Year 4

The Earth’s environment sustains all life… Resourcing Year 4 Geography

Posted on by lucysusuve

There are a wide variety of excellent, age appropriate texts that can enhance the way teachers explore the Year 4 Geography curriculum with their students. Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker tells the story of a young boy who visits a tropical rainforest. He pretends it is a long time ago and that extinct and rare animals live in the forest, and aboriginal children play there. But he wonders how much longer the rainforest will remain. This text is perfect to use in the classroom for discussing Australian conservation and environment issues. One Well: The Story of Water on Earth by Rochelle Strauss tells the story of how all water is connected; every raindrop, lake, underground river and glacier is part of a single global well. It describes that how we treat the water in the well will affect every species on the planet, now and for years to come. One Well shows how every one of us has the power to conserve and protect our global well. The Lorax by Dr Seuss can be used in a variety of ways, as it warns against mindless progress and the danger it poses to the earth’s natural beauty. There are many more Non-Fiction and Fiction texts available on the topic of sustainability and I recommend taking a look at your school and local library to see what they have on offer.

GeogSpace is an an initiative of the Australian Geography Teachers Association and supported by the resources of Education Services Australia. This website provides the resource Investigate places in which we live which details 3 x 30 minute lessons for Year 4 Geography. Step by step teaching approaches are given, explaining how students can be taught to use Google Earth to locate, observe and describe familiar features of the place in which students live and in turn draw maps or construct models representative of the place in which they live. This resource also provides Field and photo sketching, detailing activities that be used in teaching Year 4 Geography. Step by step teaching approaches are given, explaining how students can be taught to distinguish between natural, managed and constructed elements of environments and places, develop skills in recording and communicating information using field and photo sketches and apply inquiry questions to places observed either in the field or in photographs and pictures. Jeannie Baker’s picture book Window is suggested as a great way to explore constructed and managed environments with students. This resource also provides two exemplars: Habitats for animals – an inquiry and The GeoSix and the swamp monster story. Another part of the website worth taking a look at are the teacher Support units that give information and resources in eight areas of geographical education: Thinking geographically, Why teach geography?, Professional practice, Fieldwork, ICTs in geography, Assessment in geography, Language of geography and Geographical inquiry.

coolaustralia.org is a not for profit organisation that provides, curriculum linked resources with a vision of educating young Australians for a sustainable future. These resources give students an understanding of the natural world, how it supports human existence and their responsibility to ensure it is valued properly. The website contains specialised Year 4 Geography units and activities.

My Place by Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins is a classic Australian picture book and can be used in many different ways to compliment the teaching of Year 4 Geography. The book is a time machine, taking the reader into the past. It tells the story of a piece of land in Sydney from 1788 to 1988 through the stories of the children who have lived there. It addresses the themes of family, settlers, multiculturalism, and the traditional owners of the land. Each child’s story covers a decade in time and features maps that the successive generations of children have ‘drawn’ which demonstrate the things that have changed and things that have remained the same. My Place has also been made into a series that is available on DVD. Furthermore, an extensive selection of My Place Geography resources can be found on this website which include: teaching activities and clips, My Place Maps and a photo gallery.

Two teacher resource texts that contain an excellent variety of lesson ideas and blackline masters based around Year 4 Geography are The Australian Geography Series’ Year 4: The Environment Sustains Life and Australian Curriculum Geography’s The Earth’s environment sustains all life. Teaching Primary Geography for Australian Schools Early Years – Year 6 is another fantastic resource that helps inform the teaching of Geography in the primary years. If you do not currently have these texts in your school library I suggest requesting them or buying them to add to your personal professional library.

This unit addresses the Australian Curriculum Year 4 Geography in the Australian Curriculum (v 8.1):

Concepts for developing understanding

The content in the geography sub-strand provides opportunities to develop students’ understanding of place, space, environment, interconnection and sustainability. The content focuses on understandings about sustainability – the ongoing capacity of the environment to sustain human life and wellbeing. Students explore the features and functions of environments that support humans and other living things (environment, interconnection). They examine the use and management of resources and waste, and views about how to achieve sustainability (environment, interconnection, sustainability), including the custodial responsibility of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to their Country/Place (interconnection, sustainability). Students’ mental map of the world expands to South America and Africa and their main countries and characteristics (space, place, environment).

Inquiry Questions

  • How does the environment support the lives of people and other living things?
  • How do different views about the environment influence approaches to sustainability?
  • How can people use environments more sustainably?

Content Descriptors

The main characteristics of the continents of Africa and South America and the location of their major countries in relation to Australia (ACHASSK087)

The custodial responsibility Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have for Country/Place, and how this influences views about sustainability (ACHASSK089)

The use and management of natural resources and waste, and the different views on how to do this sustainably (ACHASSK090)

The importance of environments, including natural vegetation, to animals and people (ACHASSK088)

General Capabilities

  • Numeracy
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Intercultural Understanding
  • Personal and Social Capability
  • Ethical Understanding

First Contacts… Resourcing Year 4 History

Posted on by lucysusuve

One of the most beneficial professional development days I have attended was taking part in the program, The Big Picture – A Hidden History. Two facilitators led the teaching staff at my school through the Hidden Histories Project, which focuses on a series of posters that vividly depict the experiences of Aboriginal people within Australian History. The seven posters center around past government policies and practices that affected Aboriginal people and the impact these have had over time:

  1. Pre Contact – Pre 1700’s – Aboriginal Traditions and Lifestyles
  2. Contact – 1700’s – 1890’s – European Invasion and Settlement
  3. Contact – 1890’s – 1950’s – Protection and Segregation
  4. Post Contact – 1950’s – 1960’s – Assimilation
  5. Post Contact – 1960’s – 1972 – Integration
  6. Contemporary – 1972 – 2000 – Towards Self-Determination
  7. Contemporary – 2000 – The New Millennium

Aboriginalart

“Aboriginal Art” by Alan Levine is licensed under CC BY 2.0

The rich use of imagery in these posters provides students with the opportunity to infer meaning and creates stimulus for discussion about Aboriginal history. Teachers are able to design a variety of learning experiences that use this resource to promote inquiry learning, empowering students to take an active role in their education. As the posters require close and considered analysis, they are best used in small groups before being discussed with the whole class.

What makes this resource unique and extremely useful is how it suits the curriculum of many year levels in both primary and secondary school, in a variety of different subject areas. One example is in Year 4 History; the Pre Contact and Contact posters align with the content descriptors of the First Contacts unit. In this instance, a teacher can divide the class into small groups and use the posters in a round robin activity, with students identifying as many aspects of Aboriginal history as possible within the poster they have in front of them. To record their observations, groups can use a Web 2.0 brainstorming tool such as Popplet. It is important to tell students that there are no right or wrong answers in this activity and they are simply required to take note of what they see, making an educated guess at what the parts of the poster may mean. As a next step in exploring the content, the teacher could set students research tasks based on the aspects they identified in the posters.

What I find particularly special about this resource is its authenticity. The posters were created by Aboriginal artists and teach students about Aboriginal history using art that promotes discussion, which is a traditional method of communication in Aboriginal culture. The posters cannot be purchased individually but when a school completes the professional development they are given a hard and digital copy of them; the facilitators request that these images are only shared within the school. If you do not currently have access to this resource, I highly recommend contacting your principal who will be able to help make arrangements for your school to take part in the Hidden Histories Project in a future professional development.

This unit addresses the Year 4 History Content Descriptors…

The diversity of Australia’s first peoples and the long and continuous connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to Country/ Place (land, sea, waterways and skies) and the implications for their daily lives. (ACHHK077)

The nature of contact between Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders Peoples and others, for example, the Macassans and the Europeans, and the effects of these interactions on, for example families and the environment (ACHHK080)

…and General Capabilities…

  • Critical and creative thinking
  • Intercultural understanding

…and Cross Curricular Priorities

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures