All You Need to Teach - Info Literacy 5-8

AGES
5-8
Information
Literacy
Information
Literacy
Learning
in the
information age
Barbara
Braxton

Information Literacy
Ages 5-8
Learning in the
information age
Barbara
Braxton

For Elle, Stephannie and Archer
and all their teachers.
Dedication:
This book is also for
the teacher librarians of OZTL_NET
and the teachers of the Oz-teachers Network
in appreciation of all the assistance they have
provided over the years.
This edition published in 2021 by
Matilda Education Australia, an imprint
of Meanwhile Education Pty Ltd
Level 1/274 Brunswick St
Fitzroy, Victoria Australia 3065
T: 1300 277 235
E: customersupport@matildaed.com.au
www.matildaeducation.com.au
First edition published in 2009 by Macmillan Science and Education
Australia Pty Ltd
Copyright © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia 2009
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8
ISBN 978 1 4202 6910 9
Publisher: Sharon Dalgleish
Managing Editor: Polly Hennessy
Project Editor: Claire Linsdell
Proofreader: Adriana Martinelli-Sciacca
Design: Trish Hayes and Stephen Michael King
Illustrations: Stephen Michael King
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C o n t e n t s
All the Teaching Tips You Need
Making the Most of This Book................................................................................5
Why Do We Need Information Literacy?.............................................................6
The Information Process (Mini-posters).................................................................7
Learning Outcomes................................................................................................... 10
All the Lesson Banks You Need
First Year at School
Explore and Explain................................................................................................... 18
Ted’s Library Rules.................................................................................................... 20
Book Look.................................................................................................................... 22
Starting School........................................................................................................... 24
The Story of Me......................................................................................................... 26
Eye Spy......................................................................................................................... 28
Growing and Changing............................................................................................ 30
My First Yearbook..................................................................................................... 32
Second Year at School
Meet My Class........................................................................................................... 34
Going on a Book Hunt............................................................................................. 36
Dinosaur Dig.............................................................................................................. 38
Talking to Learn......................................................................................................... 40
Read and Retell.......................................................................................................... 42
The Power of Pictures.............................................................................................. 44
The Rise and Fall of Humpty Dumpty................................................................. 46
The Process in Practice............................................................................................ 48
Third Year at School
Welcome to My School........................................................................................... 50
My Place in Space..................................................................................................... 52
The Teddy Bear Rap................................................................................................. 54
The True Story of Little Miss Muffet................................................................... 56
A Parade of Pirates................................................................................................... 58
Time on a Line........................................................................................................... 60
High Days and Holidays.......................................................................................... 62
Christmas Site Seeing............................................................................................... 64
All the Worksheets You Need..................................................................66

All the
Teaching
Tips
You Need
4

Making the Most of This Book
This resource can be used by teacher librarians working in collaboration with classroom teachers
to plan and teach information literacy. It is also ideal for teacher librarians who teach alone in the
library, or for teachers who want to teach information literacy in those schools where there is no
teacher librarian.
A ll the Teach i n g Tips You Need
In this section you’ll find an overview of the information literacy process, including a useful step-bystep
diagram of the stages in the process. You could photocopy and display this in the library as a
reminder for students. For each stage in the process there is also a checklist of the learning outcomes
you would expect students to have achieved by the end of the third year at school. These outcomes
pages include questions you could ask yourself as you plan the learning experiences for your
students. You could use the pages in your program, to assist your planning, to record assessment
comments, or as assessment checklists.
A ll the Less o n Ban ks You Need
This section consists of 24 lesson banks built around commonly taught topics or themes. It is divided
into three parts—with eight lesson banks for each of the first three years of school. The activities in
each lesson bank build on the previous bank’s activities, so it is suggested that the year levels here are
observed. However, you know your students’ needs, so change or adapt the order if necessary.
Each lesson bank includes the following sections:
V Learning for Life A list of key ideas: those things students should know, do, understand,
appreciate and value long into the future as a result of this work.
V Focus Questions Suggested questions to stimulate student discussion and guide learning.
V Resources A list of items which are essential for the successful completion of the activities.
V Other Useful Resources A list of other useful resources, including websites which may be useful
or interesting and software for integrating ICT.
V Learning Activities A bank of activity ideas for teaching the information literacy process within
that topic. There is scope for both cooperative teaching and for the integration of these activities
into the classroom program. Because library lessons for this age group are often short, and include
circulation, the activities in the book can be spread over a number of sessions. In this case, teachers
should identify what meets their needs, find a logical finishing point for each session, and plan
their term and time accordingly.
V Hint Additional teaching hints, if appropriate,
highlighted in boxes.
A ll the Worksh e ets You Need
This section provides photocopiable worksheets to be used
in conjunction with the activities in the lesson banks.
5

Why Do We Need Information Literacy?
L i v i n g in the Informat i o n Age
Despite our technological advances in producing and transmitting information, we are still
processing it at the same rate as we were approximately 5000 years ago. No miraculous
technological breakthrough has been made which would speed up the brain’s processing power;
we must instead help students become lifelong learners, able to identify the information they need,
and with the skills to locate and process it.
Students need to develop the skills that will enable them to:
V identify when they have a need for information
V find the required information from appropriate sources in a variety of formats
V understand and use effective and efficient research strategies
V select, interpret and evaluate the information according to what they already know and believe
V use sources effectively to meet their immediate needs or to construct new information
V share what they know and justify it with informed and reasonable arguments
V develop responsibility for their own learning and become active, independent learners
V apply what they have learned to solve similar problems in new situations
V reflect on what they have learned and assimilate this into their existing knowledge, thus
enriching and enhancing that understanding.
T h e Informat i o n Lit e rac y Process
The information literacy process helps students develop strategies
which will allow them to meet their information needs. It:
V is relevant to all learning situations
V builds on what is already known and understood
V involves active, self-directed learning
V provides a scaffold for investigations across the curriculum
V develops a sense of personal empowerment.
Information literacy is a cross-curriculum perspective, a process embedded in almost every aspect of
what we do, used whenever information is required, and modified to meet abilities and needs. It is
based on how we believe learning occurs, and encourages independent, lifelong learning. It should be
an integral part of the whole learning process, providing a pathway to follow from problem to solution.
The information literacy process commonly has six stages. This model adds a seventh, Reflecting.
Reflecting is a critical but often forgotten part of learning and it is valuable to have it explicitly stated.
Defining
Locating
Selecting
Organising
Presenting
Assessing
Reflecting
Students define the problem and the information they need to solve it.
Students identify the range of resources available to them.
Students identify the information they need and record it so it can be used in
their final presentation.
Students organise the information they have gathered into larger units to be
written in their own words for their presentation.
Students present their findings in a format that is appropriate to the task and the
target audience.
Students evaluate the effectiveness of the product and the efficiency of the
process.
Students reflect on what they have done, how they did it and why, connecting
their new learning to what they already know.
6

BLM 1
The
Information
Process
1. Defining
What is the problem I have to solve?
Brainstorm.
Cluster ideas.
Identify keywords.
Create a concept map.
Develop focus questions.
Prepare your research plan.
2. Locating
Where can I find the information I need?
People: family, friends, teachers, experts
and organisations
Print: books, magazines, brochures,
pamphlets, pictures, charts, maps,
tables, graphs
Digital: internet, email, software
Electronic: television, video, DVD, film,
audio, compact disk
Other: models, artefacts, museums,
galleries, excursions
3. Selecting
How can I search these sources effectively?
Look at the cover or packaging.
Use navigation tools.
Skim and scan headings and graphics.
Assess the source’s appropriateness.
Take notes.
Keep a list of where the information came from.
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.
7

BLM 2
4. Organising
How can I organise the information so I can understand it better?
Use a graphic organiser.
Think about headings, topic sentences and graphics.
Give it a structure and sequence.
Use your own words.
Review the task. Go back to step 2 if you need more information.
5. Presenting
How can I share this information with other people?
Oral: talk recount discussion debate
role-play interview courtroom argument
song re-enactment readers’ theatre
poetry reading
Print: report poster picture mural
chart pamphlet instructions explanation
description storyboard scrapbook bibliography
biography diary directory newsletter
letter script profile review
summary calendar timeline cartoon
collage diagram flow chart graph
map photographs advertisement
Digital: film video audio advertisement
animation soundtrack web page slideshow
blog podcast wiki e-zine
online conference
Other: model diorama display game
mobile art gallery dramatisation dance
8
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.

BLM 3
6. Assessing
What have I learned from this?
Did I answer my focus questions?
How have my skills improved?
Which parts did I do really well?
Which parts would I change if I did the assignment again?
Which parts do I need support with in the future?
How well did I contribute to the work of my group?
7. Reflecting
Where to from here?
Think about what I learned.
Create goals.
Keep a learning log, journal,
diary or blog.
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.
9

BLM 4 Learning Outcomes: End of Third Year at School
Defining
The student begins to identify information needs and how these might be satisfied.
Teacher:
V What do I expect students to know, understand, do and appreciate because of this study?
V How will I explicitly connect this to what they already know?
V What do they need to know/understand before they start?
V What other curriculum areas can I incorporate, integrate and consolidate?
V Are the tasks and questions open-ended so each student may achieve at their own level?
V What scaffolding will they need to complete this task successfully?
The student:
Identifies the main idea of class or group discussions about familiar topics.
Comment
Listens to, understands and participates in class or group discussions on a given
topic in response to an audio and/or visual stimulus.
Participates in class or group discussions with relevant and appropriate
contributions based on personal experiences and prior knowledge.
Uses prior knowledge and experiences to brainstorm ideas and vocabulary to
contribute to a group list of what is already known.
Clearly expresses their need for information and seeks appropriate assistance to
fulfil this.
Understands the difference between a question and a statement.
Understands that asking questions is a natural and effective way of eliciting
information and has the confidence to ask these.
Asks and answers simple questions relevant to the topic being discussed or
examined, and uses appropriate verbal and body language when doing so.
Uses modelled examples, and existing and new knowledge to generate
questions to provide a focus for further investigation of a topic.
Expresses their own ideas about why things are so and gives reasons which
explain this understanding.
Is keen to explore and discover the world around them.
Can work with peers to suggest an appropriate solution to a problem.
10
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.

Locating
Learning Outcomes: End of Third Year at School BLM 5
The student locates a variety of primary and secondary sources which meet their information needs,
using their knowledge of the purpose of texts and the library’s organisational system.
Teacher:
V What sorts of resources will students use?
V Are there enough authoritative, accurate, current, relevant and unbiased
resources in a range of formats and at the appropriate levels?
V Can they locate the resources easily?
V Do I need to provide a special collection or list of websites?
The student:
Understands that information can come from a variety of sources and can
suggest appropriate sources that might meet a particular need.
Uses own experiences and other people as information sources.
Comment
Understands that print, visual and digital texts can all provide information.
Identifies keywords in focus questions and uses these to contribute to a
teacher-led search plan to locate appropriate resources.
Recognises environmental print, such as signs, labels and instructions.
Understands there are different kinds of texts and each has a particular purpose.
Knows the difference between fiction and nonfiction.
Understands and uses the terms title, author, illustrator, spine, spine label, blurb.
Knows the layout of the library, especially those sections relevant to their needs
and can locate required resources with assistance.
Uses the cover, title and illustrations to select appropriate resources.
Can browse and select resources that meet their interests, needs and abilities.
Understands that fiction resources are shelved in alphabetical order according to
the surname of the author.
Understands that nonfiction resources are shelved in numerical order according
to their subject.
Understands that certain texts (digital or print), such as encyclopedias, atlases
and dictionaries, each have a specific purpose.
Knows how to borrow and return resources.
Demonstrates responsibility for borrowed resources.
Identifies and uses Library Inquiry icon on computer desktop to undertake a
simple search and returns computer screen to default position.
Understands basic information provided by Library Inquiry search results.
Locates identified resources with assistance.
Uses mouse to open software programs or pre-selected websites, select
appropriate navigation options, follow instructions, make choices and close
programs.
Recognises and uses common icons used in software programs and pre-selected
internet sites.
Follows instructions to locate resources.
Constructs and sends a simple email to a known person to elicit information.
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.
11

BLM 6 Learning Outcomes: End of Third Year at School
Selecting
The student evaluates, selects and records the information which best meets their needs.
Teacher:
V Do students have the skills to identify and select specific information?
V Do they understand the structure of the resource format?
V Can they use the navigation tools of the resources?
V How will they record the information they find?
V Can they analyse, interpret and evaluate the information for authority, accuracy, currency, relevance
and bias?
V Can they create a bibliography in a format appropriate for this level?
The student:
Listens, observes and views to gain information in response to focus questions.
Comment
Extracts information from objects and pictures and can talk about what has
been discovered.
Uses developing reading skills and strategies to extract information from simple
texts about familiar subjects.
Understands the purpose of the contents, page numbers, headings and glossary
of a resource and can use these to locate and select specific information.
Follows instructions to select specific information in pre-selected print or digital
resources.
Selects and records the main idea and keywords from a text or audio and/or
visual source using a template or other example.
Interprets simple diagrams, including maps and graphs, which support key
information.
Constructs an oral or written sentence about a topic using selected keywords.
Justifies selection or rejection of information.
Understands that fiction books can also provide information.
Attributes the source of the information using title/author format.
12
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.

Learning Outcomes: End of Third Year at School
Organising
The student understands the need for information to be organised so that it can be easily retrieved,
manipulated and used.
Teacher:
V Can students organise their information so it can be easily retrieved?
V Do they understand the concept of intellectual property and the need to use their own words?
V Can they organise their gathered information to fit the format of their presentation?
V Can they merge information from a range of sources?
V Do they have appropriate time management skills?
BLM 7
The student:
Participates in teacher-directed groups to consider the appropriateness,
organisation and presentation of the information gathered.
Organises oral, pictorial and written information in sequence.
Comment
Retells experiences, stories or procedures in sequence.
Follows and/or gives simple instructions in sequence.
Sorts objects, pictures and ideas into specific categories using given or
self-generated criteria and explains the reasoning underpinning groups.
Suggests simple headings for groups of related ideas or objects.
Understands the purpose of labels and signs.
Compares and contrasts objects and pictures and recognises similarities and
differences.
Begins to identify patterns and relationships between ideas—with assistance.
Understands the concepts of main heading and keywords.
Constructs a concept map, sequence or list to show the relationship of the ideas
to each other and the focus question—with assistance.
Constructs a table in Microsoft Word (or similar) and assigns a bold heading to
each cell.
Uses Microsoft Paint (or similar) to create a story map to support a retelling.
Can highlight selected information and drag-and-drop or cut-and-paste it into
the appropriate cell of a table.
Understands the purpose of graphs and contributes to a class or group
pictograph which illustrates findings.
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.
13

BLM 8 Learning Outcomes: End of Third Year at School
Presenting
The student presents an appropriate oral, written, pictorial or role-play response to a task or question.
Teacher:
V Does the presentation of the product meet the intended outcomes?
V Does the format of the product reflect the format given in the instruction?
V Do students have an opportunity for individual input?
V Will the product help them develop, consolidate and demonstrate their new learning?
V Are they aware of required elements of the product?
The student:
Is willing to share information with other students and adults and has the
confidence to do so.
Is aware that responses can be in a variety of formats and some are more
appropriate than others at times.
Creates a response to a task/topic which meets the needs of the task and uses
information selected for the purpose.
Understands the different purposes of writing and drawing.
Dictates, traces, copies or writes captions to accompany presentations.
Presents a response to the task in a simple oral, visual or written sequence
which demonstrates learning and understanding.
Presents a response to the task which demonstrates that the selected
information has been synthesised and used to create a new product.
Demonstrates and describes how their response meets the needs of the task
and how it was constructed.
Uses appropriate, relevant and effective conventions of speech, such as staying
on topic, intonation and volume, when responding to questions.
Participates in a class construction of a rubric which describes the required
elements of a particular presentation format.
Incorporates specific design elements or criteria required by the task.
Contributes appropriately to a range of group presentations including
role-plays, constructions, stories and illustrations.
Participates in group and class presentations with confidence and competence
and observes conventions, such as taking turns, waiting quietly and so on.
Uses drawing software tools to produce pictures and successfully prints these.
Uses word processing software to produce captions and successfully prints these.
Uses a digital camera—with supervision—to illustrate a presentation.
Creates a simple slide show using text and images.
Uses Web 2.0 tools where appropriate.
Begins to understand the concept of audience and how to meet their needs.
Comment
14
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.

Learning Outcomes: End of Third Year at School
Assessing
The student assesses the completed task to determine whether the original problem was solved and
evaluates the effectiveness of their research.
Teacher:
V What evidence will demonstrate a student’s understanding and proficiency?
BLM 9
V Is there a model or a rubric to show what is expected for each part of the task, appropriate to this
level?
V How and when will I monitor, measure and record evidence?
V What will I do with the evidence presented?
V How will we celebrate success?
The student:
Demonstrates pride in the finished product.
Comment
Is prepared to accept external praise and criticism of their work.
Discusses work giving simple reasons for the choices made.
Completes tasks in a reasonable time.
Persists in order to complete tasks to the required standard or higher.
Understands that there is always room for improvement and is prepared to
work towards this.
Understands the concept of a simple rubric and uses this to ensure that all parts
of a task were completed to the best of their ability.
Identifies those elements which were done well.
Identifies those elements which need support in the future.
Develops the concept of peer evaluation by giving and receiving feedback.
Accepts proportionate responsibility for group presentations.
Respects the efforts and contributions of others.
Acknowledges and celebrates personal and group achievements.
Shares feedback with parents.
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.
15

BLM 10 Learning Outcomes: End of Third Year at School
Reflecting
The student reflects on their learning and how their knowledge, understandings and values have
changed.
Teacher:
V What has been achieved as a result of this study?
V Did I spark students’ curiosity and challenge them to embark upon new learning?
V Did they experience the joy of discovery?
V Were the strategies purposeful and grounded in sound pedagogy?
V Did the strategies support the ethnic, religious and gender construction of the group?
V Which strategies produced the intended outcomes?
V Which parts need revision and modification?
V Did I allow time for reflection on what has been learned?
The student:
Demonstrates and discusses what has been learned.
Transfers new knowledge, understandings and skills to different situations.
Uses what has been learned as a springboard for further learning.
Contributes to a class reflections session about what has been learned.
Reflects on their learning and records these reflections in a personal journal,
either print or digital.
Comment
16
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.

All the
All the
Teaching
Tips
Lesson
Banks
You Need
You Need
17

Lesson Bank
Explore and Explain
Learning for Life
V Everyone can use the library.
V The library contains many different resources.
V Everyone can use the library resources, at school
and at home.
V There are lots of different things I can do in the
library.
V There is always someone who can help me to
use the library.
Focus Questions
What is a library?
Why do we have libraries?
What sorts of things will you find in a library?
What sorts of things can you do in the library?
Who can help you in the library?
Resources
V a teddy or other soft toy
V paper, a whiteboard or an interactive whiteboard
V coloured felt-tip pens
V a digital camera
V flashcards of days of the week
V cardboard clock faces
V a photo album
V BLM 11
Learning Activities
Meet and greet
Gather students together and welcome them to
the library. Introduce yourself to them. Introduce
the teddy or other soft toy, dressed in the school
colours or uniform, (named Teddy throughout
this text) and explain that together they are going
to learn about the library. Ask students how they
think Teddy might be feeling in this strange and
unfamiliar place.
How do you think Teddy feels today?
How many of you are feeling the same as Teddy?
What do you think Teddy wants to know about
the library so that he feels happy and safe here,
and can use it by himself?
List the focus questions and, as answers are given,
put a tick beside the question. Show students how
they are learning new things already. Introduce the
other library staff members that students are likely
to meet. If you have a student-based library helpers
program, show students how they can recognise
them and seek their help. If the student helpers wear
a special badge or singlet, show these to students.
Hint
Many students can be overwhelmed by the large
and unfamiliar environment of the library and be
reluctant to ask questions. Using a teddy as an
‘intermediary’ often gives them the confidence to
speak in front of a large group.
In our library
Explain that Teddy has never been in any sort of
library before so they need to help him learn what it
is all about.
How would you explain to Teddy what a library is?
How is it different from a bookshop?
Brainstorm and list students’ ideas to gauge their
understanding of the concept. Ask what sorts of
things they expect to find in a library and make a
list of them. Show students several examples of the
resources they can borrow and let them investigate
where they are kept. Explain the concept of
borrowing (and returning) and point out an item’s
barcode. Tell them that if something has a barcode,
it is something they can borrow.
18

First Year at School
More than books
Ask students to talk about what other things they
discovered while they were exploring. List their
contributions. Give them more time to explore
further to discover the items on the list. If there is
something specific you want them to find, pose
questions that will lead them to it.
Where can you work on jigsaws at lunchtime?
Where can you and Teddy curl up and read?
Did everything you found have a barcode?
If it didn’t, what does that mean?
Take Teddy on a guided tour of the library, pointing
out areas that students may not have found or
understood and explaining their function.
Getting sorted
On the chart or whiteboard, write ‘In our library
we discovered . . .’ Ask each student to nominate
something they found. Write each contribution
on a card and attach it to the whiteboard using
reusable adhesive, such as Blu-Tack. If you have an
interactive whiteboard (IWB), use its drag-and-drop
properties instead of cards. Have students begin to
classify their discoveries. Suggest that all the cards
relating to books be grouped together. Guide their
decisions with questions.
What other things might be grouped together?
Why would these items be considered a group?
What label could we give this collection?
Have students complete BLM 11 and contribute
ideas for the empty boxes.
Show and share
Explain that it is important to record discoveries so
that we can remember them.
Begin a wall display entitled ‘Exploring Our Library’,
using the information they have gathered and
photographs of them with their discoveries. Have
students suggest captions for their photos and
develop a word bank with examples of the things
they found.
As the term progresses, include a map, staff
photos, calendars and clocks, the number of
books they are allowed to borrow, and any other
information they think should be included. Use
their information and photographs to construct a
page for your school website.
Hint
Having students actively involved in the creation
of a display that will be seen by their peers gives
them a sense of ownership of the library and
involvement in its services. They are also more
likely to absorb what the display says.
Tracking the journey
Keep a record of students’ work in the library. Each
term, use a digital camera to take photos of them
at work or using the facilities at lunchtime. Create
a class book by displaying the photos in a photo
album and have students supply the captions.
Make the class book available for browsing by
students and their parents, and make it available for
borrowing at the end of term.
Visiting the library
Show students a set of flashcards of days of the week,
with library open days in one colour and closed days
in another. Explain that those in the first colour are the
days they may visit, and those in the second colour
(including the weekend) are the days it is closed. Have
them put a smiley face on the days it is open. Show
them the card that matches their library day.
What day is it today?
This card says . . . Why do you think it is a special
colour?
Describe the sorts of things they will be doing when
they come for their special time in the library. Show
them the cardboard clock faces marked with the
library opening times and explain that the library
is open for them to visit when the real clock face
matches the cardboard one.
19

Lesson Bank
Ted’s Library Rules
Learning for Life
V I can borrow books and other resources from the
library.
V I have a responsibility to return library books and
resources on time.
V I have a responsibility to take care of the things
in the library.
V The more I read, the more I learn.
V I can keep a record of my reading.
Focus Questions
How do you use the library?
How do you borrow and return books?
How do you take care of the things you borrow?
Resources
V a teddy or other soft toy wearing clothes
V a selection of dirty, smelly, torn and mouldy books
V a digital camera
V coloured cardboard
V BLM 12, BLM 13 and BLM 14
Learning Activities
Who is Ted?
Introduce students to ‘Ted’, and explain that he
is in charge of the library and has to approve of
everything that happens there. Ask students to
suggest things he might do. This focuses on those
things that make the library function smoothly.
Rights and responsibilities
Explain that all the staff and students in the school
use the library, so to ensure that everyone can
do what they have to and be safe, Ted insists on
certain standards of behaviour. Ask students what
they expect to be able to do in the library, then ask
them to suggest the types of positive behaviour
that would enable that to happen. For example,
they might say, ‘We like to read quietly.’ Ask them
how they could make sure this could happen but
instead of accepting ‘Don’t talk’, have them express
this in a way that reinforces the positive behaviour,
for example, ‘Use a quiet voice when you speak.’
Create a list of these statements and display them
as behaviour guidelines with the heading ‘Ted likes
it when students . . .’
Taking care of books
Share this poem with students as though it was Ted
reading it. As you read, show them samples of the
sorts of books mentioned.
Ted’s Book Blues
New books, clean books
Big and small and fat books
Lots of read-aloud books
Like them? So do I!
Dog books, cat books,
Fact and fancy-that books
Lots of read-along books
Like them? So do I!
Short books, long books
Fun and make-you-think books
Lots of read-alone books
Like them? So do I!
BUT
Old books, torn books
Mouldy, grotty, grubby books
Lots of dirty, tatty books
Like them? NO, NOT I!
Discuss the condition of the books students expect
to borrow from the library, and have them develop
a set of rules for taking care of them:
• Wash your hands before you read your library book.
20

First Year at School
• Lay the book flat when you are reading it.
• Turn the pages of the book from the top righthand
corner.
• Bring your books back on time so others do not
have to wait for them.
• Always carry books in a library bag to protect
them from schoolbag nasties.
• At home, keep them safe, in a special place.
• Return books to the returns box when you have
finished.
• Use your bookmark to keep your place in the book.
• Take good care of your library and its books.
Again, phrase these rules so they reinforce the
positive behaviour you want to see. Give each
student a copy of BLM 12. Ask them to copy one
of the rules and decorate the page. Add these to
your ‘Exploring Our Library’ display, begun in lesson
bank Explore and Explain, page 18.
Hint
Students are much more likely to respect rules
they have had a hand in forming, and using a
teddy as the authority figure means that you are
not always cast in the role of the heavyweight.
Asking an errant student, ‘What would Ted like
to see?’ can defuse a situation because it is less
direct and puts the discussion of the unwanted
behaviour into the third person.
Borrowing books
Explain the concept of borrowing and the
procedures you have in place for students to borrow
and return their books. Ensure that each student has
a personalised, sturdy library bag. In the first few
weeks, have them choose from a pre-selected range
of books that includes:
• favourite and familiar stories from preschool
• stories that feature rhyme, rhythm, repetition and
predictable texts
• wordless picture books so they can make up their
own stories
• familiar fairytales
• stories on the same subject as your read-aloud
• little books that fit snugly in their hands
• a range of nonfiction topics that particularly
appeal to this age group
• picture books suitable for those who can already read.
While they are in the checkout line encourage
them to ‘make friends with their book’ so that if
they forget to return it they can at least remember
what it looks like when they are searching for it.
Remind them that they are responsible for looking
after their library books and returning them on the
right day in their library bag. This helps them to
understand the difference between a library and a
bookshop, and that ‘borrow’ implies ‘return’.
Hint
Send home an information sheet for parents
about student borrowing procedures including
book limits, time allowance, exchange days and
library hours.
Hint
Students come to school with the expectation
that they will learn to read, so make sure they are
able to borrow on their very first library visit, and
preferably on the first day of term.
Keen readers
Encourage students to read and to remember to
return their books regularly by providing them with
bookmarks from BLM 13.
Each week, write the title of the book they are
borrowing on a card, and ask them for their opinion
of it when it is returned. Place an appropriate smiley
(or grumpy) symbol beside the title of each book.
When they have completed their card, award them
the certificate on BLM 14 and give them their
card to keep and take home. Make a display for
the library by taking photos of students with their
favourite books.
Hint
Initially, some teacher librarians prefer to let this
age group borrow just one book at a time, so after
a student has received their certificate, let them
‘graduate’ to the limit set for other, older students.
21

Lesson Bank
Book Look
Learning for Life
V Books which tell me a story are called fiction.
V Each book has its own place in the library and I
can find some for myself.
V Authors write stories and illustrators create
pictures.
V Authors write books about how I think and feel.
V I can learn from a story even though it is
make-believe.
Focus Questions
What is fiction?
Who creates the stories we read?
What are the main parts of a book?
How can you find the books you want to read?
Resources
V a big, old book that can be pulled apart
V laminated cardboard cut-outs or labels, threaded
on cord to make a necklace
V a paper plate, pipe-cleaners and felt-tip pens
V coloured paper/card circles
V coloured cardboard and pictures
Other Useful Resources
V websites, such as:
–Edublogs www.edublogs.org
Learning Activities
Fiction factors
Introduce the term ‘fiction’. Show students where
the fiction section is and point out any special
collections, such as family favourites, popular
authors, puzzle books and fairytales, so they can
select from a wider range than the pre-selected
collections of the early weeks. Construct a chart
summarising students’ ideas about what fiction is.
Display this in the fiction section of the library.
Imagination or information?
Share a selection of stories—some favourites and
some first-reads. Introduce each book before you
begin, using the title and cover to set the scene,
introducing the characters, and making predictions
about what the story might be about.
Hint
Work closely with classroom teachers to ensure
everyone is using the same language and
strategies to consolidate new reading skills.
Explain the meanings of the terms listed in the table
below. Have students identify each feature in each
book to demonstrate that they understand them.
Discuss each feature and decide what could and
what could not be real, and what might be real.
Record their responses and have students justify
their decisions. Do this for each story, looking for
emerging patterns.
Setting Characters Events
Book A ✔ ✘ ?
Book B
Book C
Book display
Show the covers of several books and introduce
and explain the terms ‘cover’, ‘title’, ‘author’ and
‘illustrator’. Have pairs of students examine the
cover of a book to identify these common elements
then let them share their discoveries. Start a display
using the cover of a large book. Identify the title,
author and illustrator, giving each a different
coloured number. On a card of the corresponding
colour, ask students for an explanation of each item
and add it to the display.
This is the title. It tells us the name of the book.
This is the author. He/she wrote the words of the
story.
This is the illustrator. He/she created the pictures.
22

First Year at School
As you progress, add further labels and
explanations, such as for the terms ‘publisher’,
‘page numbers’, ‘blurb’, ‘character’, ‘setting’, ‘plot’,
and so on.
Getting the message
Many authors use toys, teddies and animals to
explore common themes and ideas. Explain this to
students and help them begin to identify, interpret
and evaluate an author’s message by reading
between the lines.
If the characters had been people, could this be a
true story?
What is the author trying to tell you?
Bookworm
Keep track of the best stories you share and their
genres by creating Ted’s Best Books Bookworm.
Use pipe-cleaners and felt-tip pens to create a face
on a paper plate and attach this to a wall. Add
ten similar-sized circles of card to form a worm’s
body, labelling each with a genre, such as ‘animals’,
‘school stories’, ‘traditional tales’, ‘my life’, ‘funny
stories’, ‘magic’, and so on. Illustrate each term.
After you have shared a story, have students decide
which genre it fits best and whether it deserves a
place on the bookworm. Explain that only the titles
of the top ten books in any genre can be displayed.
If there are already ten on the list for that genre,
decide which one will be removed. Record the title
and author of the new book on a card and attach
it in the appropriate circle. Create a blog, using
a website such as www.edublogs.org/, to keep
parents in touch with the books you share and as
a guide for parent purchases.
Marking the spot
Talk to students about how they have their own
special place to go home to at night and their own
special bed to sleep in. Use this analogy to help
them understand that each book also has its own
place in the library where it can always be found.
Shelf markers help students remember where a
book lives on the shelf so they can replace it if they
decide not to check it out. Have each student make
their own from cardboard decorated with their own
artwork or with pictures from old greeting cards,
magazines or wrapping paper. Ensure that their
name and class are clearly displayed. Laminate them
for durability. When students check out a book,
they hand in their marker which is then stored
near the returns box. When they return their book
the following week, they exchange it for their
marker. To help students remember this idea, teach
them this song to the tune of ‘The Hokey Pokey’,
demonstrating the actions as you do so.
You put your marker in
You take just one book out.
You put the book in your bag
And you take your marker out.
You go to the desk.
You check your book out.
That’s what it’s all about.
23

Lesson Bank
Starting School
Learning for Life
Focus Questions
V Authors write books about how I think and feel.
V I can use what I know to be an author.
V I can get information from fiction as well as
nonfiction.
V I can share what I have learned with others.
V Reflection is an important part of learning.
How are you like the characters in the stories?
What have you learned since you started school?
What else do you want to learn?
Resources
V picture books about starting school
V templates of letters of the alphabet, suitable
for colouring
V magazines
V a digital camera
V templates of a foot shape
V cardboard
V a scrapbook
V A4 paper
Other Useful Resources
V slideshow software, such as PowerPoint
Learning Activities
Storybook schools
Share stories about starting school. Before you read
each one, have students focus on the information on
the cover and then predict the subject and storylines.
What do you think this story will be about?
How do you know?
Who will the story be about?
What do you think will happen?
Remind students of the vocabulary they have
already learned. Remind them of the definition of:
• cover
• title
• author
• illustrator
After you read each story, ask students about it.
Was the story what you expected?
Was this story fiction or nonfiction?
Could it be true?
What would have to change to make it true?
Starting school
Select one of the stories to use as a focus and read
it to students. Ask them questions about it that will
enable them to compare the character’s experiences
with their own. (Substitute the character’s name in
the blank space.)
. . . was up really early on his first day of school.
Were you? Why?
He packed his schoolbag with his pencil case and
his lunch. What did you put in your schoolbag?
. . . told his mummy his tummy was full of
jumping jelly beans. How did you feel?
. . . had to wait in the line for the school bus.
How did you come to school?
. . . was worried that he wouldn’t find the
bathroom. What were you worried about?
. . .’s teacher was Miss Pennywhistle. What is
your teacher’s name?
Look at the pictures of . . .’s classroom. How is it
the same as your classroom? How is it different?
If you were in . . .’s classroom. What would you
like to try?
What are all the activities that . . . did on his first
day? What sorts of things did you do?
. . . was really good at writing his name but he
was worried about adding up. What were you
good at? What were you worried about learning?
Have you learned it now?
If you were. . . and (something) happened, what
would you do?
24

First Year at School
. . . made some new friends. Who did you
meet?
When. . . went home, he felt really happy. How
did you feel?
Discuss the similarities and differences in students’
own experiences compared with those of the
character. Remind students of the definition of fiction.
Are these stories about starting school fact or
fiction?
Which characters do students particularly
empathise with? Why?
How have the authors portrayed real-life events
and emotions in the stories?
Why have they used toys, teddies or animals
rather than children as the main characters?
Read and retell
Scan a selection of pictures from the story into
slideshow software. Show students the slides and
have them suggest captions as they retell the story.
Encourage them to use their own words, rather
than those of the author. Type these in while they
watch. Read the students’ completed version
together, emphasising early reading behaviours
such as directionality.
We start school
Ask students what they would put in a story about
their own first day of school. Have each student draw
a picture about their experience of starting school.
Write the student’s caption. Collate the pictures or
glue them into a scrapbook, and keep this with the
class book in the library.
Sharing our learning journey
Remind students of the focus story in Starting
school, on page 24.
How do you think he feels now that he has been
at school for a few weeks?
What do you think he has learned in that time?
What have you learned since you started school?
Create a class mural called ‘Our Learning Journey’.
Take photos of each student doing something they
have learned since being at school. Have them trace
around a foot shape on cardboard and glue the
photo to it. Help each one to complete the sentence
‘Now I am at school I can. . . Can you?’, then
display this caption beneath each ‘footprint’.
Stepping out
Give students the foot template to create a second
footprint. (Make it the reverse of their first one.) Have
each describe one thing they would like to learn or
achieve before they finish their first year of school.
Write this for them and ask them to draw themselves
having achieved their goal. Add this to the class mural
so it is slightly in front of their first foot.
Reflections
Discuss what students have learned from reading
the stories and sharing their experiences.
What would you tell someone who is about to
start school for the first time?
School ABC
Create a picture alphabet about starting school.
Write the alphabet on the board and have students
suggest appropriate words for each letter such
as ‘f’ for friends, ‘l’ for lunch box, and so on. List
their suggestions. Allow each student to select a
letter and give them a template (no bigger than A5
size) of that letter to decorate. Have them search
magazines for a picture about school that matches
their letter, then glue their decorated letter and
selected picture onto an A4 sheet of paper. Display
the pictures to create a wall frieze and ask students
to suggest a title.
25

Lesson Bank
The Story of Me
Learning for Life
V I can learn by looking for similarities and
differences.
V I can ask questions to discover new information.
V People are a good source of information.
V A diagram is a special sort of picture.
V A picture graph is a way of turning numbers into
pictures.
Focus Questions
What do you know about your story?
What can you find out about it?
Who would be the best people to ask?
How can you share what you’ve learned?
Resources
V an illustrated version of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’
V a very large piece of paper
V sticky labels or paper and tape
V a thick felt-tip pen
V one ‘Story of Me’ booklet per student (a coloured
cardboard cover and two sheets of A4 paper,
folded in half)
V one lightweight cardboard rectangle per student,
12 cm x 10 cm
V aluminium foil
V a full-length mirror and small hand mirrors
V a decorated cake shape for each month of the
year
V cardboard rolls to represent candles
Other Useful Resources
V a digital camera
Learning Activities
What big eyes you have
Read the story of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’. Discuss,
then focus on the section in which Little Red Riding
Hood is puzzled by ‘her grandmother’s’ appearance.
What were the similarities between Grandma
and the wolf?
What were the differences?
Explain to students that they are going to create
a diagram to show the features of a human body.
Brainstorm all the parts of the body and record
them on labels. Have a student lie on a large piece
of paper and trace around the outline. Attach the
labels to the appropriate body part on the outline.
Cover story
Ask students to bring a photo of themselves to
school or take photos of them at school with a
digital camera. Attach the photo to the cover of
their ‘Story of Me’ booklet. For details about the
booklet, see Resources above. Have each student
draw a self-portrait after examining themselves
closely in one of the real mirrors. Make a ‘mirror’
by covering a cardboard rectangle with aluminium
foil. Glue their self-portrait onto this and then glue
it to the first page of their ‘Story of Me’ booklet.
Write the following caption under their self-portrait,
writing each student’s name in large letters, and
have them decorate it.
My name is. . .
This is my story.
26

First Year at School
What’s in a name?
Create a ‘name band’ by having each student
clap the rhythm of the syllables in their first name,
grouping those with the same rhythm together.
Have groups clap the pattern of their name several
times. Brainstorm questions that students could ask
their parents about their name. Have them find the
answer to one of these questions and write it in
their booklet.
Who chose my name?
Why was this name chosen?
What does it mean?
Am I named after someone special?
If I had been a girl/boy what would I have been
called?
If I had a choice I would like to be called . . .
Birthday business
Introduce the idea of a picture graph. To do this
have each student make a birthday candle by
decorating a cardboard roll and inserting a paper
‘flame’ into two notches at the top. Decorate 12
cake shapes, writing the name of one month of
the year on each. Make a class picture graph by
attaching each candle to the cake which represents
the month in which the student was born. Display
the graph. Explain that graphs are a way of
displaying numbers as pictures and discuss the
things students can learn by ‘reading’ their birthday
graph. Display these statements with the graph.
Share the traditional rhyme, ‘Monday’s Child is Fair
of Face’. Have students find out their day of birth
and add this information to the graph. Have them
draw a birthday cake on the next page of their
booklet and write the following captions.
My birthday is. . .
I was born in . . . and I am. . .
I was born on a. . .
In my letterbox
Discuss the types of homes students live in. After
the discussion, ask students to complete these
statements.
All of us live in . . .
Most of us live in . . .
Some of us live in . . .
None of us live in . . .
Have students draw their house, apartment or
garden and write a caption beneath it.
I live at . . .
My favourite things
Brainstorm some categories for ‘favourite things’.
Explain how a grid can help organise ideas and have
them draw a 2 x 2 grid in their booklet. Explain
that each student can choose four of the suggested
categories. Have them label each cell of the grid,
illustrate the cells with their favourite item and
complete the caption.
Colour
My favourite colour is
Book
My favourite book is
Show and share
Food
My favourite food is
Animal
My favourite animal is
Have students show and share their booklets with
their families. Include a note explaining the variety
of information literacy concepts which have been
involved in their creation.
In my family
Discuss the concept of family and create a class
picture graph that shows the different sizes
of students’ families. On the two pages in the
centre of the booklet have students draw their
families, including their pets, then label and write a
description of each family member.
27

Lesson Bank
Eye Spy
Learning for Life
V The cover of a book helps me understand what
it is about.
V The cover of a book helps me decide if I want to
read it.
V The pictures in a book can help me understand
the words.
V A picture has a background and a foreground.
V I can use illustrations to help me write my own
stories.
Focus Questions
Why do books have pictures?
What can we learn from looking at pictures?
Resources
V picture books, including wordless texts
V materials for drawing
Learning Activities
Setting the scene
Before you begin to read, outline the subject of
the story using the book’s cover illustration. Tell
students the title and author’s name, and help them
recall any other stories about the same subject or by
the same author that you have shared previously.
Check Ted’s Best Books Bookworm (see Bookworm,
page 23) to see if the book is on it. Wrap the book
in clear plastic and have students imagine they are
in a bookstore and cannot open it.
What do you think this story will be about?
How do you know?
Where is it set?
What sorts of things will we expect to see there?
Who are the main characters?
What can we learn about them from the
illustration?
What is happening?
What clues tell us this?
What do you think will happen in the story?
Does the cover make us want to buy the book to
find out more?
After sharing the book, discuss how the pictures
enriched the meaning of the story, guiding the
discussion with questions.
Did the pictures help you understand the story?
How?
What special clues did the illustrator use to help
you to understand:
• what the characters were thinking?
• what the characters were feeling?
• who or what was important?
• that several things were happening at the
same time?
• that there was a sequence of events?
• what was going to happen next?
Did the font, print size, spacing, or layout help
you understand the story better?
How did the colours help you feel the
atmosphere or mood of the story?
Why did some pages have only pictures with no
words?
Were the predictions we made from the cover
illustration accurate?
What’s next?
After you have read a story to students, discuss
what they think might have happened next, if the
story had continued for one more page. When
there is agreement, have each student draw or
paint a picture to accompany it.
Wordless picture books
Students of this age are adept at selecting a picture
book and telling themselves the story. Display
a wordless picture book (or create your own by
covering the existing text of a story) and have
students create a class story to go with the pictures.
28

First Year at School
This helps them to:
• identify the main idea
• sequence the story
• develop and maintain the continuity and
relevance of the story
• examine the relationships between the characters
• predict what might happen
• use evidence to confirm this
• consider cause and effect
• make judgements and inferences and justify these.
Record the story and compare it to the original.
Hint
Highlighting the descriptors they needed to
incorporate is the beginning of identifying
keywords and main ideas.
Picture puzzles
Help students develop their visual acuity by
providing picture puzzle books and encouraging
them to find hidden characters, follow a maze,
identify differences and recognise ordinary objects
used in extraordinary ways.
Make a mural
Share a story that lends itself to constructing a
class mural. Create the background and explain its
purpose in setting the scene or the mood of the
whole picture. Introduce the concept of foreground
and demonstrate how those things closest to us
appear bigger. Create the foreground by having
each student add an individual piece. For example,
each might add a fish to an underwater scene or a
drawing of themselves to a playground scene. Add
a caption to describe the mural and another that
describes how it was made.
Picture it
Brainstorm the word ‘snowman’ to build a word
bank. Read the poem on BLM 15, one verse at a
time, and have students draw what they imagine.
After reading the poem, distribute copies of BLM 15.
Who made their snowman white? Why?
Was the word ‘white’ mentioned in the poem?
Which words did you have to draw to make it
look like a snowman?
Highlight and list the key words in the poem.
Compare them to those in the word bank to show
the match between what was already known
and what is new. Compare students’ pictures and
discuss why they are all different, even though
everyone worked with the same information.
How many of you gave him black eyes?
How many of you made his nose a carrot?
How many of you gave him a striped scarf?
Is this still a picture of a snowman even though it
has none of those things?
Talk about who has seen or made a snowman
and who has only seen pictures of one, and how
the images in our brains are influenced by our
experiences.
29

Lesson Bank
Growing and Changing
Learning for Life
V I can ask questions to discover new information.
V Books which provide information are called
nonfiction.
V Books are not the only sources of information.
V Planning helps me organise my thoughts so I
can express them clearly.
Focus Questions
How do living things change as they grow?
How have you grown and changed since you
were a baby?
Why is order important?
Resources
V ‘The End’ in Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne
V rolls of non-stretchy paper or ribbon
V a height meter or measuring tape
V A3 paper
V ‘Story of Me’ booklet, (see lesson bank, page 26)
V a digital camera
V BLM 16
Learning Activities
The changing me
Share ‘The End’ by A.A.Milne. Discuss how students
have grown and changed since they were born.
Have them find out how old they were when they
reached the traditional milestones of those first few
years, such as sitting alone, crawling, cutting their
first tooth, walking, climbing, speaking, riding a trike
or bike, starting school and so on.
Divide an A3 sheet of paper into six sections. You
could use the lines from the poem as the title for
each section. Explain to students that a time line is
one way of putting ideas in order so they can be
shared. Have them illustrate each section with either
drawings or photographs. For the final section,
discuss the sorts of things they can do now that
they couldn’t do when they were younger—that
make them ‘clever as clever’. Encourage individual
or unusual achievements. After the activity, share
students’ work and discuss how they all did the same
things in the same order and at about the same age.
find items that are the same length. On one page
of their ‘Story of Me’ booklet have them write and
illustrate the following line.
When I was born I was as long as . . .
Use the height meter to measure their current
height and cut a strip to match this. Have them find
something that has the same measurement and then
write and illustrate it in on one page of their booklet.
Now I am 5/6 I am as tall as . . .
The growing me
Collaborate with the classroom teacher and parents
before this lesson so that students know their
birth length. (At the same time have them obtain
photographs and dates to accompany the time
line in the section below.) List the lengths on the
board so students can pair up with someone of the
same measurement. Give them a strip of paper or
ribbon which matches their length and have them
30

First Year at School
My personal time line
Explain to students that although we all grow
and change in similar ways at similar times, there
are other things that influence our lives that only
we experience, such as moving house, going to
hospital, going overseas and so on. Using the
information and their illustrations (or photographs
brought from home), have them construct their
personal time line of significant events, stressing the
need for these to be in order. Include the year of
the event to help them develop their sense of the
passage of time.
When I was one, in (year). . .
When I was two, in (year). . .
When I was three, in (year). . .
When I was four, in (year). . .
When I was five, in (year). . .
Now I am six, in (year) . . .
Future shock
Have students draw the things they think they will
be able to do when they are 10, 15 and when they
are fully grown up.
what would happen?
Construct a diary of Hairy Harry’s growth by
dividing a large sheet of paper into several sections.
Date the first section and record what students did.
Make daily observations of the changes that are
observed and record these in the dated sections.
Illustrate each change with photos.
Life cycles
Introduce the concept of life cycles and how all
living things progress through a sequence of events
from birth to death. Explain that while Hairy Harry
helps us observe the life cycle of a plant, it is not
always possible to watch the real thing in action.
Show students some nonfiction books about life
cycles and explain the role of nonfiction as being for
information rather than imagination. Choose some
fiction and nonfiction companion books such as The
Very Hungry Caterpillar (Penguin) and a nonfiction
book about butterflies, and have students identify
which ones are written for the imagination and
which for information.
What are the main differences between the two
types of books?
Growing things
Construct a chart which classifies objects according
to whether they are living or non living. Have
students search through magazines for appropriate
pictures to illustrate the chart. Develop a definition
that describes the key characteristics of both
categories.
Hairy Harry
Planting seeds is a great way to demonstrate
growth and change. Introduce the concept of
instructions and follow those on BLM 16 to make
either a class or individual Hairy Harry. Explain the
importance of having all the requirements ready
before starting, and of following the instructions
in order. Take photographs of each step of the
construction.
When Hairy Harry has been made, make an
enlarged copy of BLM 16, illustrate it with the
photos and display it with Hairy Harry. Review the
procedure to develop the language of order.
What did we do first?
What did we do next?
Why did we do . . . before we did . . .
If we did step three before we did step two,
Not just books
Explain that books are not the only source of
information. Introduce them to interactive objects
or search the internet for “life cycles” and
interactive for many other examples. Similarly, a
search for frog + “life cycle” + video (substitute
any creature for ‘frog’) will deliver many sites where
students can view videos of creatures progressing
through their life cycles. After students have
participated in the activities or viewed the videos
have them retell what they learned, stressing the
importance of the sequence of events.
31

Lesson Bank
My First Yearbook
Learning for Life
V I can use what I know and what I have learned
in new ways.
V I can share what I have learned with others.
V Reflection is an important part of learning.
Focus Questions
What have you learned in your first year of
school?
How can you show people what you have
learned?
Resources
V a scrapbook
V software suitable for compiling a digital yearbook
V photos, drawings and work samples
V a digital camera
Other Useful Resources
V drawing software, such as Microsoft Paint,
KidPix, Max’s Toolbox or Tuxpaint
Learning Activities
Memories
Explain the importance of reflecting on the things
we have done and recording these so we can look
back on them in years to come. Create a digital
or print yearbook recalling students’ first year of
school. Ask them for suggestions of the sorts of
things that should be included as special memories
of this time, such as:
• class photos
• class graphs
• daily timetables
• favourite activities
• favourite stories
• work samples.
As each page is created, have them create an eyecatching
heading and decorate the borders.
Hint
If the yearbook is in digital format, include audio
inserts as well as written captions. Let students
explore the software to create attractive headings
and appropriate borders.
My first day
Most parents take a photo of their child on the first
day of school, so obtain a copy of this if you can
and insert it into the first page of their yearbook.
Have students record the date and write a caption
about how they were feeling on that day. Remind
them of the storybook school characters they met
earlier and compare their feelings.
It is Monday, February 1, 2010. I am starting
school. I am feeling . . .
Mapping my class
Take a class photo and show students an enlarged
version. Ask them questions about who is where,
emphasising the language of position.
Who is sitting beside . . .
Who is next to . . .
Who is in between . . .
Draw an outline of the class photo, using circles
for students’ heads. Have each student write their
first name in the appropriate circle. Introduce them
to the concept and purpose of maps and ask the
questions again. Put a copy of the photo into their
book. Have students copy the caption.
This is my class.
My teacher is . . .
I am sitting beside . . .
My special friend is . . .
He/she is sitting . . .
People who help me
Identify all of the adults in the school who have
regular contact with students during the school
week. List them and discuss how they help
students. Remember people like the caretaker
and canteen manager, and regular volunteers as
well as teaching staff. Have each student select
two or three of these adults and draw them using
the drawing software. Print these if students are
making a print scrapbook, otherwise save them in
GIF format to be inserted into their digital portfolio.
32

First Year at School
Have them create a label for each person, including
their name and a description of their role. If your
school has a peer support system, have students
include a drawing and caption of their buddy.
Ordering my day
In collaboration with the classroom teacher, create
a time line of the routines and activities of a typical
day. Explain what a timetable is and how it helps
us to organise our day and our information. Use
the time line to make a list of the time that each
activity takes place, accompanying each with either
an analogue or digital clock face. Photocopy the
list and give one to each student. Working first as
a group, have students identify which activity takes
place at that time, then each student can illustrate
their list. This can then be glued into their yearbook.
My Favourite Things
Discuss students’ favourite activities and sort these
according to whether they are in-class, in the library
or in the playground. Take a photo of each child
engaged in their favourite activity in each area.
Have them create a caption to go with each one.
Best Books
Review all of the books students have read by
referring to Ted’s Best Books Bookworm (see lesson
bank, page 23) and asking each student to select
their favourite. Make a graph of their choices.
What can we learn from this graph?
Which book do you think Teddy would choose?
Take a photo of each student reading their favourite
book and have them write the following caption.
. . . is my favourite book because . . .
Have them choose some samples of their work to
show how they have progressed. Include photos of
constructions or group work and if the yearbook is
in digital format, include audiovisual clips of them
reading, telling a story, explaining a maths solution
or taking part in a game.
High days and holidays
Have students recall some of the highlights of the
school year, such as the sports carnival, Book Week
celebrations or a theatrical performance. Divide
their page into a 2 x 2 grid and have them complete
each section with an illustration and caption.
Suggest the following ideas as caption openings.
I learned . . .
I met . . .
I went . . .
I loved . . .
Dreaming about next year
Have students think about what next year might
be like.
What special things are you looking forward to?
What do you want to do or achieve?
In their yearbook, have students draw their vision
and write a goal to go with it. Have them design
and create a cover for their book and then giftwrap
it for their parents or care-givers for Christmas.
Then and now
Reflect on how they felt on that very first day of school
and discuss the things they have done and achieved
since then. Divide a page into a 2 x 2 grid and have
them illustrate statements like the ones below.
When I started school, I was as tall as . . .
and now I am as tall as . . .
When I started school, I could not . . .
and now I can . . .
When I started school, I felt . . .
and now I feel . . .
When I started school, I knew . . .
and now I know . . .
33

Lesson Bank
Meet My Class
Learning for Life
V I can ask questions to discover new information.
V Maps help me to identify places.
V Picture graphs are a way of turning numbers into
pictures.
V I can use the internet to learn about other
people and places.
Focus Questions
How can you get to know the other students in
your class?
How can you share what you have learned about
your class?
Why is it important to look at details?
Resources
V a selection of photos of classrooms from other
schools, locations and countries
V a teddy or other soft toy dressed in school
uniform
V small souvenirs of your local area
V a blank CD
V a digital camera
Other Useful Resources
V websites, such as:
–Edublogs
www.edublogs.org
V videoconferencing software
Learning Activities
Getting to know you
Discuss the purpose of introductions, the
information that should be shared and how to do
this. Put pairs of cards, such as matching colours,
letters or stickers into a hat so each student can
select one to find their matching partner. Have
students ask each other questions so they can then
introduce their new friend to the rest of the class.
After the introductions, have students find a new
partner, based on a likeness they noted while they
were listening. Have them explain the likeness.
Search for a star
Play a guessing game with students by asking them
to identify a well-known character from a book. Give
them information which is unique to that character.
This character climbed a beanstalk.
This character spent a lot of time in a well.
Have each student tell you a unique but secret fact
about themselves. Record these, then create a list of
statements describing each student’s unique fact.
This student has the first birthday in the year.
This student went to Disneyland in the holidays.
Students have to ask each other questions which
can only be answered by ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to match fact
and student.
Map my place
Have students sit in a circle and ask questions.
Who is sitting between Elle and Archer?
Who is sitting next to Stephannie and Vishna?
Who is sitting three places to the left of Ali?
Make a map of the positions using labelled circles.
Have students mingle and then return to the circle
following the map. Next, have groups of four
students sit at a table and write a description of
their positions.
The four people at our table are Luigi, Anna,
Shane and Sharon.
Anna sits on Luigi’s right.
Shane sits opposite Anna.
Where does Sharon sit?
Give the descriptions to the other groups and ask
them to draw the matching map.
The spider’s view
Have students imagine they are spiders on the
ceiling of their classroom. Ask them to make a map
or a model of what they imagine they would see.
Detective detail
Help students develop their eye for detail so they
learn to be more observant. Ask a volunteer to
34

Second Year at School
leave the library while another student hides. When
the volunteer returns blindfold them and allow
them ten questions to identify the missing student.
How many?
Estimate the number of students in the class and then
count to check. Make a picture graph to compare the
numbers of boys and girls. Display the graph. Were
their estimates correct?
Born or bred?
Investigate the different birthplaces of students and
locate these on a map. Develop a graph that shows
how many students were born:
• locally
• interstate
• overseas.
Display the map with a caption that describes the
information from the graph.
Our day
Take a series of photos of students throughout the
day and have them put them into chronological
order. Display them on a chart, with matching
captions and clock faces, both digital and analogue.
Just like us
Show students photos of schools and classrooms
around the world. Record the similarities and
differences.
What things might you see in a classroom for
students in their second year at school?
Make a list of their expectations and complete the
following sentences.
All the classrooms have . . .
Most of the classrooms have . . .
Some of the classrooms have . . .
None of the classrooms have . . .
Teddy takes a trip
Use your state or national professional networks
to make contact with another second year class in
Australia, such as one with the same name as your
school, one in a town or suburb with the same name,
or one in a location that is very different from yours.
Locate that school on a map and use the internet to
see if it has a website. Compare it to your school’s
website. Exchange introductory emails and invite the
other class to ask questions about your school.
Have your students develop some questions to ask
their buddy class so they are able to compare and
contrast the two situations. Compile a CD for the
buddy school including such things as:
• a map of your location
• a description of the environment—rural, coastal,
suburban, city
• a description of the school
• the school uniform
• photos of students, classroom, playground and
local environment
• what students do after school.
Invite your buddy school to exchange teddies. Pack
your teddy’s travelling kit with the CD and some
suitable souvenirs for the host school, including
a blank book that can be used as a diary, and
read when it is returned. Explain the concept and
arrangement of a diary and have students set up
the book so the other class can make entries.
Hint
Even though much of the information may have
been shared via the blog or email, a print version
for the library becomes a treasured resource that
is borrowed time and again.
Establish a blog so both classes can share and
show what the teddies do while they are away.
When your students receive the other school’s
teddy and diary, have them maintain that diary
for the other class. Engage their teddy in the
full range of activities this age group is involved
in, demonstrating the similarities as well as the
differences between the two groups. Have students
undertake research to answer the other class’s
questions. If possible, arrange a videoconference
with the other class to exchange news.
Showing and sharing
When your teddy returns, prepare a presentation
for the newsletter, blog, website and/or assembly
so students can share what they have done.
35

Lesson Bank
Going on a Book Hunt
Learning for Life
V Each book in the library has its own special place
so I can find it easily.
V Fiction books are shelved in alphabetical order,
by author’s surname.
V I can use Library Inquiry to locate books by the
authors I enjoy.
Focus Questions
What is alphabetical order?
How can you use the alphabet to find the books
you want to read?
How can you find out if the books you want are in
the library?
Resources
V an alphabet poster or magnetic letters
V an enlarged version of the class roll
V a page of the telephone book
V magazines or newspapers
V small cards with authors’ names
V copies of book covers cut into jigsaw
pieces, each in a separate bag
V 27 coloured disposable plates
V alphabet books
V We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
(Walker Books)
Other Useful Resources
V Michael Rosen’s rendition of ‘We’re Going on a
Bear Hunt’
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytc0U2WAz4s
Learning Activities
What we know
Review and revise what students already know
about locating books for themselves, including the
concepts of title, author and illustrator. Remind
them that just as they have their own special space
to sleep, so does each book.
Why is this important?
What would be the best way to give a book a
space so that everyone could find it every time?
Why would shelving it by the title not be the best
choice?
Last name first
Explain that fiction books are shelved in alphabetical
order using the author’s last name so all the books
by the same author can be found together.
How can we distinguish the author’s name?
What if there is only one name on the cover?
Why do we use the last name rather than the first
name?
Where else are names listed in this way?
Show students an enlarged version of their class
roll and the telephone book. Have them arrange
themselves in alphabetical order of their last name.
Display the alphabet so they can check.
What do we do if more than one person’s name
starts with the same letter?
Have students search through magazines or
newspapers to cut out upper case letters of the
alphabet from the headlines and glue these in order
to make their own alphabet chart. Encourage them
to use your model of the alphabet as a guide. Make
a graph that shows the distribution of the initial
letters of students’ last names.
If this graph showed the author’s last name,
which shelf would have the most books on it?
Investigate which shelf does have the most books.
Are all the books by different authors?
In our library, which author has written the most
books?
Library layout
Show students the layout of the shelves of the fiction
section and point out any signage that assists them.
If you were the author of a book, where would it
be shelved?
If you wanted a book by (author’s name here),
where would you find it?
Who is your favourite author?
Where would you find that author’s books?
Give each student a card with an author’s name on
36

Second Year at School
it, with the first name first, just as it is on a book
cover. Challenge students to find the correct shelf
and when successful, have them swap cards and
search for the new author.
Call numbers
Explain the function of the spine label and
demonstrate how the call number sticker for your
picture books is constructed, including where it is
placed. Give groups of students a pile of picture
books and have them place them in alphabetical
order using the information on the spine label.
Looking for books
Demonstrate how to search the OPAC by author
and then provide opportunities to practise this.
Do we have any books by an author with the
same last name as yours?
How many books do we have by . . .
Do we have any books by an author whose last
name starts with X?
Tell me the title of a book by . . .
Also teach them how to check if the book is
a picture book and if it is available. As a class,
construct a list of instructions for searching the
OPAC for a picture book by author. Display these
for other users.
It’s a puzzle
Give partners a jigsaw puzzle made from a book
cover. Challenge them to reconstruct the cover,
identify the author and then use the OPAC to see
if the book is available. If it is, ask them to find it. If
not, give them another puzzle.
Our alphabet book
Display a collection of alphabet books and show their
structure. Choose a theme to create an alphabet
book, each student choosing one letter and drawing
or finding magazine pictures to match it. Compile
these into a book and accession it as though it were
a published title. Step them through the process,
from adding the barcode to putting it on the shelf.
Create Alfie’s body as you read your way through
books, attaching a copy of the cover of each one
you read to the appropriate letter.
Our favourite authors
List students’ favourite authors and then have them
make and decorate large card arrows to hang from the
ceiling over the place where their books are stored.
We’re going on a book hunt
Read students the traditional chant in the book,
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen
(Walker Books), or show them the author reading
the poem on the website. Teach students these
words using the same rhythm.
We’re Going on a Book Hunt
We’re going on a book hunt
We’re looking for an author
We know where
He/she’s just over there
Oh, look
It’s . . . (author’s name)
He/she writes great books.
Let’s sit and listen
Let’s sit and enjoy
Oh, wow!
Ms/Mr (initial) . . . ‘s going to read it
Listen closely
Listen carefully
We went on a book hunt
We found ourselves an author
We knew where
It was just over there
We listened to the story
We looked at the pictures
Thank you
. . . (author’s name)
Have students recite the rhyme before and after
your read-together time.
Record each book on Alfie Alphabet.
Alfie Alphabet
Create Alfie Alphabet using the disposable plates.
The first one is his head. Write a letter of the
alphabet on each of the others and challenge
students to find an author for each letter.
37

Lesson Bank
Dinosaur Dig
Learning for Life
Focus Questions
V Some books are written to provide information.
V Some books are written to stimulate my
imagination.
V Books which provide information are called
nonfiction.
V I can learn a lot from illustrations and images.
What is nonfiction?
How is it different from fiction?
How can you learn from nonfiction even if you
can’t read the words?
Where can you find the nonfiction books in the
library?
Resources
V large dinosaur shape on cardboard
V sturdy cardboard
V coloured felt-tip pens
V nonfiction and fiction books about dinosaurs
V BLM 17
Other Useful Resources
V websites, such as:
–DinoDictionary
www.dinodictionary.com
–Zoom Dinosaurs
www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/
index.html
V slideshow software, such as Microsoft PowerPoint,
Apple iWork KeyNote or MaxShow
Learning Activities
The dinosaur dig
Display pictures of dinosaurs, and brainstorm and
record what students already know on a large
dinosaur shape entitled ‘What We Know About
Dinosaurs‘. Just before the lesson, prepare a number
of dinosaur jigsaws by drawing several different
dinosaur outlines onto sturdy pieces of cardboard. Use
a different colour for each jigsaw. Cut each jigsaw into
eight pieces. Hide the pieces around the library.
Tell students that they are going to be palaeontologists
searching for fossils of dinosaurs. Explain that
palaeontologists tread carefully and work methodically
so they don’t miss or damage anything, then send
them to search for their ‘fossils’. Reconstruct each
dinosaur, attach to a background piece of card, label
them and display.
Hint
Students of this age are fascinated by dinosaurs
so it is an excellent topic to use to introduce them
to the concept of nonfiction. This topic could be
done in collaboration with the classroom teacher.
Fact or fiction?
Display pictures of dinosaurs, including those
from stories, cartoons and nonfiction resources.
Discuss which are likely to represent a real dinosaur
best. Introduce the concepts of imagination and
information and have students decide which
pictures go with which term and explain why.
Compare the pictures in the two piles and identify
the common elements of those in each. Display the
fiction pictures surrounding them with the words
used to describe them. Make a separate display
using the nonfiction pictures.
What sort of pictures should we look for if we
want information?
Looking at books
Display the covers of several books about dinosaurs,
both fiction and nonfiction. Remind students of
their questions about dinosaurs then read a fictional
dinosaur story.
How do we know that this was a made-up story?
Were we able to find the answers to our
questions from the story?
Is this a time for imagination or information?
Share a nonfiction book on dinosaurs and compare
it to the fiction book.
What are the titles of the books?
Do they both have an author and an illustrator?
How are the cover illustrations different?
When we open the books what do we find?
How are the pictures inside different?
What sorts of pictures are there?
38

Second Year at School
Which book is likely to be for imagination and
which for information?
Summarise their observations using a Venn Diagram.
What do you expect to find in a fiction book?
What do you expect to find in a nonfiction book?
What do you expect to find in both?
Construct a chart about the characteristics of
nonfiction. Mix all the dinosaur books together and
sort them according to whether they are fiction or
nonfiction, explaining the choices.
Dinosaur data
Now investigate the ‘fossils’ that students have
found. Identify each and label it. Ask what they
would want to learn about their specimen. Model
some questions to demonstrate the difference
between questions and statements.
How big was it?
What did it eat?
How did it move?
Where did it live?
What does its name mean?
Distribute copies of BLM 17. Have students use the
nonfiction resources to answer the questions.
Reading the pictures
Display pictures of different types of dinosaurs.
Demonstrate the concept of reading pictures,
highlighting the differences between each dinosaur
and asking students to think about them.
Why do you think stegosaurus had those plates
all along its back?
Do this dinosaur’s teeth give you a clue about its
diet?
Can you find something as long as diplodocus?
Could Tyrannosaurus Rex fit through the library
door?
Make a list of the questions and have students
dictate their answers. Create a class Dinosaur
Database to be displayed with their ‘fossils’.
Information makers
Have each group use the information from their
database to create a slideshow. Set up slide
templates using an appropriate background picture
and scanned pictures of the dinosaurs, one for each
slide. Include a sentence starter on each slide as
a cue for students to type in the missing word or
delete those which are not applicable.
I am a. . .
My name means . . .
I am about as big as a. . .
I can run/walk/fly/swim
I live in the. . .
I eat . . .
I am a carnivore/herbivore/omnivore.
I am afraid of . . .
Have them insert the same transition effect
between slides. Burn the slideshows to CD for
inclusion in their portfolios.
Making meaning
Nonfiction books usually have glossaries which
provide definitions of the subject-specific words
used in the text. Have students develop a glossary
about dinosaurs adding new words and their
meanings to a large dinosaur outline. Apart from
the names of the dinosaurs it could include words
such as palaeontologist, palaeontology, fossils,
extinct, carnivore, herbivore, omnivore and reptile.
An alphabet of dinosaurs
Help students develop their awareness of
alphabetical order by displaying a blank A–Z wall
frieze. Challenge them to build an alphabet of
dinosaurs, adding a name or picture to each letter.
Finding facts and figures
Explain that nonfiction books are grouped together
so that all the books about the same subject are
near each other. Show them the nonfiction section
of the library, particularly where they can find those
topics that interest them most, such as dinosaurs,
pets, cars, planes, space and aliens.
Hint
Make independent access to nonfiction titles easier
by hanging lightweight signs above the relevant
section. Put those nonfiction series that are written
for this age group, and which are easily lost on the
shelves, into tubs for easy access.
Learning Log
Allow students time to reflect on all they have
learned about nonfiction, including the variety of
information sources they used, and share this with
parents through the school newsletter, website or
students’ portfolios.
39

Lesson Bank
Talking to Learn
Learning for Life
Focus Questions
V Speaking and listening are ways for me to learn.
V Talking to others helps me to explore and explain
new ideas.
V I can use what I already know to contribute to
discussions.
V I need to speak in different ways to match my
purpose and my audience.
V I can ask questions to discover new information.
How can we learn by talking?
Are there different types of talking?
What makes a good question?
What does a good speaker do so that others
listen?
How can you be a good listener?
Resources
V fairytales and nursery rhymes
V tape to attach paper to students' clothing
Other Useful Resources
V websites such as:
–The Question Mark
www.questioning.org
V poem ‘I Keep Six Honest Serving Men’ in
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
Learning Activities
Talking about it
Have students reflect on how they most often give and
receive information. Challenge them to pack a Talker’s
Toolkit with ideas such as the ones below, which ensure
that when they speak, their message is heard.
Know what you want to say.
Keep to the topic.
Speak clearly.
Use your voice in interesting ways.
Speak clearly so your audience can hear you.
Retell your story in order.
Take your turn.
Make eye contact with your audience.
Use appropriate body language.
Listen and respond to your audience.
Display it so students can refer to it whenever they
are speaking in a formal situation.
Learning to listen
As a complement, develop a Listener’s Toolkit so
students know how to be attentive listeners.
When you speak, what do you expect your
audience to do?
How can you show that you are listening?
How can you show that you have listened?
Hint
Speaking is our key way of communicating, but to
speak with confidence and competence in front of
a group is an acquired skill. Look for opportunities
to give students practice in presenting their ideas
so that oral presentations become easy.
Conversations
Dramatise significant conversations
from stories such as:
• the ugly frog convincing the
princess he was a bewitched prince
• the ugly sisters’ reaction to the slipper
fitting Cinderella’s foot
• Little Red Riding Hood’s mother warning
her not to talk to strangers
• Jack explaining the appearance of the golden
eggs to his mother.
Hint
Activities like these help students to develop an
understanding of the concepts of fact, opinion,
perspective and bias.
Rising to the occasion
Demonstrate the different ways of speaking which
depend on our purpose and audience. Look for
opportunities to perform introductions or issue
invitations.
40

Second Year at School
What did the prince say when he introduced
Cinderella to his parents?
How were the guests invited to Snow White’s
wedding?
Provide opportunities for students to present and
accept awards and gifts, offer and accept praise and
compliments or offer commiserations and sympathy.
How would you tell the emperor that he looked
very smart in his new suit?
Have your say
Use brainstorming to identify what is known about
a topic. Explain that a brainstorm allows everyone
to offer facts, opinions and suggestions because all
ideas are acceptable. Record all the contributions on
a chart or the IWB. No classification or evaluation
of these is done until the end of the session when
students can explain or elaborate on their ideas.
Brainstorming gives students the opportunity to:
• speak within the group
• offer some innovative ideas or lateral thinking
• contribute at their own level of understanding
• identify what they know and what they need to
find out
• test different and diverse ideas and the responses
to them
• share in group decision making
• compare, contrast, classify and categorise as ideas
are sorted
• discuss, justify, and negotiate for the inclusion of
their ideas into the final product
• participate in reaching a consensus.
Discuss and debate
Explain the purpose of a discussion and its
associated conventions. Create a Discussion Toolkit.
Practise these techniques by engaging students in
discussion.
The Little Red Hen was selfish in not sharing the
bread.
The Pied Piper had every right to lead students away.
The Sorcerer should have known better than to
leave his apprentice unsupervised.
Six honest men
Model the sorts of questions that you want students
to ask for themselves, including both closed and
open questions. Teach students the poem ‘I Keep
Six Honest Serving Men . . .’ by Rudyard Kipling.
Discuss the meaning of each word.
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.
From ‘The Elephant’s Child’ in Just So Stories by
Rudyard Kipling
Which question starter tells about place?
Which question starter tells about time?
Which question starter tells about an object
or event?
Which question starter tells about a person?
Which question starter tells about method?
Which question starter tells about reason?
Hint
Questions underpin information literacy because
it is the formation of these which shape and
guide investigations. Therefore, it is essential that
students learn how to ask the sorts of questions
that will lead to the answers they need. As well
as modelling these, explicit teaching of how to
frame both closed and open questions is critical.
Closed questions are those that involve recall and
usually have simple, one-word, factual answers.
Open questions challenge students to operate at
a higher level of thinking because they require
time, research and discussion, and have a number
of possible answers.
On my back
Write a classmate’s name on a piece of paper and
attach it to a volunteer’s back. The volunteer has
to identify the mystery person by asking up to 20
questions. Instead of a classmate’s name, the label
could have a number, a book title, an author’s name or
an object related to a current study topic written on it.
Meet my friend
Have students interview their partner, then introduce
that person to the class, drawing on the knowledge
they have gained. Swap roles.
Cover story
Before you read a story, show the book’s cover and
have students ask a question beginning with each
of the question starters. Record the questions and
after reading, reflect to see if they were answered.
If there was an unanswered question, discuss its
relevance. Give partners a picture or a book cover
and have them develop six questions about it.
41

Lesson Bank
Read and Retell
Learning for Life
V Stories have a beginning, a middle and an end.
V Stories must be retold in order.
V When I retell stories I should use my own words.
V Planning helps me organise my thoughts so I can
express them clearly.
Focus Questions
Why do stories have a beginning, a middle and
an end?
Why is order important when we retell a story or
an event?
Resources
V fairytales and nursery rhymes
V pictures that tell a story
V a large picture to be used as a story starter
V a digital camera
V BLM 18
Learning Activities
A, B, C and 1, 2, 3
Perform an everyday task which has a number of
steps, such as covering a book or sharpening a
pencil. Have students identify the steps involved
and recall these in sequence. Emphasise the
language of order.
What was the first thing I did?
What did I do next?
Before I did . . . what did I do?
Have students retell the steps of an everyday task,
such as making a sandwich, and challenge others to
identify what they are doing. Whenever a student
is retelling an experience, help them to put the
events in order so that it makes sense and nothing
is missed.
Hint
Having students retell stories helps them begin to
put things in their own words and is an essential
step in learning about the ethics of intellectual
property and avoiding plagiarism.
Photo story
Take a series of photos of something happening
in or near the school, such as a new playground
structure being erected or a school garden being
created. Display these in sequence and have
students tell their story.
Connect the dots
Using a story that students know well, make a list
of the key events from beginning to end. Give them
one clue at a time to see if they can work out which
story it is.
Connecting words
Write six or eight words on the board, including
nouns, adjectives and verbs, such as:
• sun
• hot
• ice-cream
• melted
• beach
• sticky.
Challenge students, working in pairs, to tell a story
using all the words and whatever others they wish
to add. Read and compare the interpretations.
Order please
Display a series of pictures that will tell a story if
they are put in order and introduce the idea that
stories have a beginning, a middle and an end.
Have students put the pictures into the correct
sequence and develop a story to accompany them.
42

Second Year at School
Read a simple story then have students recall
the main events. Write these onto captions and
distribute them. Have students put themselves in
order so the story is retold.
Once upon a time
Read a familiar fairytale. Help students identify and
organise the key events in the story then ask them
to retell it as if to a younger brother or sister. Start
the retelling with ‘Once upon a time . . .’ and end
with ‘. . . happily ever after’.
Break it down
Read a story with a simple plot. Remind students of
the meanings of setting, characters and plot, and
create a chart with these three headings. Have them
suggest keywords or phrases to fill the appropriate
columns. Arrange the elements of the plot into
chronological order. Reconstruct the story using the
keywords and phrases as triggers. Have students
suggest adjectives and adverbs to add interest,
using the illustrations to help them find clues. For
example, if the keyword for the setting is ‘jungle’,
encourage words like ‘leafy’, ‘gloomy’, ‘hushed’,
and so on. This is the beginning of identifying
keywords and taking notes, both of which are
essential information literacy skills.
Talk time
Distribute BLM 18. Have students suggest what the
character might be thinking. Have students complete
it by creating a story to accompany the pictures.
Book talk
Help students prepare a talk about a book they have
read. On palm cards, record the title and author as
well as the setting, characters and events in order.
Use these to present the talk to the rest of the class.
Poetry to prose
Share a nursery rhyme or a poem that tells a story,
such as ‘Little Boy Blue’. Identify the key events,
including what happened before and after. Develop
a story to go with it.
What was Little Boy Blue’s job?
What is the problem with the cows being in the
corn?
Why is Little Boy Blue so tired that he has fallen
asleep?
What do you think will happen to him?
My story
Select a simple story that focuses on the activities
or adventures of one key character, and, as a class,
retell the story in the first person so that it becomes
an autobiography. Firstly, identify the important
elements of each character, such as ‘I am Rosie. I
am a hen and I live in my coop on the farm. Each
morning I go for a walk around the farm.’ Then
identify the sequence of events that the character
experiences. ‘This morning I set off for my walk
as usual. I went . . .’ Use repetitive text to make
reading and writing easier, such as, ‘I did not see
the fox behind me. I did not know I was in danger’.
Facing facts
Share a short written passage of nonfiction about a
topic that interests this age group.
Tyrannosaurus Rex was the fiercest of all the
dinosaurs. It was over 12 metres tall and weighed
more than two large cars. It had a very powerful
head and huge teeth which could eat anything
and even crush bones. It could run very fast and
its only enemy was another Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Show students how to identify, highlight and list the
main words. Have them use some of those words to
write one or two sentences about Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Explanations
Look for opportunities for students to explain what
they have done to construct an object, create a
picture or solve a problem. Focus on sequencing.
What did you set out to do?
How did you achieve your goal?
If you were going to teach someone to do this,
what would they need to do first?
43

Lesson Bank
The Power of Pictures
Learning for Life
V I can get important information by examining
illustrations.
V There are many different types of illustrations.
V Sometimes illustrations make me think of
questions.
V Illustrations can help me get my message to my
audience.
V Other people use pictures to sell things to me.
Focus Questions
What sorts of illustrations are there?
Are illustrations just for decoration?
How do illustrations help us to understand the
author’s message?
How can we learn from looking at illustrations?
How can you share your own illustrations?
Resources
V a large picture frame with a cardboard backing
V pictures of different scenic backgrounds—calendars
are an excellent source—or digital images
V examples of maps, diagrams, flowcharts, time
lines and graphs
V ‘then and now’ photos of your school or local area
V picture books demonstrating a variety of drawing
styles and media
Other Useful Resources
V software applications, such as Microsoft Paint,
KidPix, Max’s Toolbox or Tuxpaint
V websites, such as:
–VoiceThread
www.voicethread.com
–Big Huge Labs Wallpaper
www.bighugelabs.com/flickr/wallpaper.php
Learning Activities
A visual world
Obtain a large picture frame and back it with
cardboard. Emphasise the prevalence and impact of
visual imagery by asking students to identify all the
places they are likely to see photographs and other
types of images. Write each suggestion on a piece
of card and attach it to the backing of the frame.
In the picture
Show students a large scenic picture, with no
people or creatures in it. Ask them who or what
might be in the picture.
What do they look like?
What are they doing?
Why are they there?
What would happen if . . .
Write a class story to accompany the picture and
display it. Give each student the same printed
background picture and have them add characters
and features according to your instructions.
Draw a red bird on the tallest tree.
Draw a little brown mouse by the toadstool.
Give each student a printed background so they can
add their own characters and create their own story
or have them do this using computer software.
Emphasise that the characters need to be relevant
to the background.
Hint
If you have an IWB, the class picture could be
screened onto this and then students could draw
the characters onto it. The story could be revisited
and enhanced as students develop. This is an
excellent way to show them (and parents) their
learning journey. Some software programs like MS
Paint allow you to import backgrounds from your
own photos, scanned images, CDs of images, or
the internet, if they are free to use. Students can
then use the drawing tools to embellish these.
Tuxpaint is a free, open-source download and runs
across a variety of platforms. Other programs,
such as KidPix and Max’s Toolbox, include
background images within the application.
Mixed media
Examine a variety of picture books featuring
illustrations in different media. These could range
from the paper sculptures of David Miller to the
silk-screen painting of Kim Michelle Toft. Make a
44

Second Year at School
chart of the different media used, and as illustrators
who use that medium are discovered, add their
names to the list.
Which sort of illustrations do you like best?
Why?
Why do you think the artist chose to do the
illustrations in that way?
Making my own
Have each student create a picture using the
medium which most appeals to them. You could
have students upload their artwork to VoiceThread
and have other students comment on it and its
construction. VoiceThread allows students to upload
their images to the internet where they, and others,
can comment on them. Using this technology
allows students to share and reflect on their work.
Students could also create unique computer screen
wallpapers with their own drawings by accessing
websites such as Big Huge Labs Wallpaper and
following the instructions.
Learning from pictures
Remind students of the work they did in The
Dinosaur Dig (page 38-39) comparing the styles
of pictures. Make a list of the different types of
illustrations in a nonfiction book including photos,
diagrams, maps, graphs, and so on. Help them to
understand the purpose and special features of
each. Create a glossary.
A map shows us . . .
A diagram shows us . . .
A flowchart shows us. . .
A time line shows us . . .
A graph shows us . . .
Illustrate each explanation with an example,
such as:
• a map of the junior playground
• a diagram of the inside of an apple
• a time line of the week’s activities
• a graph showing the class’s favourite books.
How did people get from one place to another?
What do you think this school will be like 20
years from now?
Statement and inference
Select a photo from a nonfiction book, related
to a theme students are currently studying. Have
students examine the detail and make statements
and inferences from what they see.
The koala has long sharp claws. (statement)
He uses them to help him climb the tree trunks
easily. (inference)
Photo call
Show students some digital or printed ‘then and
now’ photos of your school or local area. Encourage
them to look closely at the photos and comment on
the changes they see.
Pictures to sell
Have students talk about their favourite television
programs. Ask them if these programs include
advertisements. Discuss the content.
What is an advertisement?
Why do businesses advertise their products?
What strategies do they use to attract our
attention?
Choose one advertisement and examine it closely.
Identify its purpose and examine how the images
are used to persuade people to buy or use the
product. Consider:
• characters (real or cartoon, adults, children, toys
or animals)
• communication (speech, jingle, slogan, music, logo)
• colours
• imagery (static, mobile, fast, slow, special effects)
• reality or fantasy
Construct a graph of students’ favourite
advertisements.
Pictures from fiction
Select a picture book set in another place or time.
Examine the pictures for clues that will help students
to understand the different setting. Discuss and invite
students to compare it to what they know.
How are the clothes the characters are wearing
different from what we wear today?
45

Lesson Bank
The Rise and Fall of Humpty Dumpty
Learning for Life
V I can use what I know and learn to create
something new.
V Reading fiction can lead to researching facts.
V Having things in the right order helps me to
understand them.
V It is important to follow instructions in the right
order.
Focus Questions
Why is it important to have things in order?
What can stories teach us about the world?
Resources
V pictures showing the sequence of ‘Humpty
Dumpty’
V cardboard templates of an oval and half-oval
(about A4 size)
V coloured paper
V pictures of oviparous and other creatures
V nonfiction books on topics including insects, fish,
reptiles, birds, monotremes and other oviparous
creatures
V BLM 19 and BLM 20
Other Useful Resources
V websites, such as:
–Humpty Dumpty
www.nancymusic.com/Eggbabies.htm
–Audacity (podcast freeware)
www.audacity.sourceforge.net/
–Hatching egg
www.leechvideo.com/video/view3100395.html
–Kidspiration
www.inspiration.com/kidspiration
Learning Activities
Splat
Show a picture of Humpty Dumpty splattered on
the ground. Ask for suggestions about what has
happened.
Who is this?
What has happened to him?
Why was he on the wall?
Why has he fallen?
How could he have kept himself safe?
Order please
Display a set of pictures to accompany the rhyme
and have students put these in order. Emphasise the
language of order.
What happened first?
What happened next?
What was the last thing to happen?
What happened before . . .
Give four students a picture and have them put
themselves in order. Have other students match the
captions to the pictures. Create a readers’ theatre.
Make five copies of the rhyme, keeping one as a
master. Highlight the words each reader is to say,
using a different colour for each part.
Humpty Dumpty (All)
Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall. (Reader 1)
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. (Reader 2)
All the king’s horses (Reader 3)
And all the king’s men (Reader 4)
Couldn’t put Humpty together again. (All)
Have groups put on a presentation for the others.
Discuss the importance of order and taking turns.
Create a podcast of the performances and put them
on the school intranet or in students’ digital portfolios.
Distribute BLM19. Have students complete it by
colouring the pictures, then cutting and pasting
them in order onto another piece of paper. Have
them copy the rhyme underneath and read or retell
the story to the person beside them.
46

Second Year at School
Hint
Readers’ theatre allows students to participate in
a dramatic presentation with confidence because
they have the support of the script in front of
them. As well as developing literacy skills, it helps
students understand the concept of taking turns
and the importance of sequence.
Building Humpty
Follow these instructions to make a Humpty:
• Trace around a large oval shape onto a piece of
white or beige paper. Cut out.
• Cut facial features from coloured paper. Glue
these to the top part of the oval.
• Make trousers by tracing around a half-oval
shape on coloured paper. Cut out and glue on the
bottom part of the white or beige oval.
• Cut braces from coloured paper and glue these on.
• Cut a bow tie from coloured paper using two
small triangles and a square. Glue on.
• Fan-fold four strips of paper for his arms and legs
and attach these.
Choose your own adventure
Expand the rhyme into a story so students can retell
it, choosing their own adventure for Humpty. Draw
the table below, making it look like a wall of bricks.
Have students suggest up to five words to fill in the
gaps. (The ideas shown in brackets are suggestions.)
Retell the story.
Inside eggs
Create a mind map to show what students already
know about eggs. Begin a discussion about which
creatures lay eggs.
Are hens the only creatures which lay eggs?
Create a chart with three columns headed ‘Yes’, ‘No’
and ‘Maybe’. Display pictures of a variety of creatures.
Decide which hatch from eggs, which do not and
those they are unsure of. Place each in its appropriate
column. Have students work in pairs, give each pair
a picture of a creature and have them search the
nonfiction books to see if it is an egg-layer.
Which creatures were in the correct column?
Where do the creatures in the ‘Maybe’ column go?
Were there any surprises?
Did we discover any other egg-laying creatures?
Create a collage using magazine pictures, clipart or
an online resource such as Kidspiration to show all
the creatures that lay eggs.
Out of the egg
View an egg hatching using the suggested clips,
or search the internet for ‘egg hatching’. Discuss
the sequence then trace and cut two oval shapes,
cutting one of these in half to resemble a cracked
eggshell. Draw something that hatches from an
egg, cut it out and attach a ‘spring’ made from
fan-folded paper to the back. Attach the other end
of the spring to the centre of the whole oval. Fit the
cracked pieces on top, attaching them at the edges
so they open and the creature inside pops out.
Make a class book of creatures that hatch from
eggs. Have each student contribute a drawing
accompanied by the caption, ‘A . . . hatches from
an egg’. Have students complete BLM 20.
Humpty
Dumpty lived
Place
[on a farm]
He
was
Description
[always looking for
an adventure]
Around the
Place
[farm]
was a
Adjective
[brick]
wall.
On the other side of the wall
was
Place
[the army
barracks]
which Humpty
Dumpty had always
wanted to explore.
One day Humpty
Dumpty decided to
see what was on the
other side of the wall.
He
Verb
[got his mountaineering gear
and climbed up the wall]
But, alas,
poor Humpty
Dumpty
Verb
[leaned over too
far]
And down he fell.
SPLAT!
The king’s men
came to his rescue
but even though
they used
Noun
[bubblegum]
they couldn’t
put Humpty
together again.
So poor Humpty
Dumpty was
Conclusion
[made into an
omelette for the
king’s breakfast]
47

Lesson Bank
The Process in Practice
Learning for Life
V I can ask questions to find out what I don’t know.
V I can be an information maker as well as an
information user.
V I can locate and select information, and rewrite it
using my own words.
V I can organise my information so that it is easier
for others to use.
V I can demonstrate my learning in a presentation.
V I can reflect on what I have learned.
Focus Questions
How can you decide what information to look for?
How can you find the information you need?
How can you organise the information you find?
How can you share what you have learned?
Resources
V pictures of Australian animals, such as on
calendars or Macmillan Wall Charts: Australian
Mammals (Macmillan)
V ‘reality fiction’ stories about animals in their
natural habitats, such as Diary of a Wombat by
Jackie French (HarperCollins)
Other Useful Resources
V websites such as:
–VoiceThread
www.voicethread.com
–PBWikis
www.pbwiki.com/education.wiki
V slideshow software, such as PowerPoint, Keynote
or MaxShow
V drawing software, such as Microsoft Paint,
KidPix, Max’s Toolbox or Tuxpaint
Learning Activities
Defining
Brainstorm all the creatures that students know live
only in Australia. Display the collection of pictures
of Australian animals and add any extras to the list.
Have small groups choose the animal they wish
to study, draw it and write all they know about
it. Encourage them to search pictures for facts.
Use large, colourful printed resources such as wall
charts, calendars or magazines for inspiration, or
search online. Working as a class, identify the things
they would like to find out about their animal and
develop a database of questions. Display these.
Give each group a copy of these questions with
space for answers.
What do they look like?
Where do they live?
What do they eat?
How do they move?
What are their babies like?
Who are their enemies?
How do they protect themselves?
Locating
Discuss the resources students might use to find
their answers and gather these together. Teach them
how to search the OPAC by subject for both fiction
and nonfiction resources. Allow them to locate the
fiction titles independently but show them where
the nonfiction resources are found. Encourage them
to find and use a variety of formats, including video
clips and online resources. Share some ‘reality fiction’
stories about the animals.
48

Second Year at School
Hint
Make hanging mobiles of lightweight toys to
show where the books are. You might choose
to keep them all in a tub for the duration of the
unit. If you have digital or online resources, make
a hotlist of these for quick and easy access.
Selecting and taking notes
Demonstrate how to use the cover and title of
a nonfiction book to determine its contents.
Describe the purpose of the contents page and
how it can be used. Encourage students to look
closely at the pictures in the book for clues that
will answer their questions.
What does this picture tell you about the
creature?
Are there any clues you can use to help you
understand it better?
Have them write simple words or phrases on their
answer sheets as reminders so they can dictate
longer sentences later. View any video clips at least
twice—the first time to get an overall impression,
the second to seek answers.
Presenting
Having decided on the presentation format, view a
number of examples of these to identify their critical
elements. List these to serve as a checklist. Create
a list of instructions to accompany the presentation
format and take students through these, one step
at a time, referring to the checklist to make sure all
the essential elements are included. Share the final
product with parents by inserting it into students’
portfolios, including a description of the process
students undertook.
Assessing and reflecting
Have students reflect on and assess their
experience. Record their comments and include
these in their portfolio.
Did I achieve what I set out to do?
What do I know now that I didn’t know before?
What can I do now that I couldn’t do before?
How well did I work with my group?
Writing and organising
Have students dictate sentences to answer the
questions, using their notes as cues. Add their new
information to their original notes. Cut these into
strips, one sentence to a strip, and organise these
captions so topics are grouped together and the
sequence makes sense. Number each strip.
Decide how students are to present their
information. This could include:
• a poster
• a web page
• a wiki
• a VoiceThread presentation
• a slideshow
• a ‘What Am I?’ booklet.
49

Lesson Bank
Welcome to My School
Learning for Life
V I can create information as well as use it.
V There are many ways to gather information.
V I can work with others to gather and present
information.
V I can share my knowledge with a wide audience.
Resources
V a teddy or other soft toy dressed in the school
colours
V resources showing flags of the world
V a digital camera
V BLM 21
Other Useful Resources
V drawing software, such as Microsoft Paint,
KidPix, Max’s Toolbox, or Tuxpaint
Focus Questions
What do you already know about your school?
What would other people want to know about
your school?
How can you share what you know with them?
V web authoring software, such as Microsoft Office
FrontPage or Adobe Dreamweaver
V websites , such as:
–Jennifer’s Language Page
www.elite.net/~runner/jennifers/hello.htm
–Flagworld
www.flags2000.com.au
–Captioner
www.bighugelabs.com/flickr/captioner.php
–PBWiki
www.pbwiki.com/education.wiki
Learning Activities
Moving on
Remind students that it is now two years since they
started ‘big school’.
Can you remember how you felt?
What do you know about your school now that
you didn’t know then?
What do you think someone who is new to our
school would need to know about it?
Brainstorm and record all their ideas. Consider:
• a map of the school
• staff and students
• school uniform
• symbols of the school
• school rules
• curriculum
• daily timetable
• celebrations and special days
• canteen menu
• sports teams
• community partnerships.
Explain that you are going to make a series of pages
about your school for the school website and for the
CD that goes in the information pack given to new
students. To make the experience more real for them,
introduce a teddy to represent the new student, and
where possible, include the teddy in the photos.
Hint
The purpose of this unit is to develop a web
presence for your school and/or a CD to be
included in the school’s information pack for new
or prospective students. Therefore, after students
complete each section, a web page should be
constructed using the information and illustrations
they have created. Because different education
authorities have different requirements for school
websites, you will need to know and comply with
these. An alternative to an official school site is to
create a wiki. Allow students to do as much of the
design and construction work as possible so they
develop a real sense of ownership.
Welcome
Create a welcome banner for the website. Ask
students how they could investigate the languages
spoken by students at school and at home.
Undertake the investigation, including how to say
'hello' in each of the languages. Show students
a world map and help them locate the countries
of origin of these languages and their flags. Use
drawing software to create a graphic of the flag and
the word for ‘hello’ and save these in GIF or png
50

Third Year at School
format. Design and create a web page to display
the information.
Who goes to our school?
Ask students how they could find out how many
students are at the school and discuss which would be
the most efficient method. Undertake the investigation
and reflect on the method. Once the numbers have
been determined, have them write a paragraph for the
website, including their observations.
We have four classes in each building.
There are 20 classes altogether.
There are about 25 students in each class.
Accompany the information with some photos of
the classroom interiors. If class groups are given
special names, have students explain these.
Our school uniform
Distribute copies of BLM 21. Have students describe
the school’s uniform, its colours and combinations.
Have students cut pieces of coloured paper to
represent the school uniform and then dress the paper
models in the variety of acceptable combinations.
Scan a selection of these and save them in GIF or png
format for inclusion on the web page.
Finding the way
Introduce the concept of a bird’s-eye view and
create a map of the school. Explain the purpose of a
key and develop one for the map.
Have students describe the things they do in special
spaces, for example:
• library
• computer lab
• music and art rooms
• quiet areas
• outdoor learning areas
• school garden
• playground and play equipment
• auditorium
Take photos of these areas and publish them on the
web page with students’ descriptions.
School symbols
Explore the meanings of the school logo and
motto. Have students draw their interpretation of
the school motto using drawing software or felttip
markers. If the school, or a particular part of it,
is named after someone or something significant,
have students research its origins and include this
information. If you have a house system, have
students investigate the origins of their names.
Learning at our school
Describe the way classes at the school are organised,
including a typical daily timetable. If possible, take
photos to accompany the presentation, and ensure
that you have signed parent/guardian permission to
photograph students.
What special opportunities are there for learning,
for example, music, language or sports programs?
What computing facilities are there?
Is there a special environmental awareness
program?
What community organisations are students
involved in?
The decision makers
Investigate who makes the decisions about how
things are done at the school. If there is a student
representative council, explain how this works.
Bringing it all together
Put together a script or commentary. Consider
how students or Teddy might feel approaching the
school’s front door for the first time, the questions
they might have and their reactions to discoveries.
Use the facilities of captioning software, such as
Captioner, to add thought bubbles.
Hint
Look for every opportunity to make the website
or CD as student-centred as possible. This will
appeal to both students and parents.
Important people
Identify the key personnel in the school and have
students draw them using either drawing software
or felt-tip pens so that the pictures will scan well. If
you have student groups, such as peer mediators or
a student representative council, include these.
51

Lesson Bank
My Place in Space
Learning for Life
V Globes, atlases and maps are critical reference
tools for determining where things are.
V I can use new technologies such as satellites.
V I can use grid references, the compass, key and
scale to read maps.
Focus Questions
What is your address?
What are the differences between a globe, an
atlas and a map?
How do we read a map?
Resources
V large map of library
V large and small maps of local area
V websites, such as:
–Google Maps
www.maps.google.com.au/maps
–Maps Live
www.maps.live.com/
–MapMaker
www.travelmate.com.au
–Google Earth
www.earth.google.com
–NASA World Wind
http://worldwind.arc.nasa.gov
V a GPS (Global Positioning System)
V an outline map of Australia
V an atlas, such as Macmillan Primary Atlas
V a digital camera
V a terrestrial globe
Learning Activities
The invitation
Have students imagine that they have received an
invitation and ask them how they will know exactly
where to go. Introduce the concept of addresses
and explain that, like library books, each person and
place has its own unique address.
Hint
Collaborate with the classroom teacher so that
this unit coincides with Maths units on spatial
awareness, position and mapping.
On target
Show students they each have a unique address.
Have all those students who live in your city/town
stand up. Ask only those who live in the same
suburb as the school to remain standing. Ask only
those who live in the same street as the school to
remain standing. Ask those students if they all live
in the same house. Draw a number of concentric
circles on the board. Write the school’s address on
the board and analyse it. In the smallest circle put
the street number, in the next put the street, then
the suburb/town/region/state/country/hemisphere
and planet. As you fill each one in, develop a
definition for each term.
A street is . . .
A suburb is . . .
A city is . . . .
A state is . . .
On target online
Have students search for their home address using
online mapping software. Demonstrate how they
can re-centre and re-focus the map by moving the
cursor over it. Locate other places of interest—local,
national and international.
Where do we live?
Have students locate their homes on an enlarged
map of their local area.
What other significant places in our community
should be included on the map?
Where is the school?
Who has the longest distance to travel to school?
How many students live in . . . Road?
Who lives closest to you?
On a small copy of the map, have each student
mark in their home and then trace the route they
take to school. Have them write the directions
from home to school. Emphasise the importance of
sequence and the language of position. Collect and
keep these. Every now and then, read the directions
from one of them, keeping the author anonymous.
52

Third Year at School
Follow the instructions using the enlarged map.
Use mapping software to seek directions from their
home to the school and compare it with the route
they actually travel. Search for other addresses and
popular locations.
Mapping the library
Prepare a large map of the library with outlines of
the places that are important to students. Consider:
• circulation desk
• returns box
• OPAC computers
• fiction area
• nonfiction area
• teaching spaces
• new books
• listening centre
• curl-up-and-read corner
• activity centres with games, jigsaws, writing
and puppets.
Have students locate each space on the map. Take
a photo of each location and attach it to the map
outline. Number each location and introduce the
map key. Show students how to match numbers
and locations. You could add this map to the
‘Exploring Our Library’ display developed in lesson
bank Explore and Explain, page 18.
Compass points
Introduce students to the eight main points of the
compass. Use a compass to identify the direction of
spaces in the library.
In which direction is the circulation desk?
In which direction is the exit?
In which direction are the computers?
Play a modified game of ‘Simon Says’, having
students step in different directions or doing a
particular action while facing a particular direction.
Blindfold a volunteer and have them follow directions
to another location in the library or playground.
Globes, atlases and maps
Demonstrate how the globe is a representation
of Earth in space. Discuss its shape, the two
hemispheres and the equator. Identify students’
countries of origin and have them locate these on
the globe. Make a list of northern and southern
hemisphere countries.
Introduce an atlas. List the similarities and
differences between the atlas and the globe.
Introduce the concept of a map. Open the atlas to
a world political map and compare the placement of
the countries to those on the globe.
Why does it appear that there are two countries
called Greenland on the map?
Which country is Australia’s nearest neighbour?
If I wanted to travel from Sydney to Auckland, in
which direction would I go?
When would a globe be most useful?
When would a map be most useful?
Look for the compass rose and key.
What can we learn by using these?
How would this scale key be useful?
Hint
If your atlases are kept in the reference section of
the library, show students where to locate them.
If there is mapping software installed on the
computer network, show them how to access this.
I’ve been everywhere
Show students how they can use their knowledge of
alphabetical order and grid referencing to find places
using the index of an atlas. Have them locate their
home town, capital cities and other places of interest.
The world grid
Explain that the globe is referenced by a grid
network using lines of longitude and latitude.Use
a GPS to plot the location of the school. Mark the
coordinates on a large map of your area.
53

Lesson Bank
The Teddy Bear Rap
Learning for Life
V Sharing common objects is a good way to start
conversations.
V We can use the internet to connect with children
in other places.
V I can learn about the lives of other children using
the internet.
Resources
V stories about teddy bears
V a teddy dressed in school colours
V an information CD about the class and the school
V a book to be used as a diary or photo album
Other Useful Resources
V software, such as KidPix or MaxCount
V websites, such as:
–NSW DET Book raps
www.schools.nsw.edu.au raps/index.htm
Focus Questions
What is a book rap?
How can we participate in a book rap?
How can we use a rap to learn about students in
other places?
How can you use the internet to publish your ideas?
–Edublogs
www.edublogs.org
–PBWiki
www.pbwiki.com/education.wiki
–Book Raps
www.teachers.ash.org.au/mcghee/junbr.htm
www.fp.education.tas.gov.au/english/bookraps.
htm
www.schools.nsw.edu.au/raps/rapsfaqs.htm
–OTN Book Raps
www.oz-teachernet.edu.auprojects/br/
–OzProjects
www.ozprojects.edu.au
Learning Activities
What is a rap?
Explain that a book rap is an opportunity for students
from any school to share ideas and participate
in activities in response to a common theme, for
example a book, television program or movie. It can
be conducted through email or a blog. For ‘The Teddy
Bear Rap’ the class invites students from another
school to share a book, participate in activities and
then, at the end of the rap, exchange teddies.
Select a story
Demonstrate how to search the OPAC by subject
and locate all the picture books about teddies. Have
students read these and select a title to be the focus
of the rap. The chosen book must:
• be a classic, currently in print, or readily available
• appeal to and be suitable for the age group
• offer scope for four or five different activities
• have good quality illustrations that might form the
basis of an activity.
Writing the rap
Identify the significant parts of the story that lend
themselves to exploration and discussion. Construct
five activities that:
• encourage students to read on
• are suitable for group or class work
• require a response that can be sent electronically.
Consider activities that span a number of Learning
Areas, include other web-based resources, and that
offer a variety of ways of responding.
54

Third Year at School
Advertising the rap
Have students identify the key information that
participants will need to know about the rap:
• its purpose
• the target audience
• the location of the rap
• its dates and duration
• an outline of what participants will be expected
to do
• instructions for registering
• how to achieve the teddy exchange at its
completion.
Combine these to create an introduction for the rap
and use your professional networks to advertise it.
Post the information on the blog.
Design a heading
If the blog software allows, have students customise
the heading and other features. Invite students
to use drawing software or felt-tip pens to create
pictures which can be scanned. Have them select
their seven favourites, and upload one to the site
each week with each new activity.
Meet and greet
The first week of the rap is devoted to classes
introducing themselves, so have the class write
a comprehensive but concise paragraph about
themselves. Include some information about your
teddy, including a photo. Upload this to the blog. As
other introductions are posted, create a rap map of
their locations. Embed a link to each school’s website
within the map. Upload this to the blog. Identify each
school’s location using online mapping software.
Use graph creating software, such as KidPix or
MaxCount, to create a graph of participating schools.
Upload this to the blog together with some questions.
Which state has the most teddies?
How many teddies are in the ACT?
Which state has no teddies?
Which states have the same number of teddies?
How many teddies are in the rap altogether?
Each week post a rap point to the blog. Read the
responses and have students compose a reply which
shows they have thought about what has been posted.
Ask an expert
If possible, ask the author or the illustrator of the
book to be involved in the rap. Most have websites
with contact details. Ask participating classes to
submit two questions they would like to ask. Send
these to the author or illustrator and publish the
responses on the blog.
Travelling teddies
In the last week of the rap, invite all the participants
to reflect on what they have learned during their
participation and post this to the blog. Coordinate
the exchange of teddies between schools. This is
usually done as a direct swap between two schools,
each school meeting the postage costs, with visits
being completed in two weeks. The purpose of the
exchange is for classes to learn about life in other
schools so it is best to exchange with a school in a
very different location.
Compile a CD for the buddy school including
information about:
• class and school photos
• daily timetable
• school uniform
• favourite activities
• favourite stories
• a map of the location
• after school activities
• a description of the environment
• places of interest in the neighbourhood.
Pack Teddy’s travelling kit with the CD and some
suitable souvenirs for the host school, including a
blank book that can be used as a diary and photo
album, and which will be read when it is returned.
Explain the concept and format of a diary and
set this up so the other class has to fill it in. Even
though there will be a blog or email exchange,
Teddy’s diary becomes a treasured acquisition.
Also establish an email exchange or news blog so
there is contact during the visit. If possible, arrange
a video conference with the other class to exchange
news. When your students receive the other teddy,
engage the visiting teddy in the range of activities
that this age group is involved in, demonstrating
the similarities as well as the differences between
the two groups. Have them maintain that diary for
the other class and send a daily email or blog post.
Have students organise a class teddy bears’ picnic to
welcome the travelling teddy home.
55

Lesson Bank
The True Story of Little Miss Muffet
Learning for Life
V My perception of events depends on the part I
had to play in them.
V Reading fiction can sometimes lead to
researching facts.
V Some information sources are better than others.
V Nonfiction has clues to help me locate information.
V I can create information for others to use.
Focus Questions
What is the purpose of dictionaries and
encyclopaedias?
How do we use them?
How can you create information for others to use?
Resources
V an illustrated copy of ‘Little Miss Muffet’
V a class set of dictionaries and thesauri
V an encyclopedia (print or digital) suitable for this
age group, such as The Macmillan Illustrated
Encyclopedia, 2 nd Edn (Macmillan)
V wool, cotton or fishing line to make a spider web
V BLM 22
Other Useful Resources
V websites, such as:
–Haworth Village
www.haworth-village.org.uk/nature/how/spiderweb.asp
–Scratch
www.scratch.mit.edu
V books about spiders for this age group, such
as The Very Busy Spider, Eric Carle (Hamish
Hamilton)
Learning Activities
Rhyme time
Share the ‘Little Miss Muffet’ nursery rhyme with
students, then use both the words and the pictures
to reconstruct it as prose.
What sort of day was it?
Why was Little Miss Muffet eating outside?
Can you use the clues to work out what a ‘tuffet’
might be?
What was she eating?
Why wasn’t she having cereal or toast like we
do?
What did the spider look like?
Why was Little Miss Muffet so frightened of it?
What did she do when she ran away?
What did the spider do?
How did the spider feel?
What would you have done if you were Little
Miss Muffet?
Dear diary
People who have had interesting lives often share
their experiences by writing their autobiography or
memoirs. These are usually constructed using diary
entries recording significant events. Have students
retell this rhyme as though they were Little Miss
Muffett writing the entry in a diary. Expand the
rhyme to include thoughts and feelings that only
Little Miss Muffet would know.
Why did she take her breakfast outside?
What did the spider look like?
What was it that made her so frightened?
What did she do after she ran away?
What did she think happened to the spider?
Have students retell the rhyme from the spider’s
perspective. After they have done this, retell the
story once more, this time as a journalist reporting
the events, having interviewed both Little Miss
Muffet and the spider. Compare and contrast the
three versions of the story. Have students act out
the rhyme with a partner, as you read the rhyme
to the class. Discuss the experiences of all the Little
Miss Muffets and then all the spiders.
Hint
Retelling from a variety of perspectives introduces
students to the concepts of opinion and bias,
essential elements of critical literacy.
56

Third Year at School
Dictionary deal
Explain the concept of a dictionary, its purpose
and how it is arranged. Show students how they
can open it at the approximate place using their
knowledge of alphabetical order. Play some simple
games, including words that require them to look at
the second and third letters for clarification.
Have students find the meaning of ‘tuffet’, ‘curds’,
‘whey’ and any other unfamiliar words from the
rhyme. Explain the concept of a glossary and how
it differs from a dictionary. Develop a glossary to
accompany the rhyme as well as the subsequent
investigation of spiders. Also introduce them to a
thesaurus and its purpose and arrangement. Search
for synonyms for words like ‘frightened’, ‘nice’,
‘screamed’, and so on, and encourage them to write
their recounts with more interesting vocabulary.
Spider speak
Brainstorm and record all that students know about
spiders. Show them the encyclopaedia, explaining
its purpose and how it is arranged. Explain that it
is different from most nonfiction texts because it
provides a little information about a lot of things,
while the nonfiction text gives a lot of information
about a few things. Help them find the entry on
spiders.
What is arachnophobia?
Which things that we already knew have been
confirmed?
What new things did we learn?
What more would we like to know?
Generate a bank of questions that require answers.
Show them how to find the nonfiction resources
about spiders. Select one and point out the features
and purpose of a nonfiction text including the:
• contents
• page numbers
• headings
• index.
Have students work in pairs to research a question
and record their answer. Delegate one to create a
large diagram of the spider, labelling its body parts.
their research about spiders. If you have Scratch
or similar software, students might like to make
their own animation, such as that at Web-Spinning
Spider on Scratch.
Make a spider
Give groups of students different sets of instructions
for making a spider. Have a common supply of all
the materials they need to do this. Remind them to
follow instructions carefully, including the initial step
of gathering their materials together. Have them
identify what they need and select these from the
common supply. Make the spiders. When they are
complete have a representative from each group
explain their procedure to the class.
Show and share
Have students construct a display with the web,
the spiders, the information gathered from their
research and the glossary they have developed.
Also, have them locate entries about spiders in any
encyclopaedias or other reference materials you
might have and add these. Show them how to use
the OPAC to locate fiction and nonfiction titles
about spiders and display these as well. To make
the display interactive, have them pose questions
for other students to answer using the materials
on display. They might also invite other students to
add interesting facts. Distribute BLM 22 and have
students find the answers from the display.
A web of spiders
View animations or videos of a spider spinning a
web. Examine a real spider’s web and compare its
construction and shape to that of the animation.
Use what they have learned to construct a spider’s
web. Use this to form the basis of a display using
57

Lesson Bank
A Parade of Pirates
Learning for Life
V What I already know influences my perceptions.
V Reading fiction can sometimes lead to
researching facts.
V I can rewrite information using my own words.
V It is important to follow instructions in the right
order.
V I can sequence items in a variety of ways.
Focus Questions
What is a stereotype?
Why is order and sequence important?
How do you write an instruction or explanation?
Resources
V poems about pirates, such as ‘Inchcape Rock’
by Robert Southey, or ‘The Pirate Don Durk of
Dowdee’ by Mildred Plew Meigs
V books about pirates
V an atlas, such as Macmillan Primary Atlas
V images of pirate ships
V images of the Jolly Roger
V square pieces of coloured paper, 2 per student
V BLM 23 and BLM 24
Other Useful Resources
V drawing software, such as Microsoft Paint,
KidPix, Max’s Toolbox or Tuxpaint
Learning Activities
Paint a picture
Have each student create a picture of a pirate, then
compare them.
What features have most of you included? Why?
What name have you given your pirate? Why?
Discuss how the things we have seen and read
influence our decisions. Introduce the word
‘stereotype’. Read a descriptive poem about a
pirate to the class, such as ‘The Pirate Don Durk
of Dowdee’ by Mildred Plew Meigs. List all the
phrases that describe his appearance and have
students use these to draw him.
How did you decide which were the important
facts to include?
How does your first picture compare to your
second?
What does a pirate look like?
How do you know?
Fact or fantasy?
Create a database based on what students know
about pirates.
Were there ever real pirates?
Would you like to be a pirate? Why?
What would you do if you were?
Share an enlarged version of the passage on
BLM 23. Explain the concept of keywords and
demonstrate how to highlight and list them, then
have students rewrite the passage using their
own words. Use an atlas to identify the countries
mentioned. Show students the route Spanish ships
might have taken from Mexico to Spain.
Why was the Caribbean the best place to attack?
Use an encyclopaedia to find out more about reallife
pirates. Use a thesaurus to find synonyms for
pirate. Use a dictionary to develop a glossary of
pirate words and phrases to accompany the display.
Demonstrate how to search the OPAC by subject,
and have students locate all the storybooks about
pirates. Set these up as the beginning of a display.
Add any nonfiction titles you have.
58

Third Year at School
Piratical poetry
Share a poem about pirates, such as ‘Inchcape
Rock’ by Robert Southey. As a class, create a
storyboard of the events and write captions for
these. Have each student select a scene to illustrate.
Compile these in order, match them to their
captions and use them as the centrepiece of the
display. Include a copy of the poem.
Ship ahoy
Display some images of pirate ships. Have students
draw a diagram of a ship and label these places:
• cabin
• galley
• brig
• hold
• focsle
• crow’s nest
• mast
• rigging
• portholes
• anchor
Give students a written explanation of the purpose
of each place.
Island life
Historically, pirates are associated with the islands of
the Caribbean which provided them with plenty of
places to hide. Share a book about pirates.
Where is the Caribbean?
What would it be like to live there?
What were some good things about a pirate’s life?
What were some bad things about a pirate’s life?
Build a boat
Distribute copies of BLM 24, and two squares
of coloured paper per student. Demonstrate the
procedure to make a paper pirate ship, one step at
a time so that students can follow. When students
have completed one pirate ship have them attempt
to follow the procedure on their own to make a
second ship.
Why is it important to write and follow
instructions in order?
Make a map
Create a pirate’s treasure map. Draw the outline of
an island and overlay this with an 8 x 8 grid. Label
the left-hand vertical cells from A–H and number
the top horizontal cells from 1–8. Place the features
from the table below and four others of the student’s
choice on the map. Include a compass rose.
Lazybone Lagoon
Mosquito Swamp
The Hanging Tree
Creepy Cave
Have students ‘bury’ their treasure somewhere on
their map, and allow others ten questions to locate
it using grid references. If a wrong guess is made,
the map’s owner responds with the direction in
which the seeker has to travel.
Pirate profile
Skull Rock
Palm Tree Lookout
Whispering Woods
Peril Point
Drawing upon what they have learned about
pirates, each student can create a pirate profile
for an imaginary pirate of their own. Their profile
should include a description and a picture. These
can be compiled to make a class pirate big book.
59

Lesson Bank
Time on a Line
Learning for Life
V Calendars help us to keep track of time.
V Everyone and everything has a past, a present
and a future.
V We can record information about the past,
present and future in a variety of ways.
Focus Questions
Why do we need calendars?
How do we keep track of time?
Resources
V calendars
V connectable cubes, such as Unifix
V coloured paper
V calculator
Other Useful Resources
V websites such as:
–Classtools timeline
www.classtools.net
–Microsoft Office time lines (templates)
www.office.microsoft.com
–Google Calendar
www.google.com.au
V Huge Big Lab Calendars
www.bighugelabs.com/flickr/wallpaper.php
V slideshow software, such as:
–MS PowerPoint
–Apple KeyNote
– CodePlex Slide.Show
Learning Activities
It’s time
Brainstorm all the reasons why we need to know
what time of the day it is. Have students imagine
they are cave-dwellers or one of civilization’s earliest
farmers. Create diagrams or models of how people
kept track of time before calendars and clocks were
invented.
Moon watching and stargazing
Early civilisations used patterns of the moon and
stars to track time. Appoint moon-watchers to
investigate the phases of the moon, keeping a chart
for each month.
Does the moon go through the same order of
shapes each month?
How long does it take to go from new moon to
new moon?
We know that a year is 365.25 days, so why are
modern calendars not based on the moon’s cycles?
The ancient Egyptians predicted the flow of the Nile
by watching the pattern of the stars, particularly Sirius.
Would this have worked for Indigenous Australians?
Why or why not?
Which pattern of stars would have been best for
them to use?
How did they keep track of time?
Calendar call
Have students work in pairs. Distribute calendars
and have them identify and record five things they
discover about their purpose, format and content.
What are calendars?
Why do we use them?
How are they organised?
Are they all organised in the same way?
What does 2009 mean?
Record their discoveries. From these, develop some
questions about the calendar for groups to research.
Present the findings as a display.
Why are there 365 days in a year?
What is a leap year?
Why are there twelve months in a year?
What is a month?
How did the months get their names?
Why are there seven days in a week?
How did the days get their names?
60

Third Year at School
What do Sun., Mon., Tues., and so on stand for?
What do the numbers tell us?
Why are they in rows?
How many numbers are in each row? Why?
Why are some spaces blank?
Does the whole world use the same calendar?
A year in my life
Have students draw a series of 12 circles and label
each with a month of the year. In each circle, draw
a significant event for that month. Have them
turn these into a calendar for their families using a
website such as Huge Big Lab Calendars.
The days of our lives
Estimate, then count the number of days in a year.
Teach the traditional rhyme ‘Thirty Days Hath
September’.
Is the rhyme correct?
Use a calculator to check whether the total number
of days in a year adds up to 365. Show students
how they can remember the number of days in
each month using their knuckles. (Each knuckle has
31 days, each hollow does not.) Demonstrate the
passage of time by creating 12 towers of Unifix
cubes, each one representing a month. Remove
one cube each day. Make another group of towers
representing the school days of each year.
Do we come to school every day of the year?
Are we at school for more days in a year than we
are at home?
How many days are there until the next holidays?
Use a time line application to map the key events
in the school year. Add these to the school’s online
shared calendar.
Make a paper chain of the days of the week, linking
ten weeks together to represent a school term.
Make all the Mondays one colour, all the Tuesdays
another and so on. Move a peg along on each day,
breaking off each complete week as it ends.
How many Mondays will we have this term?
How many weeks do we have to go until the end
of term?
My story
Create a time line of students’ lives to demonstrate
that they have a past, a present and a future. Plan
this by folding a piece of paper into eight sections
and explaining that this is a calendar of their life.
Starting with their birth, have students choose the
eight most significant events in their lives so far,
such as changes in the family make-up, moving
house, special holidays and so on. In the last
section, have them predict what they will be doing
when they are 13, 18, 25, and 60.
Give each section a title and record the year of the
event and some words they associate with it. Have
students collect photos to accompany the events
then create a slideshow using the information.
Explore the design features of the slideshow
software to develop a multimedia presentation,
including audio files.
Animal years
Investigate why one year in a dog’s life is equivalent
to seven years in a human life.
How old is your dog in ‘human years’ and in ‘dog
years’?
Investigate the life spans of a variety of creatures,
from insects to elephants. Create a chart that
compares their life spans with that of humans (85
for Australian women and 80 for Australian men.)
Our class diary
Divide a long piece of paper into five segments,
one for each day of the school week. Have students
illustrate a regular or significant event on each day.
Write the date, the weather and a caption explaining
the illustration. Review the sheets at the end of term
to reflect on the things they have done and achieved.
Use the diary to construct a class yearbook.
61

Lesson Bank
High Days and Holidays
Learning for Life
V There is a process I can follow to help me learn
new things.
V Planning helps me organise my task and my
time.
V I need to present my work well so others will be
interested in it.
Focus Questions
Where can we go to find information?
Why is planning and organisation important?
What things do we need to include in a plan?
How can you present your work so others will be
interested in it?
Resources
V pictures of celebrations
V poster advertisements
Other Useful Resources
V websites, such as:
–Classtools timeline
www.education.classtools.net
–Microsoft Office time lines
www.office.microsoft.com
–Google Calendar
www.education.google.com.au
–Universal Currency Calculator
www.xe.com/ucc/
–EdNA Schools Calendar
www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/schooled/
schools_events
Learning Activities
Celebrations
Display pictures of celebrations and identify the
common elements that show the people are
celebrating. Create a word bank.
Why do people like to celebrate?
How do they celebrate?
Have students brainstorm the subject of celebrations.
Identify those which are connected to religion and
those which have other origins.
Which celebrations do we all observe?
Why do some people observe some celebrations
while others do not?
Demonstrate how to search the EdNA schools
calendar and create a time line of important days.
Include school-based celebrations, for example,
Book Week and International School Library Day.
Add them to the school’s shared calendar.
My special days
Have each student prepare a calendar of days that
are particularly important to their family, and take
photos of the events as they occur. Invite someone
who is talented at scrapbooking to show students
ways they can present and display their photos.
Have students create a scrapbook for a family
Christmas gift.
What days are important to my family and me?
Why are they special?
How can I apply what I have learned about
scrapbooking to other presentations?
Let’s celebrate
Choose a celebration that most students observe
to investigate as a model for using the information
literacy process.
Which celebration will we choose?
What do we already know?
What more do we want to find out?
How can the questions starters—who, what,
when, where, why and how—help us frame our
questions?
Which resources should we use?
Where can we find these?
How do we use them?
How can we organise what we discover?
What will be the best way to present the
information?
How will we know if we have achieved our goal?
62

Third Year at School
It’s my birthday
Discuss the concept of birthdays and why each of
us only has one each year. Mark a calendar with
the date of each student’s birthday. Create a picture
graph that compares the number of birthdays in
each month.
What can we learn from examining this graph?
Does everyone celebrate their birthday?
Do we all celebrate our birthdays in the same way?
List all the things that students do on their birthday
and identify the common elements. Have those
who do something unique explain what they do
and why.
Birthday honours
Plan and hold a birthday party in honour of one of
these authors:
• A.A. Milne (January 18)
• Dr Seuss (March 2)
• Mem Fox (March 5)
• Pamela Allan (April 3)
• Margaret Wild (April 24)
• Beatrix Potter (July 28)
• Enid Blyton (August 11)
• Colin Thompson (October 18)
Prepare a plan for the party so that
everything is organised in sequence
and in time.
Will there be a theme?
Who will we invite?
What do we need to do or include?
How will we do or get these?
When do things need to be done?
Is there an order we need to follow?
Who will be responsible for what?
What will be the best way to present our plan so
that we can all see what has to be done?
National days
Nearly every country in the world has its own
national day and celebrating these is one way we
can acknowledge the ancestry and heritage of many
of our students. Investigate this heritage and create
a calendar of national days. Display a map of the
world on the wall under a banner entitled ‘Today’s
Party’. Have students make a flag for each country
and attach these to the map on the appropriate day.
Provide atlases and globes for students to use and
allow the first student who can locate that day’s
country to add the flag to the map. Have pairs of
students select a country which interests them and
prepare posters. Create a database of questions
a tourist would want to know to guide their
information search.
Where is the country?
What is its national capital?
What does its flag look like?
When is its national day?
How is it celebrated?
What language is spoken?
How do you say ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’?
What is the main religion?
What sort of money do they use?
How much is $A10.00 worth?
Examine the collection of posters.
What is the purpose of a poster?
What are its essential elements?
How will you make sure that yours catches the eye?
Have students present their poster on the national
day. Make sharing what they have learned a regular
feature of assembly. Surround the display with wall
clocks, each set for a different world time zone.
Religious rites
Investigate the different religions observed by the
students and identify the significant holidays in their
calendar. Invite a representative from each to explain
the purpose and significance of each celebration at
appropriate times throughout the year.
What would be the best questions to ask our guest?
Why is it important to plan these in advance?
Include key celebrations on the shared calendar.
It’s Children’s Book Week
Brainstorm ideas to support the theme of this
event. Have students create a display based on the
shortlisted books suitable for this age group. Let
them help to plan and lead the celebrations using
their party planner.
International School Library Day
Have students suggest activities that will place the
focus on the school library for this special day (the
fourth Monday in October). Let them help to plan
and lead the celebrations.
How can we use the internet to connect with
students in other places who are also celebrating
this day?
63

Lesson Bank
Christmas Site S eeing
Learning for Life
V I can use information on the internet to help
answer my questions.
V Websites have tools to help me locate and select
information.
V Websites can offer experiences that print
materials cannot.
Resources
V a hotlist of pre-selected sites posted on the
school’s website or a site accessible to students
V an online quiz based on the information available
from one of the sites
V online activities from sites in your hotlist (see Hint)
for which students must use navigation tools
Other Useful Resources
V websites, such as:
–Netalert
www.netalert.gov.au/home.html
–Edublogs
www.edublogs.org/
Focus Questions
How can you find the sites you want?
How can we make sure that the information on
those sites is correct?
What does the internet offer that print materials
do not?
–PBWiki
www.pbwiki.com/education.wiki
–Web-and-Flow
www.web-and-flow.com
–Filiamentality
www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/fil/
–Myinternet or myclasses—installed on some
departmental networks
–Moodle
www.moodle.com.au
–Eboard
www.eboard.com
V Microsoft Office FrontPage or Adobe
Dreamweaver
V a web page creating service
Learning Activities
Getting online
Take students through the necessary procedures
to get themselves online. If this is their first
time using the internet, emphasise the need to
keep themselves safe whenever they are online
and demonstrate the icons that they can use
to backtrack, should they ever find themselves
viewing a page that they don’t like or want.
Also emphasise other safety rules, such as never
disclosing any personal information and never
agreeing to meet anyone they might ‘meet’
online. For more information go to Netalert, the
Australian government site about keeping children
safe online.
What is a website?
Introduce students to the concept of a website
as a collection of pages containing information.
Explain that a website has a specific address on
the internet called the URL. Demonstrate this by
typing in the URL of your school website. Explain
that the web browser searches letter by letter so it is
essential that the URL is spelt correctly with all the
punctuation inserted in the correct place. Using the
imaginary website www.xyzschool.nsw.edu.au as
an example, explain the parts of the URL as follows:
• the domain name is xyz school
• nsw means that it is an official site of the New
South Wales Government
• edu means it is an official education site
• au means it is Australian.
This information helps in identifying legitimate and
credible sites.
Hint
Before you start, prepare a hotlist of appropriate
sites so that students only need to click on the
link to access the site. A hotlist can be created by:
• writing and uploading a Word document with the
links embedded in the text to your school website
• creating a page for your school website
• inserting them in a blog or wiki
• creating a web page
• using the hotlist feature of a website
64

Third Year at School
• sending each student an email with the list
included within
• using the features of other sites, see
suggestions in Other Useful Resources above.
Make sure your page includes:
• a title
• your name and an email link to you
• your title and authority, such as Teacher
Librarian, XYZ School
• the date of creation and the date of the latest
update.
Is it true?
Demonstrate how easy it is for anyone to publish
anything on the internet, and there is no one to
check whether the information is true or not. Explain
that there are several ways they can check to see if it
is likely to be true. Use your hotlist site to show:
• how your URL shows the origin of the site
• the title of the site and how it summarises what
the site contains
• the author and authority of this person
• the author’s contact details, which show that
someone is taking direct responsibility for the
content of the site
• the date of the site’s creation and latest update,
which show the currency of the information.
Encourage students to look for these features on
the websites they visit to increase the chances of it
being authoritative.
Finding your way
Show students how to navigate their way to your
hotlist. Select a site which has a menu of clear links
to its various parts, much like the contents page of a
book. Show them how the cursor turns into a hand
when it hovers over a ‘live’ link, and that clicking
on that link will take them to the information. Have
students complete a quiz based on the site you
select so they can practise their navigation skills,
moving back and forth around the site.
Hint
Students of this age often do not understand
the difference between information on a website
and the advertisements on it. Because most free
websites have advertisements, it is important that
you select student-friendly sites and point out the
distinctions between text and commercials.
Christmas online
Select one or two sites which have navigation menus
and other embedded tools and demonstrate how to
use these. Have them complete the activities.
1. Read the story of the first Christmas at www.
storynory.com/2006/12/04/the-first-christmas/
2. Using the information at Traditional Christmas
Carols, www.nevada.edu/~blake/Christmas.
carols.html have students complete the names of
these Christmas carols:
‘Away in a . . .’
‘Hark the Herald . . . Sing’
‘The . . . Noel’
3. Have students create and send their own
electronic Christmas card by following the
instructions on All Things Christmas at
www.allthingschristmas.com/cards/create/
5. Have students write their own Christmas story
by following the instructions at Elle’s Christmas
Stories www.growley.com/cmas/christmas/
games/story/index.html. Show students how
they can print their story by highlighting it >
right click > copy and then pasting it into a Word
document and printing in the usual way.
6. Have students use the click-and-drag
feature on Donna’s Christmas Cottage www.
donnasholidaysentiments.com/applets/tree/
decorate.html to decorate a Christmas tree. If the
items don’t appear, teach students how to reload
or refresh their page, depending on the browser
you use.
7. Read ‘The Night Before Christmas’ to students.
One version of this, by Clement C. Moore, can
be found at www.christmas-tree.com/stories/
nightbeforechristmas.html. Have students
illustrate the events then download the original
version from Project Gutenberg at
www.gutenberg.org/files/17135/17135-
h/17135-h.htm and compare the two.
8. Have students write a letter to Santa using the
Australia Post site at www.auspost.com.au/
EDP/0,1398,CH3484%257EMO19,00.html or
email him through www.emailsanta.com.
Christmas Fun
Let students put what they have learned into
practice by exploring sites, such as:
• Northpole www.northpole.com
• Claus.com www.claus.com/village.php.htm
• Santa at Home www.santa-at-home.com
• Santa’s Library www.santalives.com/library.html
65

All
the
All the
Worksheets Teaching
Tips
You Need
You Need
66

Name
Date
In the library I can . . .
Explore and Explain
BLM 11
read
play with puppets
write
use computers
draw
do jigsaws
listen
play games
share
borrow books
My library day is
Lesson Bank: pages 18–19
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.
67

BLM 12
Name
Date
Ted’s Library Rules
68
Lesson Bank: pages 20–21
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.

Name Date BLM 13
My name is
My library day is
My name is
My library day is
My name is
My library day is
My name is
My library day is
Lesson Bank: pages 20–21
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.
69

BLM 14
S
Congratulations
S
You are now one of
Ted’s KEEN readers!
70
S
Teacher Librarian
Class Teacher
Lesson Bank: pages 20–21
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.
S

Name
Date
BLM 15
My Snowman
First we make his body
Big and fat and round
Sit it very carefully
On a snowy mound.
Next we make his snowy head
Like another ball
Sit it on his shoulders
Stand him proud and tall.
Two round eyes, a pointed nose
A wide and curving smile
On his head, a tall black hat
My—hasn’t he got style!
A woolly scarf, a walking stick
Around his waist a belt
So sad that when the sun appears
My man will start to melt.
Lesson Bank: pages 28–29
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.
71

BLM 16
Name
Date
Hairy Harry
You need
V the foot of a light-coloured old stocking
V a teaspoon of wheat or grass seeds
V 2 cups of potting mix
V a thick rubber band
V a medium-size clear glass jar
V felt-tip pens
Instructions
1 Roll the foot of the stocking down so it is easy to reach
the toe.
2 Place the seeds carefully into the toe.
3 Carefully unroll the stocking a little.
4 Put the potting mix into the foot of the stocking, placing it
carefully on top of the seed.
5 Twist the rubber band around the open end of the potting
mix as tightly as you can so the potting mix cannot fall out.
6 Turn it over and gently shape it into a ball. Be careful not
to disturb the seed.
7 Draw a face on the front of the ball (not the top).
8 Half fill the glass jar with water.
9 Carefully place the head on the rim of the jar. The loose
bit of stocking should reach into the water.
10 Place Hairy Harry in the sunlight. The seeds will send up
shoots as hair and roots as whiskers.
72
Lesson Bank: pages 30–31
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.

Name
Date
Dinosaur Data
BLM 17
How big was it?
What did it eat?
How did it move?
Where did it live?
What did it look like?
What does its name mean?
Lesson Bank: pages 38–39
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.
73

BLM 18
Name
Tell the Story
Date
74
Lesson Bank: pages 42–43
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.

Name
Date
Colour the pictures.
Cut them out.
Paste them in order.
Tell the story.
Humpty Dumpty's Fall
BLM 19
Lesson Bank: pages 46–47
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.
75

BLM 20 Name
Inside the Egg
1 Colour the pictures inside the eggs.
2 Cut them out.
3 Put them in order.
4 Glue them onto the diagram to show the order.
Date
Day 10 Day 15
Day 5
Day 20
✂
Day 21
Lesson Bank: pages 46–47
76
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.

Name
1 Cut out the paper dolls.
Date
Our School Uniform
2 Cut pieces of coloured paper to make a school uniform for
the paper models.
3 Glue the coloured paper onto the models to dress them.
BLM 21
Lesson Bank: pages 50–51
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.
77

BLM 22
Name
A Spin on Spiders
Use the information from the display about
spiders to complete this fact sheet.
1 Spiders are not insects because
Date
2 Spiders live
3 Spiders can be as big as
or as small as
4 Spiders can be black and hairy or
5 Spiders eat
6 Some spiders spin webs to
7 Spiders that do not spin webs catch their prey by
8 Beware of these poisonous spiders:
9 Baby spiders are born
10 The main enemy of spiders is
11 The scientific name for a spider is an
12 I like/hate spiders because
78
Lesson Bank: pages 56–57
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.

Name
Date
Pirates
BLM 23
Pirates are sea robbers. There
have been pirates for as long as
there have been ships. They are
found in all the oceans of the
world.
In Greek and Roman times, pirates
hid around the Mediterranean Sea.
They were ready to attack passing
boats to steal the goods on board.
In the 9th and 10th centuries, fierce
Vikings from Norway, Sweden and
Denmark raided villages in Britain,
France and Germany.
Later, the Moors attacked ships
along the coast of Africa. Many
countries sent ships to fight these
pirates but the pirates were very
rich and powerful so they ruled
the seas for hundreds of years.
When Christopher Columbus
discovered America in 1492,
he claimed it for Spain. Great
expeditions were sent to explore
it. They found lots of gold, silver
and precious stones. When they
loaded their ships and sailed for
home, pirates hid in the Caribbean
Sea and attacked them.
The pirates were very mean and
nasty. Anyone who was captured
was soon murdered if they were
not useful. They were made to
walk the plank, thrown overboard,
left on a deserted island or cast
adrift in a little boat with no food
or water.
Some famous pirates were Henry
Morgan, Captain William and
Blackbeard. Their ships may have
displayed the pirates’ flag, called
the Jolly Roger. It features the
skull and crossbones and was a
fearsome sight.
Lesson Bank: pages 58–59
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.
79

BLM 24
Name
A Pirate Ship
Date
Step 1
1 Start with a square of paper.
2 Fold A to E.
3 Fold B to E.
4 Turn square over.
Step 2
1 Fold C to E.
2 Fold D to E.
Step 3
1 Fold F to G.
Step 4
1 Turn over. Glue sails down.
2 Colour your ship and give it a name.
3 Draw yourself as the pirate captain.
80
Lesson Bank: pages 58–59
All You Need to Teach Information Literacy Ages 5–8 © Barbara Braxton/Macmillan Education Australia.

All the tools a smart
teacher needs!
Information Literacy
All you need to teach . . . Information Literacy is an essential resource for both
classroom teachers and teacher librarians. Inside you’ll find everything you need
to help your students become lifelong learners, able to identify the information
they need and with the skills to locate and process that information.
Teaching Tips — practical tools and tips, including a three-page
photocopiable chart for display in the library or classroom
Learning Outcomes — checklists for each stage in the information
literacy process
Lesson Banks — 24 lesson banks packed with ideas for teaching
information literacy through commonly taught curriculum topics
Resource lists — including suggested websites and software
Worksheets — photocopiable worksheets
Stages in the information literacy process:
• Defining
• Locating
• Selecting
• Organising
• Presenting
• Assessing
• Reflecting
Also available:
All you need to teach . . .
Information Literacy Ages 8-10
All you need to teach . . .
Information Literacy Ages 10+
Other titles in this series:
All you need to teach . . .
• Drama
• Critical Thinking,
Humour and Text
• Nonfiction Text Types
• Comprehension
• Calculators
• Problem Solving
www.matildaeducation.com.au