Dawns Surprise - ACT Museums and Galleries - ACT Government

Curriculum InformationThe program is designed for students in the Early Childhood band of development and isframed by three Essential Learning Achievements (ELAs):1. The student uses a range of strategies to think and learn.2. The student understands and applies the inquiry process.21. The student understands about Australia and Australians. (Australian CapitalTerritory Department of Education and Training (ACTDET) 2007: 12-13).The program addresses ELA 1 and ELA 2 through the educational approach in which theprogram is undertaken. The program provides opportunities for the essential content, 1.EC.2 asstudents are encouraged to ‘ask questions and look for answers’ (ACTDET 2007: 28). One of thestrategies used in this program is experiential discovery. Students are encouraged to engagewith the site through the hands on activities like old fashioned games.Calthorpes’ House is an ideal museum for young children to visit and experience the life of aseven year old in the past. The house museum gives insights into a way of family life whichcan be clearly recognised by your students, but which is different from their daily experience.A major focus of the program is the consideration of similarities and differences. Encouragingstudents to compare and contrast their lives with those of children from the 1930s. Theseconnections allow students to build on their own knowledge. ELA 2 requires that students‘make observations about what is happening around them using their senses’ (ACTDET 2007:34). The experiential nature of the program, closing their eyes and smelling the polish in theentrance hall, playing games and shelling peas are all allowing and encouraging students tomake those observations.ELA 21 is addressed in the program both in the opportunities to understand and learn aboutgeographical and historical essential content. Through visiting Calthorpes’ studentsunderstand and learn about a significant place in their local community (ACTDET 2007: 204).The book, Dawn’s Surprise, creates a narrative for the house tour and provides a focus for21.EC.4 as both the book and the tour tell a story of a child’s life at a different time period,between the two wars.424 Mugga Way, Red Hill ACT / Enquiries 6207 9943