dog), with one student acting as a news reporter.
In their character roles, the group enacts the events in order to prepare a news report on the competition. Invite each group to present a two-minute news report to the class, from the different perspectives of one or more of the characters.
Discuss how the characters can relay the same event from different perspectives. As a suggestion, have students imagine how Old Dog would have described the event when he was used as the crocodile, and all he wanted to do was play with the ball; or Big Cuz who was reluctant to participate at first but was encouraged to do so. Have the groups also suggest the purpose of the news report, and the intended audience.
Have the class pose and respond to questions about the different styles of news reporting. Have each group consider how they will present their news reports, and which of the characters perspectives will they focus on.
Explain to students that a news reporter may have two roles: a reporter (on location) and a news presenter (in studio). As a class, watch examples of news reporting from Behind the news.
From the students’ observations of various news reports, establish the following points about the purpose of news reporting and the demographic of the intended audience:
Purposes of reporting the news:
Provide background information about why/how/where/when it happened and what other events may have a relationship to the event, etc.
Ask students to keep a Media Diary, noting any items of news they watch on television/online at home. Have students note the names of the news reporters and presenters, and assess who they consider is the news production is pitched at (or intended audience). View Rookie Reporter, Behind the news, ABC
In pairs or groups, invite students to select one of the following Aboriginal stories and/or Torres Strait Islander stories:
Have students imagine that they are reporting the story as a news item. Ask students to identify the characters, describe when and where the event took place, and what happened in the views of those who were the participants and those who were bystanders. Select students to present their news report to the class.
** Teacher note: The reporter also has to present a respectful report, as these stories hold special beliefs to Aboriginal peoples and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - FRAMING
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about the conventions of framing and composition in media production.
Explain to students the types of camera shots or framing, and provide examples, such as
Cut 6cm x 6cm cardboard frames (with a 4cm x 4cm square cut out of the centre) that the students can use to view their subject/s. Have students move closer to an object to mimic a close-up, and move further away to mimic a wide shot. Have students physically move to view an object such as a toy or a chair from different angles Support students to understand that the lens of a still or movie camera moves in and out changing focal length in order to capture the different views of the subject.
Show students examples of additional camera shot/framing terms used in ‘moving’ image, such as:
Re-watch Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, and have students identify the different camera frames used to tell the story. Set up a Quizlet with different scenes listed and a selection of camera angles that students should match with the scene. Poll the responses from the whole class to assess the students’ understanding.
If available, have students set up a ‘still life’ with random objects found in the room. Using a camera on a tripod, have students take three shots of the same subject: horizontal long shot (panoramic), mid-ground shot at eye level, and a close-up from above or below. Print the photos and have students arrange them on cardboard and label the type of shots.
As a class, examine the photos that Nanna took of the children, and have the students identify the types of framing she used. Set up a similar shot with class mates and take the same composition from a different angle. Evaluate the differences archived from the variety of framing angles.
Invite students to share the advice they would give Nanna about framing her photography efforts.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - SOUND
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about how natural sound and sound effects recorded and are artificially made, and used in the production.
In respect to Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’ revisit with students the three key elements of story production:
Re-watch Episode 13 Big Plans with the sound turned off. Have students suggest what is missing that usually assists the audience to understand the story. Direct students to consider the element of sound, and have them focus on how different types of sound are produced in media productions:
Replay the episode to have students identify how each of the four types of sound are evident. Prepare a worksheet or Quizlet with selected scenes of the episode listed and have students decide which sound type was used for each scene.
Introduce the term ‘Foley artist’, as the person who makes sound effects for film. Ask students to predict how the Foley artist produces sound. As a class, watch a selection of video clips for the ways a
Foley artist produces a sound -
Calling the Storm - A visualisation game exploring sound.
Seat all the students close together on the floor in a tight huddle. Choose a moment when there is not a lot of background noise from outside the room.
Have students sit close together and lean into the centre… and to repeat the demonstrated actions to make a rainstorm appear.
Ask students to hold their thumbs to their fingertips and rub them together. There should be a gentle swishing noise.
Say: ‘I hear the wind sighing, here comes the rain.’
Ask students to rub their two palms together.
Say: ‘Here come the first raindrops.’
Ask students to move to a very gentle pattering of their hands on their thighs.
Say: ‘They are getting louder!’
Ask students to patter a bit harder.
Say: ‘Here comes some thunder!’
Ask students to stamp their feet, getting harder and harder.
Say: ‘Lightning noises’
Ask students to make random lightning noises by clapping their hands and shouting ‘Bang!’, ‘Crash!’ Continue this noise for a few seconds.
Say: ‘Oh, the storm is passing. The lightning stops.’
Ask students to stop clapping their hands and shouting ‘Bang!’, ‘Crash!
Say: ‘The thunder dies away.’
Ask students to slow and gradually stop their thumping feet.
Say: ‘The rain eases off.’
Ask students to slow down the pattering sound on their thighs until it is just their fingertips.
Say: ‘The wind sighs.’
Ask students to return to rubbing their palms.
Say: ‘And the bush is quiet again.’
Ask students to rub their fingers – stop – and hold the moment silently for at least a second.
Talk about what the students would hear, smell and feel after the rain, e.g. the birds chirping and the grasses rustling, and a fresh cool feeling. Have students imagine being in the forest, or outback, or city after that storm and ask the class about the different sounds the students would hear. Practise making a storm a couple of more times, and have students suggest ways of making the sounds of the storm using found materials, and other actions.
Read the picture book, Big Rain Coming, by Katrina Germein, and view the video animation of it.
Have students create and sequence of sounds for the story and record them, using Audacity or similar software. Play the sound track made by the students over the (silent) video clip.
Have students evaluate which sounds were successful and reflect on which needed more planning and work. Also, have students assess their skills of timing aligned to the action, and the variety of sounds, and the authenticity of sound, etc.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about reality game shows, and how and why they are made.
Introduce students to the term ‘Reality Television’ (TV) and have students predict what is meant by the term. Provide an example of a TV show that students watch and that would be an obvious inclusion in this category, such as ‘The Block’, ‘Masterchef’, or ‘The Voice’.
Ask students to suggest the two forms of Reality television that are featured in Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’:
Have students suggest some of the story elements particular to these styles of television production:
Invite students to recount various television programs that they watch that are considered ‘Reality Television’. See if they can describe the purpose of the show, the characters, the setting/s, and story for each.
Examples of shows include:
Divide students into smaller groups and have each group select one form of ‘Reality Television’ they want to recreate and demonstrate for the class. Have students designate a role to each member of their group as either a contestant or as the host or co-host. Design a game that they can act out and that would appeal to the rest of the class who will be the audience. Each student must design a character that they can play and these should be based on real contestants they have seen (or imagined).
Video the class productions of ‘Reality Television’. Prepare a ratings questionnaire, or Quizlet, with criteria about the quality of the show and its appropriateness for the age group it intended to attract, and have the audience ‘rate’ each program. Collate the results of the ratings to find out which of the programs the class would watch again. Suggest that students who voted for the program justify their choice using the media arts terminology.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Explore ideas, characters and settings in the community through stories in images, sounds and text
Theme - CHARACTER
After viewing the Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of character, and the gestures, expressions, language, and moral choices characters portray in a story.
Prompt students to observe how Little J changes his voice and body gestures when he pretends to be ‘Brave J’.As a class, draw a comparison chart (e.g. T-Chart) of the different body gestures and tones of voice that Little J exhibits as himself, as ‘Brave J’ the competitor, and finally as ‘Compere J’ the game show host.
Have students demonstrate these changes in his character, and emulate the movements and stance he takes with the wooden spoon microphone. Have students suggest the type of character Little J becomes with each change of name. Discuss the meaning of ‘being brave’, and ‘being brave in front of an audience’ and have students decide which is more demanding.
Divide students into pairs and provide them with a Mind map and/or a Cluster map.
Have students conceptualise the character, ‘Brave J’, by suggesting personality traits and physical traits they feel a character like this should possess. Questions to prompt the students might be:
What is Little J’s voice like?
To accompany the mind mapping, have students draw an image of the Brave J character dressed as a superhero.
Little J not only imagines himself as Brave J the competitor, he also becomes Compere J, the game show host. Ask students to consider the type of character traits a compere of a reality television show needs to have, particularly, the special language, gesture, expression, and body movements. Develop a second Mind map or Cluster map for Little J as a compere.
As a class, view the different styles of these game show hosts:
Use a Drama Freeze-Frame exercise with students to act out the three different personas of Little J (Little J, Brave J, Compere J) – have the students freeze and change between character when the name of the character is called out.
Suggested teacher resources for drama:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Explore ideas, characters and settings in the community through stories in images, sounds and text
Theme - SETTING
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about setting and how the different backgrounds used in the episode establishes a sense of place for the audience. (Refer to Little J & Big Cuz, Scene Builder game, for settings from the series)
Focus students’ attention on where each scene is located. Create a Quizlet or matching template where the students are required to match the action of a scene with the setting, e.g.
Suggest that students find and title all of the different settings in Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’.
Divide the class into pairs or small groups and allocate one of the settings to each student or pair of students. Instruct students that they have three minutes to remember every object in the setting. At the end of the time, see how many objects they can name and describe correctly.
Ask students to close their eyes so that they can’t see the illustrations accompanying the reading of an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander story where the landscape is an important part of the story.
Suggested stories and drama strategies:
After listening to one or more stories, invite students to draw their own images for one of the stories. Load these images into a slide sequencing program, such as PowerPoint, and have students retell the story in their own words so that the story and the setting aligns.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Explore ideas, characters and settings in the community through stories in images, sounds and text
Theme - STORY PRINCIPLES
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about the story principles and how the story developed as a story ladder
Introduce the concepts of (media) artist and (media) audience. Refer to Australian Curriculum, The Arts: Glossary for definitions of these terms.
Explain that the two concepts media artist and media audience are linked – the media artist writes or produces a story to be read or viewed by the media audience. The media audience may sometimes read the media differently to how the media artist intends it to be read. This mismatch of reading in Media Arts 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.
Introduce students to the concept of a basic ‘story arc’ (beginning, middle and end) and some elements of an advanced application, such as exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. Prepare a worksheet or Quizlet, where the order of the events in Episode 6 are mixed up and the students are required to re-order them correctly. This activity allows students to identify the sequence of actions that led to the ultimate resolution of all friends playing in the obstacle course. As a class, identify the events that match the terms exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution.
Episode events:
Examine a character arc, involving the (1) orientation/introduction to the character, (2) the character has an unfortunate dilemma to be resolved, and (3) the character overcomes the dilemma through either good luck or good management.
Discuss how this character arc can be applied to the individual characters in Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’:
Have students apply their understanding of story arc (beginning, middle and end) and/or character arc (exploration, dilemma, resolve) to other stories they read/view, e.g.
As a class, discuss how the stages of the story arc and/or character arc become evident in each example.
Suggested resources:
Teacher reference:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Evaluate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - MEDIA
Evaluate what students have learnt (know and can do) from the activities in relation to The Arts: Media Arts curriculum.
Assess the success of the module through reflecting on students:
As a culmination and extension of the learning activities in this module, students could:
Student evaluation tools
Students could self-evaluate their learning using a ‘monitoring’ journal (physical or digital) where the teacher lists the key understandings and concepts students needed to acquire through the module.
Where applicable, a self-evaluation could be constructed as a poll rating their responses using:
Use Early Years writing using rubrics
Students can use a learning worm to evaluate their work, adapted from:
Teacher reflection tools
Reflect on your teaching of the module. What worked well? What needs more work? What would you add/change/omit in future?
Ask students to rate your efforts and recommend areas for improvement. You may wish to refer to broader resources for reflection or for gaining feedback, for example:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about producing a Reality television – Game Show.
Remind students of some of the story elements particular to this genre of television production:
Little J designed his own obstacle course and reality show called ‘Brave J’s Outback Adventures’, where he was the host/compere of the show and explained the challenges confronting the contestants to the audience.
Three groups of people are usually involved in producing television game shows.
Divide the class into separate production teams, each working on a separate reality Game Show.
Each production team must list the jobs that need to be completed by the team, allocate roles to its group members, and sequence the actions for their production so everyone is aware of the order of the contestants, and of the scenes in the show.
Every student should have a role to play in the production.
Among the tasks to be done, each production team needs to:
Impress on students to rehearse each segment of the show (the beginning, the middle and the end) to make sure everyone in the team is aware of the process before production starts.
After the show has been produced, each student should evaluate their part in the production, and recommend how the team could work together more effectively for future productions.
Suggested teacher resources
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 6 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about producing a news or sports report for Little J’s and Big Cuz’s school sports day.
Divide the class into smaller news teams of approximately six students:
Each group should create a list of the jobs to be completed in order to present their news program.
The groups should also:
1. Storyboard the news item’s story arc and include the timing/sequencing of the news report
Things to consider include:
2. Prepare the set and production equipment
Things to consider include:
3. Post-production elements of editing the news report.
Things to consider include:
Each student should evaluate their own production, and recommend how the team could work together more effectively on future productions.
Suggested production resources:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about producing a Talent Quest as an example of Reality television. .
Remind students that Big Cuz designed her own Talent Quest where she was to sing, impress the judges, and win. Instruct students that they are to design their own talent quest.
Divide the class into three groups:
Each group is asked to develop a list of jobs (similar to those listed above and below) that members of their group are required to complete (in order to produce the class Talent Quest). Every student in the class should be responsible for one role in the production.
As a class, the students should also
Agree on the style/format of the show – is it similar to The Voice (judges turning around), X-Factor, or Australia’s Got Talent?
Storyboard the story arc and the timing and sequencing of scenes. They should also include opening titles, music theme, host introduction, synopsis of the show, introduction of contestants, length of performances, audience appreciation (sound of clapping and canned laughter), end of show judging, the announcement of the winner/s, the trophy presentation, closing music and credits.
Have students rehearse each segment of the show (beginning, middle and end) and make sure that each student is aware of the process and the interchange of scenes (timing and sequencing).
Allocate a space (classroom or other) and time for the performance (10-15 mins), and possibly the filming, of the Talent Quest.
Invite students to evaluate the class production, and recommend how the production teams could work together more effectively for future productions.
Suggested resources for making a media production include:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - SETTING
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about location, setting, and of how changing location and setting can change meaning.
Introduce the word ‘Setting’, and ask students to explain what they understand by the meaning of the word and how it relates to the setting where Little J set up the obstacle race in the backyard.
Have students suggest the objects used to make the obstacle course in a backyard, e.g. swinging tyre, old mattress, blanket on the clothesline, etc. Have students think about and suggest which objects in their own backyards would make a good obstacle course. Have students complete a list of items and/or drawings of what they would use for an obstacle course in their backyard.
ropose to students that if they were to change the setting of the obstacle course, would it change the type of obstacles they would use, e.g. if they lived in the mountains and it snowed; if they lived underwater; or, if they lived on the moon, etc.
Provide students with access to images of different terrains, and have each student select a landscape different from Little J’s backyard scene. If possible, print out the image and have students design an obstacle course appropriate for the features of this different terrain. Large digital landscape photographs of a wide range of Australian ecosystems, including natural and built environments, can be found at Gulliver Media Wildlife Image: Resources for Schools.
Encourage students to position a sheet of clear plastic over the photograph and to draw their obstacles on the plastic sheet but still referring to the image below. Provide whiteboard markers to draw on the transparent plastic. On completion, project the acetate (plastic) overlay sheet over a large projected image of the background setting on the IWB, or on-screen in a digital image making program such as ShowMe or Paint.
Invite students to share their ideas with the class about their imaginary obstacle course with the class and describe the type of obstacles they invented (adventure competition, outback survival, rope course climbing and skateboarding, etc.).
Explore and list words to describe the various landscapes, and discuss if they are dramatic and active words or quiet, sleepy words. Ask students to visualise a craggy landscape, rocky outcrops and cold, rushing rivers of Brave J’s outback, focusing on how the adjectives tell us that the landscape is wild, exciting and dynamic.
Have students also name their course, e.g. Little J’s Icy Wonderland, or Little J’s Submarine Garden, etc. Display the newly invented obstacle courses in their new terrain settings for the class to view and reflect on.
Suggested software programs for editing images:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - GENRE, TRAILERS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about filmed commercials as advertising.
As a class, view the trailer for the Little J & Big Cuz Trailer. Discuss with the class what they think the purpose of a production’s Trailer is, and prompt responses about its use for advertising for the show. Have the students suggest in what ways the Trailer is ‘selling’ the production to an audience.
Explain to students about how advertising is used to persuade people to ‘act’ on something they see, such as buying, selling, phoning, protesting, watching, etc. As a persuasive text, this trailer contains some features that would attract a young audience, and different features that would attract their parents.
Have students work in pairs to view the trailer again and come up with three messages about the animation series that the producers and/or broadcaster want an audience of children to know about the series. The pairs should also suggest two messages that the producers want the parents to know about the series.
As a class, watch the trailer without the sound and deconstruct the different scenes to see how the trailer was made, such as use of
Re-watch the trailer with the sound turned on, and have students identify which sounds accompany the different scenes:
Have students determine how many different scenes from the animation series appear in the trailer and what is the dominant sound technique used.
Have students suggest the effect the trailer has on the intended audience. Ask students if they think it appeals to a young audience, or is it made for an older audience? And, do the students like or dislike it?
Watch a selection of the following trailers for children’s movies and television shows and have the class review the clips identifying the production features (image effects, sound effects):
Divide the class into small groups and have the groups select either
The groups should develop a storyboard or ‘story arc’ as a Trailer concept for either one of the suggested television shows, listed above.
Remind students that they could use an animation mashup with scenes from the episode and/or insert live action interviews with the characters and the actors who play them. The group can act out or explain the trailer to the class. The students can find setting stills for Little J and Big Cuz at Scene Builder.
Suggested teacher resources:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - GENRE, NEWS REPORTING
After viewing the Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of news reporting as a media genre.
Have students watch examples of news reporting, such as:
Have students identify what a news reporter’s main role is, such as presenting facts about an event to an audience. Ask students about how a news reporter collects specific information/facts about an event/incident for their report, such as on location interviews with people who experienced or observed the event/incident. Student responses should also include that reporters ask questions of the people (participants/observers) who were present at the event/incident, or are experts about a topic.
Divide the class into groups of six students, and have each group recall and discuss the ‘obstacle course’ competition in Little J’s backyard. Have each group allocate the roles of the five characters who were in Little J’s backyard at the time (two contestants- Big Cuz and Sissy, the host – Little J, and two bystanders - Nanna and Old Dog), with one student acting as a news reporter.
In their character roles, the group enacts the events in order to prepare a news report on the competition. Invite each group to present a two-minute news report to the class, from the different perspectives of one or more of the characters.
Discuss how the characters can relay the same event from different perspectives. As a suggestion, have students imagine how Old Dog would have described the event when he was used as the crocodile, and all he wanted to do was play with the ball; or Big Cuz who was reluctant to participate at first but was encouraged to do so. Have the groups also suggest the purpose of the news report, and the intended audience.
Have the class pose and respond to questions about the different styles of news reporting. Have each group consider how they will present their news reports, and which of the characters perspectives will they focus on.
Explain to students that a news reporter may have two roles: a reporter (on location) and a news presenter (in studio). As a class, watch examples of news reporting from Behind the news, ABC.
From the students’ observations of various news reports, establish the following points about the purpose of news reporting and the demographic of the intended audience:
Provide background information about why/how/where/when it happened and what other events may have a relationship to the event, etc.
Ask students to keep a Media Diary, noting any items of news they watch on television/online at home. Have students note the names of the news reporters and presenters, and assess who they consider is the news production is pitched at (or intended audience). View Rookie Reporter, Behind the news, ABC
In pairs or groups, invite students to select one of the following Aboriginal stories and/or Torres Strait Islander stories:
Have students imagine that they are reporting the story as a news item. Ask students to identify the characters, describe when and where the event took place, and what happened in the views of those who were the participants and those who were bystanders. Select students to present their news report to the class.
** Teacher note: The reporter also has to present a respectful report, as these stories hold special beliefs to Aboriginal peoples and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - FRAMING
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about the conventions of framing and composition in media production.
Explain to students the types of camera shots or framing, and provide examples, such as
Cut 6cm x 6cm cardboard frames (with a 4cm x 4cm square cut out of the centre) that the students can use to view their subject/s. Have students move closer to an object to mimic a close-up, and move further away to mimic a wide shot. Have students physically move to view an object such as a toy or a chair from different angles Support students to understand that the lens of a still or movie camera moves in and out changing focal length in order to capture the different views of the subject.
Show students examples of additional camera shot/framing terms used in ‘moving’ image, such as:
Re-watch Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, and have students identify the different camera frames used to tell the story. Set up a Quizlet with different scenes listed and a selection of camera angles that students should match with the scene. Poll the responses from the whole class to assess the students’ understanding.
If available, have students set up a ‘still life’ with random objects found in the room. Using a camera on a tripod, have students take three shots of the same subject: horizontal long shot (panoramic), mid-ground shot at eye level, and a close-up from above or below. Print the photos and have students arrange them on cardboard and label the type of shots.
As a class, examine the photos that Nanna took of the children, and have the students identify the types of framing she used. Set up a similar shot with class mates and take the same composition from a different angle. Evaluate the differences archived from the variety of framing angles.
Invite students to share the advice they would give Nanna about framing her photography efforts.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - SOUND
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about how natural sound and sound effects recorded and are artificially made, and used in the production.
In respect to Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’ revisit with students the three key elements of story production:
Re-watch Episode 13 Big Plans with the sound turned off. Have students suggest what is missing that usually assists the audience to understand the story. Direct students to consider the element of sound, and have them focus on how different types of sound are produced in media productions:
Replay the episode to have students identify how each of the four types of sound are evident. Prepare a worksheet or Quizlet with selected scenes of the episode listed and have students decide which sound type was used for each scene.
Introduce the term ‘Foley artist’, as the person who makes sound effects for film. Ask students to predict how the Foley artist produces sound. As a class, watch a selection of video clips for the ways a
Foley artist produces a sound -
Calling the Storm - A visualisation game exploring sound.
Seat all the students close together on the floor in a tight huddle. Choose a moment when there is not a lot of background noise from outside the room.
Have students sit close together and lean into the centre… and to repeat the demonstrated actions to make a rainstorm appear.
Ask students to hold their thumbs to their fingertips and rub them together. There should be a gentle swishing noise. Say: ‘I hear the wind sighing, here comes the rain.’
Ask students to rub their two palms together. Say: ‘Here come the first raindrops.’
Ask students to move to a very gentle pattering of their hands on their thighs. Say: ‘They are getting louder!’
Ask students to patter a bit harder. Say: ‘Here comes some thunder!’
Ask students to stamp their feet, getting harder and harder. Say: ‘Lightning noises’
Ask students to make random lightning noises by clapping their hands and shouting ‘Bang!’, ‘Crash!’ Continue this noise for a few seconds. Say: ‘Oh, the storm is passing. The lightning stops.’
Ask students to stop clapping their hands and shouting ‘Bang!’, ‘Crash! Say: ‘The thunder dies away.’
Ask students to slow and gradually stop their thumping feet. Say: ‘The rain eases off.’
Ask students to slow down the pattering sound on their thighs until it is just their fingertips. Say: ‘The wind sighs.’
Ask students to return to rubbing their palms. Say: ‘And the bush is quiet again.’
Ask students to rub their fingers – stop – and hold the moment silently for at least a second.
Talk about what the students would hear, smell and feel after the rain, e.g. the birds chirping and the grasses rustling, and a fresh cool feeling. Have students imagine being in the forest, or outback, or city after that storm and ask the class about the different sounds the students would hear. Practise making a storm a couple of more times, and have students suggest ways of making the sounds of the storm using found materials, and other actions.
Read the picture book, Big Rain Coming, by Katrina Germein, and view the video animation of it.
Have students create and sequence of sounds for the story and record them, using Audacity or similar software. Play the sound track made by the students over the (silent) video clip.
Have students evaluate which sounds were successful and reflect on which needed more planning and work. Also, have students assess their skills of timing aligned to the action, and the variety of sounds, and the authenticity of sound, etc.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme -GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about reality game shows, and how and why they are made.
Introduce students to the term ‘Reality Television’ (TV) and have students predict what is meant by the term. Provide an example of a TV show that students watch and that would be an obvious inclusion in this category, such as ‘The Block’, ‘Masterchef’, or ‘The Voice’.
Ask students to suggest the two forms of Reality television that are featured in Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’:
Have students suggest some of the story elements particular to these styles of television production:
Invite students to recount various television programs that they watch that are considered ‘Reality Television’. See if they can describe the purpose of the show, the characters, the setting/s, and story for each.
Examples of shows include:
Divide students into smaller groups and have each group select one form of ‘Reality Television’ they want to recreate and demonstrate for the class. Have students designate a role to each member of their group as either a contestant or as the host or co-host. Design a game that they can act out and that would appeal to the rest of the class who will be the audience. Each student must design a character that they can play and these should be based on real contestants they have seen (or imagined).
Video the class productions of ‘Reality Television’. Prepare a ratings questionnaire, or Quizlet, with criteria about the quality of the show and its appropriateness for the age group it intended to attract, and have the audience ‘rate’ each program. Collate the results of the ratings to find out which of the programs the class would watch again. Suggest that students who voted for the program justify their choice using the media arts terminology.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Explore ideas, characters and settings in the community through stories in images, sounds and text
Theme - CHARACTER
After viewing the Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of character, and the gestures, expressions, language, and moral choices characters portray in a story.
Prompt students to observe how Little J changes his voice and body gestures when he pretends to be ‘Brave J’.As a class, draw a comparison chart (e.g. T-Chart) of the different body gestures and tones of voice that Little J exhibits as himself, as ‘Brave J’ the competitor, and finally as ‘Compere J’ the game show host.
Have students demonstrate these changes in his character, and emulate the movements and stance he takes with the wooden spoon microphone. Have students suggest the type of character Little J becomes with each change of name. Discuss the meaning of ‘being brave’, and ‘being brave in front of an audience’ and have students decide which is more demanding.
Divide students into pairs and provide them with a Mind map and/or a Cluster map.
Have students conceptualise the character, ‘Brave J’, by suggesting personality traits and physical traits they feel a character like this should possess. Questions to prompt the students might be:
What is Little J’s voice like?
To accompany the mind mapping, have students draw an image of the Brave J character dressed as a superhero.
Little J not only imagines himself as Brave J the competitor, he also becomes Compere J, the game show host. Ask students to consider the type of character traits a compere of a reality television show needs to have, particularly, the special language, gesture, expression, and body movements. Develop a second Mind map or Cluster map for Little J as a compere.
As a class, view the different styles of these game show hosts:
Use a Drama Freeze-Frame exercise with students to act out the three different personas of Little J (Little J, Brave J, Compere J) – have the students freeze and change between character when the name of the character is called out.
Suggested teacher resources for drama:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Explore ideas, characters and settings in the community through stories in images, sounds and text
Theme - SETTING
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about setting and how the different backgrounds used in the episode establishes a sense of place for the audience. (Refer to Little J & Big Cuz, Scene Builder game, for settings from the series)
Focus students’ attention on where each scene is located. Create a Quizlet or matching template where the students are required to match the action of a scene with the setting, e.g.
Suggest that students find and title all of the different settings in Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’.
Divide the class into pairs or small groups and allocate one of the settings to each student or pair of students. Instruct students that they have three minutes to remember every object in the setting. At the end of the time, see how many objects they can name and describe correctly.
Ask students to close their eyes so that they can’t see the illustrations accompanying the reading of an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander story where the landscape is an important part of the story.
Suggested stories and drama strategies:
After listening to one or more stories, invite students to draw their own images for one of the stories. Load these images into a slide sequencing program, such as PowerPoint, and have students retell the story in their own words so that the story and the setting aligns.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Explore ideas, characters and settings in the community through stories in images, sounds and text
Theme - STORY PRINCIPLES
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about the story principles and how the story developed as a story ladder
Introduce the concepts of (media) artist and (media) audience. Refer to Australian Curriculum, The Arts: Glossary for definitions of these terms.
Explain that the two concepts media artist and media audience are linked – the media artist writes or produces a story to be read or viewed by the media audience. The media audience may sometimes read the media differently to how the media artist intends it to be read. This mismatch of reading in Media Arts 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.
Introduce students to the concept of a basic ‘story arc’ (beginning, middle and end) and some elements of an advanced application, such as exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. Prepare a worksheet or Quizlet, where the order of the events in Episode 13 are mixed up and the students are required to re-order them correctly. This activity allows students to identify the sequence of actions that led to the ultimate resolution of all friends playing in the obstacle course. As a class, identify the events that match the terms exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution.
Episode events:
Examine a character arc, involving the (1) orientation/introduction to the character, (2) the character has an unfortunate dilemma to be resolved, and (3) the character overcomes the dilemma through either good luck or good management.
Discuss how this character arc can be applied to the individual characters in Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’:
Have students apply their understanding of story arc (beginning, middle and end) and/or character arc (exploration, dilemma, resolve) to other stories they read/view, e.g.
As a class, discuss how the stages of the story arc and/or character arc become evident in each example.
Suggested resources:
Teacher reference:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Evaluate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - MEDIA
Evaluate what students have learnt (know and can do) from the activities in relation to The Arts: Media Arts curriculum.
Assess the success of the module through reflecting on students:
As a culmination and extension of the learning activities in this module, students could:
Student evaluation tools
Students could self-evaluate their learning using a ‘monitoring’ journal (physical or digital) where the teacher lists the key understandings and concepts students needed to acquire through the module.
Where applicable, a self-evaluation could be constructed as a poll rating their responses using:
Use Early Years writing using rubrics (PDF) to provide feedback to students.
Students can use a learning worm to evaluate their work, adapted from:
Teacher reflection tools
Reflect on your teaching of the module. What worked well? What needs more work? What would you add/change/omit in future?
Ask students to rate your efforts and recommend areas for improvement. You may wish to refer to broader resources for reflection or for gaining feedback, for example:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about producing a Reality television – Game Show.
Remind students of some of the story elements particular to this genre of television production:
Little J designed his own obstacle course and reality show called ‘Brave J’s Outback Adventures’, where he was the host/compere of the show and explained the challenges confronting the contestants to the audience.
Three groups of people are usually involved in producing television game shows.
Divide the class into separate production teams, each working on a separate reality Game Show.
Each production team must list the jobs that need to be completed by the team, allocate roles to its group members, and sequence the actions for their production so everyone is aware of the order of the contestants, and of the scenes in the show.
Every student should have a role to play in the production.
Among the tasks to be done, each production team needs to:
Suggested teacher resources
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about producing a news or sports report for Little J’s and Big Cuz’s school sports day.
Divide the class into smaller news teams of approximately six students:
Each group should create a list of the jobs to be completed in order to present their news program.
The groups should also:
1. Storyboard the news item’s story arc and include the timing/sequencing of the news report
Things to consider include:
2. Prepare the set and production equipment
Things to consider include:
provide a framing plan of different shots to take of the action and competitors, etc.
3. Post-production elements of editing the news report. Things to consider include:
Each student should evaluate their own production, and recommend how the team could work together more effectively on future productions.
Suggested production resources:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about producing a Talent Quest as an example of Reality television. .
Remind students that Big Cuz designed her own Talent Quest where she was to sing, impress the judges, and win. Instruct students that they are to design their own talent quest.
Divide the class into three groups:
Each group is asked to develop a list of jobs (similar to those listed above and below) that members of their group are required to complete (in order to produce the class Talent Quest). Every student in the class should be responsible for one role in the production.
As a class, the students should also
Agree on the style/format of the show – is it similar to The Voice (judges turning around), X-Factor, or Australia’s Got Talent?
Storyboard the story arc and the timing and sequencing of scenes. They should also include opening titles, music theme, host introduction, synopsis of the show, introduction of contestants, length of performances, audience appreciation (sound of clapping and canned laughter), end of show judging, the announcement of the winner/s, the trophy presentation, closing music and credits.
Have students rehearse each segment of the show (beginning, middle and end) and make sure that each student is aware of the process and the interchange of scenes (timing and sequencing).
Allocate a space (classroom or other) and time for the performance (10-15 mins), and possibly the filming, of the Talent Quest.
Invite students to evaluate the class production, and recommend how the production teams could work together more effectively for future productions.
Suggested resources for making a media production include:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - SETTING
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about location, setting, and of how changing location and setting can change meaning.
Introduce the word ‘Setting’, and ask students to explain what they understand by the meaning of the word and how it relates to the setting where Little J set up the obstacle race in the backyard.
Have students suggest the objects used to make the obstacle course in a backyard, e.g. swinging tyre, old mattress, blanket on the clothesline, etc. Have students think about and suggest which objects in their own backyards would make a good obstacle course. Have students complete a list of items and/or drawings of what they would use for an obstacle course in their backyard.
Propose to students that if they were to change the setting of the obstacle course, would it change the type of obstacles they would use, e.g. if they lived in the mountains and it snowed; if they lived underwater; or, if they lived on the moon, etc.
Provide students with access to images of different terrains, and have each student select a landscape different from Little J’s backyard scene. If possible, print out the image and have students design an obstacle course appropriate for the features of this different terrain. Large digital landscape photographs of a wide range of Australian ecosystems, including natural and built environments, can be found at Gulliver Media Wildlife Image: Resources for Schools.
Encourage students to position a sheet of clear plastic over the photograph and to draw their obstacles on the plastic sheet but still referring to the image below. Provide whiteboard markers to draw on the transparent plastic. On completion, project the acetate (plastic) overlay sheet over a large projected image of the background setting on the IWB, or on-screen in a digital image making program such as ShowMe or Paint.
Invite students to share their ideas with the class about their imaginary obstacle course with the class and describe the type of obstacles they invented (adventure competition, outback survival, rope course climbing and skateboarding, etc.).
Explore and list words to describe the various landscapes, and discuss if they are dramatic and active words or quiet, sleepy words. Ask students to visualise a craggy landscape, rocky outcrops and cold, rushing rivers of Brave J’s outback, focusing on how the adjectives tell us that the landscape is wild, exciting and dynamic.
Have students also name their course, e.g. Little J’s Icy Wonderland, or Little J’s Submarine Garden, etc. Display the newly invented obstacle courses in their new terrain settings for the class to view and reflect on.
Suggested software programs for editing images:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - GENRE, TRAILERS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about filmed commercials as advertising.
As a class, view the trailer for the Little J & Big Cuz Trailer. Discuss with the class what they think the purpose of a production’s Trailer is, and prompt responses about its use for advertising for the show. Have the students suggest in what ways the Trailer is ‘selling’ the production to an audience.
Explain to students about how advertising is used to persuade people to ‘act’ on something they see, such as buying, selling, phoning, protesting, watching, etc. As a persuasive text, this trailer contains some features that would attract a young audience, and different features that would attract their parents.
Have students work in pairs to view the trailer again and come up with three messages about the animation series that the producers and/or broadcaster want an audience of children to know about the series. The pairs should also suggest two messages that the producers want the parents to know about the series.
As a class, watch the trailer without the sound and deconstruct the different scenes to see how the trailer was made, such as use of
Re-watch the trailer with the sound turned on, and have students identify which sounds accompany the different scenes:
Have students determine how many different scenes from the animation series appear in the trailer and what is the dominant sound technique used.
Have students suggest the effect the trailer has on the intended audience. Ask students if they think it appeals to a young audience, or is it made for an older audience? And, do the students like or dislike it?
Watch a selection of the following trailers for children’s movies and television shows and have the class review the clips identifying the production features (image effects, sound effects):
Divide the class into small groups and have the groups select either
The groups should develop a storyboard or ‘story arc’ as a Trailer concept for either one of the suggested television shows, listed above.
Remind students that they could use an animation mashup with scenes from the episode and/or insert live action interviews with the characters and the actors who play them. The group can act out or explain the trailer to the class. The students can find setting stills for Little J and Big Cuz at Scene Builder.
Suggested teacher resources:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - GENRE, NEWS REPORTING
After viewing the Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of news reporting as a media genre.
Have students watch examples of news reporting, such as:
Have students identify what a news reporter’s main role is, such as presenting facts about an event to an audience. Ask students about how a news reporter collects specific information/facts about an event/incident for their report, such as on location interviews with people who experienced or observed the event/incident. Student responses should also include that reporters ask questions of the people (participants/observers) who were present at the event/incident, or are experts about a topic.
Divide the class into groups of six students, and have each group recall and discuss the ‘obstacle course’ competition in Little J’s backyard. Have each group allocate the roles of the five characters who were in Little J’s backyard at the time (two contestants- Big Cuz and Sissy, the host – Little J, and two bystanders - Nanna and Old Dog), with one student acting as a news reporter.
In their character roles, the group enacts the events in order to prepare a news report on the competition. Invite each group to present a two-minute news report to the class, from the different perspectives of one or more of the characters.
Discuss how the characters can relay the same event from different perspectives. As a suggestion, have students imagine how Old Dog would have described the event when he was used as the crocodile, and all he wanted to do was play with the ball; or Big Cuz who was reluctant to participate at first but was encouraged to do so. Have the groups also suggest the purpose of the news report, and the intended audience.
Have the class pose and respond to questions about the different styles of news reporting. Have each group consider how they will present their news reports, and which of the characters perspectives will they focus on.
Explain to students that a news reporter may have two roles: a reporter (on location) and a news presenter (in studio). As a class, watch examples of news reporting from Behind the news, ABC.
From the students’ observations of various news reports, establish the following points about the purpose of news reporting and the demographic of the intended audience:
Provide background information about why/how/where/when it happened and what other events may have a relationship to the event, etc.
Ask students to keep a Media Diary, noting any items of news they watch on television/online at home. Have students note the names of the news reporters and presenters, and assess who they consider is the news production is pitched at (or intended audience). View Rookie Reporter, Behind the news, ABC
In pairs or groups, invite students to select one of the following Aboriginal stories and/or Torres Strait Islander stories:
Have students imagine that they are reporting the story as a news item. Ask students to identify the characters, describe when and where the event took place, and what happened in the views of those who were the participants and those who were bystanders. Select students to present their news report to the class.
** Teacher note: The reporter also has to present a respectful report, as these stories hold special beliefs to Aboriginal peoples and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - FRAMING
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about the conventions of framing and composition in media production.
Explain to students the types of camera shots or framing, and provide examples, such as
Close-up
Cut 6cm x 6cm cardboard frames (with a 4cm x 4cm square cut out of the centre) that the students can use to view their subject/s. Have students move closer to an object to mimic a close-up, and move further away to mimic a wide shot. Have students physically move to view an object such as a toy or a chair from different angles Support students to understand that the lens of a still or movie camera moves in and out changing focal length in order to capture the different views of the subject.
Show students examples of additional camera shot/framing terms used in ‘moving’ image, such as:
Re-watch Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, and have students identify the different camera frames used to tell the story. Set up a Quizlet with different scenes listed and a selection of camera angles that students should match with the scene. Poll the responses from the whole class to assess the students’ understanding.
If available, have students set up a ‘still life’ with random objects found in the room. Using a camera on a tripod, have students take three shots of the same subject: horizontal long shot (panoramic), mid-ground shot at eye level, and a close-up from above or below. Print the photos and have students arrange them on cardboard and label the type of shots.
As a class, examine the photos that Nanna took of the children, and have the students identify the types of framing she used. Set up a similar shot with class mates and take the same composition from a different angle. Evaluate the differences archived from the variety of framing angles.
Invite students to share the advice they would give Nanna about framing her photography efforts.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - SOUND
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about how natural sound and sound effects recorded and are artificially made, and used in the production.
In respect to Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’ revisit with students the three key elements of story production:
Re-watch Episode 13 Big Plans with the sound turned off. Have students suggest what is missing that usually assists the audience to understand the story. Direct students to consider the element of sound, and have them focus on how different types of sound are produced in media productions:
Replay the episode to have students identify how each of the four types of sound are evident. Prepare a worksheet or Quizlet with selected scenes of the episode listed and have students decide which sound type was used for each scene.
Introduce the term ‘Foley artist’, as the person who makes sound effects for film. Ask students to predict how the Foley artist produces sound. As a class, watch a selection of video clips for the ways a
Foley artist produces a sound -
Calling the Storm - A visualisation game exploring sound.
Seat all the students close together on the floor in a tight huddle. Choose a moment when there is not a lot of background noise from outside the room.
Have students sit close together and lean into the centre… and to repeat the demonstrated actions to make a rainstorm appear.
Ask students to hold their thumbs to their fingertips and rub them together. There should be a gentle swishing noise.
Say: ‘I hear the wind sighing, here comes the rain.’
Ask students to rub their two palms together.
Say: ‘Here come the first raindrops.’
Ask students to move to a very gentle pattering of their hands on their thighs.
Say: ‘They are getting louder!’
Ask students to patter a bit harder.
Say: ‘Here comes some thunder!’
Ask students to stamp their feet, getting harder and harder.
Say: ‘Lightning noises’
Ask students to make random lightning noises by clapping their hands and shouting ‘Bang!’, ‘Crash!’ Continue this noise for a few seconds.
Say: ‘Oh, the storm is passing. The lightning stops.’
Ask students to stop clapping their hands and shouting ‘Bang!’, ‘Crash!
Say: ‘The thunder dies away.’
Ask students to slow and gradually stop their thumping feet.
Say: ‘The rain eases off.’
Ask students to slow down the pattering sound on their thighs until it is just their fingertips.
Say: ‘The wind sighs.’
Ask students to return to rubbing their palms.
Say: ‘And the bush is quiet again.’
Ask students to rub their fingers – stop – and hold the moment silently for at least a second.
Talk about what the students would hear, smell and feel after the rain, e.g. the birds chirping and the grasses rustling, and a fresh cool feeling. Have students imagine being in the forest, or outback, or city after that storm and ask the class about the different sounds the students would hear. Practise making a storm a couple of more times, and have students suggest ways of making the sounds of the storm using found materials, and other actions.
Read the picture book, Big Rain Coming, by Katrina Germein, and view the video animation of it.
Have students create and sequence of sounds for the story and record them, using Audacity or similar software. Play the sound track made by the students over the (silent) video clip.
Have students evaluate which sounds were successful and reflect on which needed more planning and work. Also, have students assess their skills of timing aligned to the action, and the variety of sounds, and the authenticity of sound, etc.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Use media technologies to capture and edit images, sounds and text for a purpose
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about reality game shows, and how and why they are made.
Introduce students to the term ‘Reality Television’ (TV) and have students predict what is meant by the term. Provide an example of a TV show that students watch and that would be an obvious inclusion in this category, such as ‘The Block’, ‘Masterchef’, or ‘The Voice’.
Ask students to suggest the two forms of Reality television that are featured in Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’:
Have students suggest some of the story elements particular to these styles of television production:
Invite students to recount various television programs that they watch that are considered ‘Reality Television’. See if they can describe the purpose of the show, the characters, the setting/s, and story for each.
Examples of shows include:
Divide students into smaller groups and have each group select one form of ‘Reality Television’ they want to recreate and demonstrate for the class. Have students designate a role to each member of their group as either a contestant or as the host or co-host. Design a game that they can act out and that would appeal to the rest of the class who will be the audience. Each student must design a character that they can play and these should be based on real contestants they have seen (or imagined).
Video the class productions of ‘Reality Television’. Prepare a ratings questionnaire, or Quizlet, with criteria about the quality of the show and its appropriateness for the age group it intended to attract, and have the audience ‘rate’ each program. Collate the results of the ratings to find out which of the programs the class would watch again. Suggest that students who voted for the program justify their choice using the media arts terminology.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Explore ideas, characters and settings in the community through stories in images, sounds and text
Theme - CHARACTER
After viewing the Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of character, and the gestures, expressions, language, and moral choices characters portray in a story.
Prompt students to observe how Little J changes his voice and body gestures when he pretends to be ‘Brave J’.As a class, draw a comparison chart (e.g. T-Chart) of the different body gestures and tones of voice that Little J exhibits as himself, as ‘Brave J’ the competitor, and finally as ‘Compere J’ the game show host.
Have students demonstrate these changes in his character, and emulate the movements and stance he takes with the wooden spoon microphone. Have students suggest the type of character Little J becomes with each change of name. Discuss the meaning of ‘being brave’, and ‘being brave in front of an audience’ and have students decide which is more demanding.
Divide students into pairs and provide them with a Mind map and/or a Cluster map.
Have students conceptualise the character, ‘Brave J’, by suggesting personality traits and physical traits they feel a character like this should possess. Questions to prompt the students might be:
What is Little J’s voice like?
To accompany the mind mapping, have students draw an image of the Brave J character dressed as a superhero.
Little J not only imagines himself as Brave J the competitor, he also becomes Compere J, the game show host. Ask students to consider the type of character traits a compere of a reality television show needs to have, particularly, the special language, gesture, expression, and body movements. Develop a second Mind map or Cluster map for Little J as a compere.
As a class, view the different styles of these game show hosts:
Use a Drama Freeze-Frame exercise with students to act out the three different personas of Little J (Little J, Brave J, Compere J) – have the students freeze and change between character when the name of the character is called out.
Suggested teacher resources for drama:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Explore ideas, characters and settings in the community through stories in images, sounds and text
Theme - SETTING
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about setting and how the different backgrounds used in the episode establishes a sense of place for the audience. (Refer to Little J & Big Cuz, Scene Builder game, for settings from the series)
Focus students’ attention on where each scene is located. Create a Quizlet or matching template where the students are required to match the action of a scene with the setting, e.g.
Suggest that students find and title all of the different settings in Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’.
Divide the class into pairs or small groups and allocate one of the settings to each student or pair of students. Instruct students that they have three minutes to remember every object in the setting. At the end of the time, see how many objects they can name and describe correctly.
Ask students to close their eyes so that they can’t see the illustrations accompanying the reading of an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander story where the landscape is an important part of the story.
Suggested stories and drama strategies:
After listening to one or more stories, invite students to draw their own images for one of the stories. Load these images into a slide sequencing program, such as PowerPoint, and have students retell the story in their own words so that the story and the setting aligns.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Explore ideas, characters and settings in the community through stories in images, sounds and text
Theme - STORY PRINCIPLES
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about the story principles and how the story developed as a story ladder
Introduce the concepts of (media) artist and (media) audience. Refer to Australian Curriculum, The Arts: Glossary for definitions of these terms.
Explain that the two concepts media artist and media audience are linked – the media artist writes or produces a story to be read or viewed by the media audience. The media audience may sometimes read the media differently to how the media artist intends it to be read. This mismatch of reading in Media Arts 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.
Introduce students to the concept of a basic ‘story arc’ (beginning, middle and end) and some elements of an advanced application, such as exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. Prepare a worksheet or Quizlet, where the order of the events in Episode 13 are mixed up and the students are required to re-order them correctly. This activity allows students to identify the sequence of actions that led to the ultimate resolution of all friends playing in the obstacle course. As a class, identify the events that match the terms exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution.
Episode events:
Examine a character arc, involving the (1) orientation/introduction to the character, (2) the character has an unfortunate dilemma to be resolved, and (3) the character overcomes the dilemma through either good luck or good management.
Discuss how this character arc can be applied to the individual characters in Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’:
Have students apply their understanding of story arc (beginning, middle and end) and/or character arc (exploration, dilemma, resolve) to other stories they read/view, e.g.
As a class, discuss how the stages of the story arc and/or character arc become evident in each example.
Suggested resources:
Teacher reference:
The Five S's of Screenwriting: Principles Of Storytelling, Movie Outline
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Evaluate - Propose a range of alternatives and test their effectiveness when solving movement challenges
Theme - ROLE MODELS
Evaluate what students have learnt (know and can do) from the activities in relation to the Health and Physical Education.
Assess the success of the module through reflecting on students:
As a culmination of their learning in this module, students could:
Student evaluation tools
Students could self-evaluate their learning using a ‘monitoring’ journal (physical or digital) where the teacher lists the key understandings and concepts students needed to acquire through the module.
Where applicable, a self-evaluation could be constructed as a poll rating their responses using:
Use Early Years writing using rubrics (PDF) to provide feedback to students using the rubric.
Students can use a learning worm to evaluate their work, adapted from:
Teacher reflection tools
Reflect on your teaching of the module. What worked well? What needs more work? What would you add/change/omit in future?
Ask students to rate your efforts and recommend areas for improvement. You may wish to refer to broader resources for reflection or for gaining feedback, for example:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Create and participate in games with and without equipment
Theme - ROLE MODELS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about playing games/sport that enhances the way they think about strategy.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.
Focus on: foot placement, balance and agility.
Variations:
Design an obstacle course
Variations: Add to the course, extra challenges that test other parts of the body, such as:
Remind students that to be skilful at physical activities, the whole body must be engaged.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Describe ways to include others to make them feel they belong (ACPPS019)
Theme - ROLE MODELS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about building relationships with peers, and belonging.
Focus students’ attention on the way Little J persisted in his quest to entice Big Cuz and Sissy to include him and play his game. Have students consider what would have happened if the girls continued to exclude Little J, or if Little J excluded Big Cuz from playing his game.
Talk to the students about consequences, and that the decisions each person makes, and the actions they take, have consequences. Watch the video clip, Fishing, My Place Ep. 25 ‘Before Time: Bunda’, at My Place for Teachers website, ABC TV.
As a class, discuss how Bunda’s father was trying to teach the boys to work together, as this would ensure their survival in the bush.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.
Cooperative games
Introduce students to a couple of cooperative games/challenges where the individual and/or the group needs to make decisions about their actions to benefit the group.
A. Shark-infested island
B. Bean heads
C. Carrot catchers
Divide the class into groups, and have students devise a cooperative activity that they could teach another group. Ask students to explore the types of challenges encountered in the tasks they have already attempted, and what skills for team work they need to have in order to succeed.
Provide a selection of simple equipment and found/recycled materials for experimenting with, such as rope, blankets, balls and beanbags. In their groups, have students design a game or challenge, test it, revise and demonstrate it to others. Once resolved. Have the groups teach they game/challenge to the other groups. A suggested resource is The Wellbeing Hub.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Use strategies to work in group situations when participating in physical activities
Theme - ROLE MODELS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about participating in physical activities.
Explore students’ experiences of teamwork. In particular, discuss examples from sport and games when it’s important to communicate with your team mates, such as when passing a ball, or stepping together in a three-legged race. Invite students to participate in this low contact challenge focusing on control and communication.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.
Carrot catchers
Name circle
Focus on: movement sequences, respecting others’ instructions
This is a great beginning of year activity but it also acts as a positive enforcement that each student’s own choices are respected by the group.
As a class, list the team games/sports that the students play, e.g. basketball, AFL, Cricket, NRL, soccer/football, tennis, relay swimming, etc. Have the students who play the same sport make a group.
As a group, big or small, have the students select a skill drill that they can teach other students, and that requires communication between two or more people to perform it, e.g. for basketball ‘Suicide passing drill’, for soccer ‘dribbling in and around a circle of players’, swimming ‘relay touching and diving’.
Have the groups explain why they have chosen the drill and how it is important to communicate while performing it.
Suggested resources:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Describe their own strengths and achievements and those of others, and identify how these contribute to personal identities
Theme - ROLE MODELS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about identifying good role models.
Provide a selection of books for students to read about various people/characters that others admire, such as:
Revisit Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, and have students suggest the types of personalities or celebrities that would appeal to Little J and to Big Cuz. Have students consider that Little J designed and built a challenging obstacle course based on an adventure/survivor television show where he was a compere; and Big Cuz created a Talent Quest game where she was the star singer.
Have students suggest real-life TV personalities/celebrities that both Little J and Big Cuz may have been emulating, e.g. compere Jeff Probst (USA) or Jonathan LaPaglia (AUST.) from the TV show ‘Survivor’, or compere Phil Keoghan compere of The Amazing Race (USA), or contestants in talent quests, e.g. Jessica Mauboy and Casey Donovan who appeared in Australian Idol, or Dami Im who represented Australia in Eurovision 2016, among others.
These links may help to identify people who are good role models for younger students:
**Teacher note: Warning Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander students if they are to view images and names of deceased peoples.
Ask the class to nominate who are their idols and what qualities these nominations must embody to be regarded as a ‘star’. Provide each student with a star diagram and have them find an image of their idol and glue it into the centre of the star. Label the star with the name of the person, and their achievements.
Provide a list of words that describe ‘fame’, and have the students choose words to write on/around the star that indicates what type of person they are, such as hard working, happy, generous, talented, funny, beautiful, outgoing, respected, thoughtful, creative, energetic, etc.
If students know their idol in real life, have them share any stories and experiences they have of meeting the idol. If not, ask students how they know this idol is like what they think. Explain that sometimes we may not know the people we idolise, but we feel they portray some traits that we, as individuals, can read/feel about them.
Have students use another star diagram and draw into the star someone that they actually know, as a ‘star’ person. Again, use the list of adjectives to select different words to describe the person. Have students assess which star was easiest to find genuine words to describe them.
Invite students to design and make two greeting cards, one to send to their celebrity/idol congratulating them on their success and saying how much the student admires them, and one to the person they know and admire, expressing similar sentiments to the first. Compare the choice of images and words and the description of who each student admires.
Suggested resource: The Hero book: Learning Lessons from the People You Admire
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Perform fundamental movement skills in a variety of movement sequences and situations
Theme - MOVEMENT
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about performance and movement skills.
Revisit the three-legged race scene, and focus students’ attention on the skills needed to perform this type of race. Students should be directed to skills such as balance, coordination, control, timing, rhythm, perception, concentration, strength and speed, etc.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.
Have students attempt a three-legged race, and slow down the action so that they are moving one step at a time. Have students list the parts of their bodies that are used to make the action of running: legs, feet, arms, head, body, etc. Students should list almost all parts of the body to realise that the momentum of movement is a coordination of all muscles, bones and nerves, etc.
As a class, view the video clip: Man running slow motion with mountain backdrop. Have students analyse the way the man is running and what is happening to his arms and legs while running. Have students practise their own slow-running style.
Explain to students that many Aboriginal dances and/or Torres Strait Islander dances imitate the movements of animals they know and hunt. These movements are then adapted for tracking, hunting and for dancing. For example,
Have student devise their own movements from their experiences of animals they are familiar with. The movements can involve, running, hopping, skipping, etc. Ask students to explain their movement/s and how it resembles the animal of their choice.
**Teacher note: Warning that some Aboriginal dance moves and/or Torres Strait Islander dance moves can only be performed by certain genders. It is important to not have students imitate Aboriginal dance moves and/or Torres Strait Islander dance moves without cultural permissions; students can adapt these movements to their own invented movements.
Have students participate in the following movement games:
The Chase
Focus on: throwing, dodging, following simple rules
The runners that get through with the fewest hits are celebrated as the fastest and most agile.
So are the pitchers who make the most hits without breaking the rules are the most accurate.
Allow each group to participate as being a pitcher, or runner, and a line-keeper.
Discuss the strategies and techniques with the class to encourage reflection, as students swap roles.
Variations
This course can be run as a relay race. Assign points for each ‘hit’, e.g. 3 points if hit by the first pitcher and 1 point if hit by the last one. The runner with the fewest points wins.
Gorri
Focus on: throwing, aim, hitting a moving target.
To play the Aboriginal target game, Gorri, players must stand behind a line and attempt to hit a large ball that has been rolled down the line by a fellow student. For full instructions, background and variations, go to Gorri, Yulunga, Traditional Indigenous games, Sport Australia. After the games, ask students to reflect on what they learnt, and devise a statement about how these types of movements help young people develop skills for working together.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Recognise similarities and differences in individuals and groups, and explore how these are celebrated and respected
Theme - IDENTITY
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about respecting others’ differences.
Ask students to focus their attentions on the games that Little J and Big Cuz chose to play. Big Cuz chose to play inside and create a game pretending to be a TV Quest star, and Little J chose to build an obstacle course outside, pretending to be a compere of a TV show.
Introduce the nursery rhyme, What are Little boys made of? (early 19th century)
What are little boys made of?
What are little boys made of?
Snips and snails
And puppy-dogs' tails
That's what little boys are made of
What are little girls made of?
What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice
And everything nice [or ‘all things nice’]
That's what little girls are made of.
Have the class listen to and/or read the lyrics, and pose and respond to questions about the meaning of the poem. Explain that, in times past, people recognised that little girls and little boys behaved differently, spoke differently, and played differently. Have students consider if that is true today.
Divide the class into two teams, the girls’ team, and the boys’ team. Using a Venn diagram, ask the teams to create two lists, ‘games that girls play’ and a second list of ‘games that boys play’ and any games that both play could be listed in the overlapping area.
Have the groups submit their diagrams to compile a class list. Examine the games that only girls play and the list that only boys play, and ask the other teams if they have ever played a game of (whatever the students suggest?). If the answer is ‘yes’ then add the game to the middle section. Eventually, most, if not, all of the games should be in the middle section.
Highlight to students that while girls and boys have many similarities, likes and behaviours, that individually, all people are slightly different from others. This is what makes us all unique. Have students draw an outline of themselves on a sheet of paper, and have all students individually list or illustrate around the shape the games they playing, the art they like creating, the subjects they like speaking about, and the people they like spending time with, etc. Students can cut out pictures from magazines to add to the image.
Give the image the title, ‘Who am I?’ Display all the images in the classroom and have other students guess who they think each person is.
Suggested resources in respect to identity
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Propose a range of alternatives and test their effectiveness when solving movement challenges
Theme - EMOTIONS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about coordinated movement, communication, and cooperation.
These activities are good for outdoors on a hot day, as they involve water. They also require students to coordinate their movements quite carefully. Take the class outdoors and explain that there are a number of ways we can play games that require coordination as well as cooperation.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.
Cooperative cups
Focus on: hand-eye coordination, group communication and cooperation.
Variation:
If the students get really good at the game, ask them to walk a very short distance carrying the cup full of water without spilling it.
Suggested resource: Cup and String Challenge
Water caterpillar
Focus on: cooperative solutions and accuracy.
Variations
To make this easier: provide larger vessels and less water.
To make this harder: place the students an arm’s length away from each other so that they cannot twist around and reach each other easily.
Be sure to tell them that they get points for making sure the water gets to the rear person. Therefore, the objective of the game is accuracy and cooperation, not speed!
Suggested resource: Communication, Coordination and Cooperation Games
Water colours
Focus on: visualising, measuring, precision, and ensuring no team member is left without water.
The winning team is the first in which all members have a half cup of green or purple coloured water, and no team members have an empty cup.
Explore students’ observations about the games played and encourage a discussion about cooperation and the positive feelings that result when everyone is working together in a group.
Suggested resources for alternative cooperation games:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Identify and practise emotional responses that account for own and others’ feelings.
Theme - EMOTIONS
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about sharing, respecting others, and coping with frustration.
Focus students’ attention on the different emotional reactions Little J has during Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’. Outline the sequence of scenes and have students suggest how he was feeling, e.g.
and
Ask students to plot on a graph or Roller-coaster’ chart how Little J’s emotions swung from high to low throughout the scenes in the episode.
Using a ‘Roller-coaster’ chart, plot the highs and lows of Little J’s day, for example:
Have students reflect on what happened to them yesterday and how their emotions changed from the time they woke up in the morning till they went to bed at night. Ask students to suggest what happened to them and how their emotions changed throughout the day.
Invite students to plot a graph that reflects the highs and lows of their day. As a class, list the events in their day that make them ‘positive’ about themselves, and the events that make them ‘negative’, that is, frustrated and/or angry.
Have students consider that everyone has similar triggers that make them feel better about themselves; this usually reflects how included/accepted they are by others. Reflect on how Little J felt excluded from the game Big Cuz and Sissy were playing, and on how Big Cuz felt excluded from the game Little J and Sissy were playing. Have students reflect on their own behaviours to members of their class, school, and/or family; have the students suggest ways they could make others feel (more) included.
Set a challenge for students to have a photo taken with one new school friend every day for a week. Post these photos on the class webpage/blog/community/notice board and write a caption for the photo describing the emotion they felt when finding a new friend.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Evaluate - Participate in play that promotes engagement with outdoor settings and the natural environment
Theme - GAMES
Evaluate what students have learnt (know and can do) from the activities in relation to the Health and Physical Education curriculum.
Assess the success of the module through reflecting on students:
As a culmination of the learning in this module, students could:
Student evaluation tools
Students could self-evaluate their learning using a ‘monitoring’ journal (physical or digital) where the teacher lists the key understandings and concepts students needed to acquire through the module.
Where applicable, a self-evaluation could be constructed as a poll rating their responses using.
Use Early Years writing using rubrics (PDF) to provide feedback to students.
Students can use a learning worm to evaluate their work, adapted from link below:
Teacher reflection tools
Reflect on your teaching of the module. What worked well? What needs more work? What would you add, change or omit in future?
Ask students to rate your efforts and recommend areas for improvement. You may want to refer to broader resources for reflection or for gaining feedback, for example:
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Elaborate - Cooperate with others when participating in physical activities
Theme - GAMES
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about games and how to cooperate with others when solving new movement challenges using different skills and techniques.
Set up an area in the school grounds where it is safe to conduct a series of obstacle courses, three-legged races and other team activities. Make sure the ground is cleared of any rubbish, sharp stones, and animal refuse.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.
Obstacle course
Provide students with tubs of various found materials, not necessarily sporting equipment, such as a ball of string, cardboard boxes, rolls of clothing elastic, ice cream containers and their lids, rope, witches hats, paper plates, saucepans with lids, spoons, blanket, buckets for water, felt pens, butcher’s paper, 10 chairs, etc.
Divide the class into groups and ask each group to create an obstacle using selected materials from the pile of everyday/found materials. Each obstacle should be seen as part of a ‘safe’ obstacle course.
Invite each group to construct their obstacle in the parameter area of the course and explain what physical skill/s is/are to be tested by their obstacle. The group should be able to demonstrate how to use the obstacle safely.
Have the class decide on the order of the obstacles in the course. The order of each obstacle should depend on the movement level at which each participant completes the obstacle, therefore students should take into consideration the ‘high’ and ‘low’ orientation of the participant at the completion of each obstacle. For example, ‘low’ is when a participant completes the obstacle by being low to the ground, and ‘high’ is when a participant completes the obstacle off the ground. The order of obstacles should have a sequence where students can easily adapt to different levels of movement. If applicable, be sure students are considering designing obstacles that can be attempted by students with various ability levels.
Some ideas for an outdoor-themed obstacle course include:
Progress the activity by inviting students to rearrange the obstacles, or construct new ones, and in that way, constantly increasing the level of difficulty for the challenges.
Have students evaluate their participation, creativity and problem solving about the use of materials and the construction of skill testing environments/obstacles. Have students collaborate on electing which games required more concentration, skill, teamwork and cooperation.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explain - Test possible solutions to movement challenges through trial and error
Theme - NATURE GAMES
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students to participate in the following activities to support their understanding about games and how to solve new movement challenges that require different skills and techniques.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.
Select a number of different games for students to test their coordination, balance, timing, and strength skills, such as games for Level 1.
Refer to the following resources for descriptions of how to conduct each test:
Have the class brainstorm the skills these games required. Ask students to identify which is the most important for each game, e.g. balance, steadiness, agility, strength, speed, hand/eye coordination, changing direction, right-hand/left-hand coordination, strength, endurance, etc.
Select a set of skills from each of the games that individual students can practise. Invite students to combine 2–3 of these skills into a new movement sequence. Select three new combinations of skills for all the class to try. Have the student inventors teach the class their new skill challenge. Set up an area where individual students can be assessed on their abilities to complete the new movement sequence/s.
Hold a reflection activity, such as a Think-Pair-Share, after playing the games and ask students to assess the skills required within their movement sequence and to suggest any improvements.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Explore - Practise fundamental movement skills and movement sequences using different body parts
Theme - GAMES
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about games and how mathematics contributes to sequencing movement skills.
Focus students’ attention on how Little J and Sissy counted throughout their race which helped them coordinate their movements. Have students pose and respond to questions about how the numbers in a count relate to the timing of the race steps. Have the students suggest other learning areas that use timing and number counting, such as music and dance.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches.
Timing and counting games
Set up an area for students to participate in and practise their timing skills. Access the resource, Sports Themed Learning Games!, which has a lot of simple but fun ideas.
Other games that require timing and counting include (old fashioned) ball games, such as Poison ball, Captain/Leader ball and Tunnel ball. Suggested ball game skill resources
Ask the class to evaluate the type of counting and timing skills they need in order to play the games, and ensure that students count out loud. Encourage students to also count in Aboriginal language and/or Torres Strait Islander language.
Suggested resources:
Aboriginal games and /or Torres Strait Islander games
Introduce students to a selection of Aboriginal games and /or Torres Strait Islander games that enhance cooperation, team work, and trust, available in Yulunga, Yulunga Traditional Indigenous Games (PDF)
In particular, try these games that are suitable for lower primary students:
Have students evaluate their participation and which games required more concentration for counting and sequencing steps, and which games relied more on teamwork and cooperation.
Invite students to work in groups to invent their own game/s incorporating the skills and strategies of two or more traditional Aboriginal games and/or Torres Strait Islander games.
Big Cuz and Little J are very excited that Sissy is coming to play with them over the weekend. They both see Sissy as their special friend. Big Cuz wants to play a ‘Sisters Only’ talent quest just for she and Sissy, and Little J plans an obstacle course for all to play. Eventually, Little J, Big Cuz and Sissy come together to test their skills on the obstacle course.
Engage - Practise personal and social skills to interact positively with others
Theme - GAMES
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 13 ‘Big Plans’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding about games requiring cooperation and team work.
As a class, discuss the students’ prior experiences with three-legged racing, and have students identify the objective of the three-legged race, the rules, and the equipment required. Have students also suggest any hazards and safety procedures to be addressed prior to, during and after the race, e.g. no pushing of other teams during the race, don’t tie the legs too tight, stay within your lane, etc.
Set up an area in the school grounds where it is safe to conduct a series of three-legged races and other participation games such as cooperation tag and loop the hoop. Make sure the ground is cleared of any rubbish, sharp stones, and/or animal refuse.
At the start and end of each session, conduct warm up and cool down stretches:
Three-legged race
Cooperation tag
Variation:
Provide a ‘safe haven’ which is a hula hoop or circle drawn on the ground. Runners are safe in the circle UNLESS the people who are ‘it’ can surround the circle and join hands, in which case everyone is out and a new person is chosen to be ‘it’.
Focus on: Coordinated movement and problem solving
Variations:
Suggested game resources:
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.
Evaluate - Evaluate what students have learnt (know and can do) from the activities in relation to The Arts: Media Arts curriculum.
Theme - MEDIA PRODUCTION
Assess the success of the module through reflecting on students:
As a culmination of their learning in this module, have students:
Student evaluation tools
Students could self-evaluate their learning using a ‘monitoring’ journal (physical or digital) where the teacher lists the key understandings and concepts students needed to acquire through the module.
Where applicable, a self-evaluation could be constructed as a poll rating their responses using:
Use Early Years writing using rubrics to provide feedback to students using the rubric.
Students can use a learning worm to evaluate their work, adapted from:
Teacher reflection tools
Reflect on your teaching of the module. What worked well? What needs more work? What would you add/change/omit in future?
Ask students to rate your efforts and recommend areas for improvement. You may wish to refer to broader resources for reflection or for gaining feedback, for example:
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.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of story, character, setting, and sound.
The story of Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, is about the class mascot, Aaron. Have the students suggest what a mascot is, and why it was so important for Little J that he take Aaron with him on Country. Have students recall how Monty was upset that he couldn’t take Aaron home with him the next day. It seems that the class has a special attachment to Aaron and they believed the doll represented them and/or their class in some way.
Explore students’ experiences of mascots, such as at sporting events, or Olympic mascots. Have students consider what mascots are used for:
Invite students to design and construct their own class mascot doll. Have the class discuss what type of mascot would represent them: human or animal, male or female, sporting or artistic, etc. Have students brainstorm what characteristics the mascot doll should represent. Considering the symbolic elements (covered in 5E stage: Explain) have students consider what colours or designs the mascot could have. Once they have drafted their ideas, provide students with different recycled materials and have students construct their design. Explain that their task is to take the mascot home with them over a weekend, or overnight, and create a photo story about an adventure the mascot has.
Photostory:
Each student should draft ideas for their mascot’s adventure using a:
Explain to students that the sequence of the photographs needs to be able to tell the story with or without narration:
Students can use digital cameras to photograph, and select the 5-10 photographs they feel will tell their story. Upload photos to a slide sequencing program like PowerPoint, input any narration and/or sound, and display photo stories to share with the class.
Sample photo stories: Photo Stories by Julia.
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.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of story, character, setting, and sound. Also access the Little J & Big Cuz eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
The story of Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, is about the class mascot, Aaron. Have the students suggest what a mascot is, and why it was so important for Little J that he take Aaron with him on Country. Have students recall how Monty was upset that he couldn’t take Aaron home with him the next day. It seems that the class has a special attachment to Aaron and they believed the doll represented them and/or their class in some way.
Explore students’ experiences of mascots, such as at sporting events, or Olympic mascots. Have students consider what mascots are used for:
Making a modelling clay mascot
Invite students to design and construct their own class mascot doll. Have the class discuss what type of mascot would represent them: human or animal, male or female, sporting or artistic, etc. Have students work in pairs and brainstorm what characteristics the mascot doll should represent. Considering the symbolic elements (covered in 5E stage: Explain) what colours or designs should the mascot have.
Once the pair have drafted their ideas, provide students with coloured modelling clay and have students build their mascot design.
Stop-motion animation
Provide an illustrated task sheet showing how to make a ‘stop-motion’ animation, adapted from
Have students watch example/s of stop motion animations that use basic materials, for example:
Invite students to watch the ‘2016 Screen It winners’, which is a competition for students who make stop-motion animation.
Have students discuss what stories the films portrayed, and how they were constructed. Demonstrate and explain the principles of stop-motion animation and have students develop a check list of the media elements they need to consider in designing and producing an animation. Remind students that they need to also design and construct a set that the mascot will move around in. Using recycled boxes and toys, have students build a small set, and use a desk lamp for lighting.
Each group/pair needs to:
Allocate areas of the classroom where the pairs/ groups can work.
Access and demonstrate a selected software program:
Invite students to share their ideas with the class, and evaluate the success of the animations as a promotion for their class mascot.
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.
Elaborate - Create and present media artworks that communicate ideas and stories to an audience
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of story, character, setting, and sound. Also access the Little J & Big Cuz eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
The story of Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, is about the class mascot, Aaron. Have the students suggest what a mascot is, and why it was so important for Little J that he take Aaron with him on Country. Have students recall how Monty was upset that he couldn’t take Aaron home with him the next day. It seems that the class has a special attachment to Aaron and they believed the doll represented them and/or their class in some way.
Explore students’ experiences of mascots, such as at sporting events, or Olympic mascots. Have students consider what mascots are used for:
Making a cloth mascot
Invite students to design and construct their own class mascot doll. Have the class discuss what type of mascot would represent them: human or animal, male or female, sporting or artistic, etc. Have students work in pairs and brainstorm what characteristics the mascot doll should represent. Considering the symbolic elements (covered in E5 stage: Explain) what colours or designs should the doll have.
Once the pair have drafted their ideas, provide students with a calico/hessian doll template and have students decorate it as per their designs. Have students sew around the shape leaving a small section open to fill the doll with stuffing (shredded paper, cushion stuffing, etc.) and finish the sewing to seal the gap.
Invite students to create an example of promotional material, e.g. advertisement, poster, banner, sticker for the mascot doll who is the main character in a new animation. Refer to the Little J & Big Cuz Promotional trailer for ideas.
To design the advertisement/poster, students should include
Students should develop and apply both the technical elements and the symbolic media elements (as covered this module’s Explain stage (Symbol)).
Once students have completed the mascot doll and the poster, they are to promote their production to the class in the media genre of an advertisement.
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.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - GENRE
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of the media genre and the film poster. Also, where possible access the Little J & Big Cuz picture book and/or eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
Access the Little J & Big Cuz Press Kit and download the character image files and any promotional materials. Explain to students that broadcast media needs to be promoted to its intended audience and that promotional materials are important to understand the characters and story of the program.
Promotional materials can involve:
As a class, inspect the Little J & Big Cuz promotional material and ask students if they have purchased promotional materials for other TV programs or films they have liked. Have students list what they have and compare the commonalities of which promotions attract them as an audience.
Nominate students to explain what methods producers and broadcasters use to entice people to buy or watch their program. Ask students to predict what the purpose of each the promotional materials listed above could be, for example:
Working as individuals or in pairs, have students select one of the video clips below and design and create a promotional poster for the clip. The poster should include:
Each clip tells one of the Aboriginal Dreaming stories:
Invite students to share their posters and ideas with the class, and evaluate the success of their poster as a promotion for the Dreaming story.
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.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - CHARACTER
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of media genre. Also, where possible access the Little J & Big Cuz picture book and/or eBook for “Where’s Aaron?”.
Have students view the following clips:
Have students compare and explain what the difference is for the way each of the film clips are produced. Discuss that the clips represent distinctive styles or genres of film production. See if the students can guess which video clip belongs to which category.
Divide the class into groups and have each group re-watch a video clip and collaborate on the characteristics of the style or genre they are watching. Share these suggestions with the class and allow others to add to the list. Have the groups also suggest the purpose of, and the intended audience for, each of the genres.
Purposes:
Audience:
Ask students to keep a media diary (for a short period of time, if possible, a week), noting the
Compile the class viewing trends from all students to collate which media productions are most commonly viewed, on which broadcast technology and when. Have students add to the list any additional genres, such as news, comedy, and advertisements he like and watch which are outside the viewing r collection time.
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.
Explain - Respond to media artworks and consider where and why people make media artworks, starting with media from Australia including media artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Theme - SYMBOL
After viewing Little J & Big Cuz, Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, engage students with the following activities to support their understanding of the conventions of media production and symbolic elements. Access the Little J & Big Cuz eBook for “Where’s Aaron”. As the students read the story each frame will respond with different sounds that are elements to the specific part of the story.
Have students identify in Episode 8 ‘Where’s Aaron?’, the following technical elements that media producers use to create their story:
Have students consider what other elements in the animation assist the audience to understand the meaning of the story and react to it.
Select one of more of the Aboriginal Dreaming stories and/or Torres Strait Islander Bipo Bipo Taim (Before Before Time) stories, such as: