k-6 linkages - a K-6 curriculum project by the Board of Studies, NSW, Australia
curriculum integration Integrated Units Reference Material Generic Outcomes Guiding Statement K-6 Content Links
k-6 linkages front page
Saint Catherine's Teacher Librarians Beaumont Road Broken Bay Diocese Aboriginal Perspectives Multi-stage
 

 

 
#15 Absalom etching

 
#24 Bush food gallery

 

The Very Early Years

Context
Areas of Integration - Outcomes Being Addressed
Learning Sequences: - audio files: audio icon |audio icon
References

 

Learning Sequence

  1. What did the British see when they arrived?
  2. Were there other explorers before the British?
  3. James Cook’s voyage to Australia
  4. What plants/trees were native to the Sydney region?

1. What did the British see when they arrived?

Outcomes: VAS2.3, VAS2.4

Resources: #15 Absalom etching

  • Show etching by Absalom West Botany Bay Harbour in NSW with a view of the Heads. #15

    Explain to students that this is an etching showing the arrival of the British in Australia in 1788. It was done 30 years later, so it is the artist’s impression of a past event.
    Discuss the etching by asking following types of questions:

    What do you see in the picture?

    What is happening?

    When do you think this was happening?

    Who lives in this place?

    What is the land like where the people live?

    What are the people on the land doing?

    Where has the ship come from?

    Who could be on the ship?

    Why is it sailing into the bay?

    What do you think the people on the land are thinking about the ship coming to their land?

    What are the people on the ship thinking when they see the people on the land?

    Through whose eyes has this picture been drawn? (assessment task, refer again to retrieval chart)

2. Were there other explorers before the British?

Outcomes: TS2.2, RS2.5, ENS2.5

Resources: #16 Exploration, #17 Explorers, #18 Vocabulary

  • Brainstorm, What, how and why people explore? #16

  • Read passages on European explorers and identify the countries they came from. #17 Students identify and find European countries in atlas or on a map.

  • Students match exploration vocabulary to meanings. #18

  • Have students in groups research early explorers of Australia and produce a report about European explorers before the British, eg Willem Jansz, Nicholas Marion du Fresne, William Dampier, the Macassans, Abel Janszoon Tasman, Jan Carstenz, Luis Vaez de Torres, Dirk Hartog. (See resources for relevant websites available on explorers.)

  • Students sort information from the texts about:

    Who were they?Where did they come from?
    Why did they come?
    Where did they go?
    What did they do?
    What was the Aboriginal response to their visit?

  • Each group presents their information on their explorer.

  • What is a century?

Outcomes: NS2.1, MS3.5

Resources: #19 Century game, #20 Explorers timeline

  • Play To the end of the century #19 Mathematics game using MAB blocks to construct a timeline to assist students with their understanding of 100 years equalling a century.

  • Using a length of string to represent a timeline from 1600 to 1800, students find the midpoint and use a peg to label it 1700. Then they estimate and label dates either side of 1700 in ten-year intervals.
    Students cut and paste descriptions of explorers onto timeline. #20 (assessment task)

  • Class discussion: the explorer or invader and the meaning of terra nullius from this point of view. Record responses.

3. James Cook’s voyage to Australia

Outcomes: CCS2.1, RS2.5, RS2.6, CCS2.2

Resources: #21 Endeavour worksheet, #21a Endeavour visual, #22 Endeavour cloze, Additional reading 1: Summary of Cook’s journeys, Additional reading 2: Extract from Cook’s diary, #23 ‘The Endeavour’s arrival: from two points of view’, #23a Joseph Banks questions

  • Highlight together time expressions in scrambled text ‘The voyage of the Endeavour’. Students use the time expressions to sequence text in chronological order. #21, #21a Complete the cloze passage with the time expressions. #22

  • Students read the sequenced text of Cook’s voyage and map his route.

  • Read or present a summary of additional readings 1 and 2.

  • Explain the concept of terra nullius from this point of view.
    Terra nullius: Latin for ‘land of no one’. In international law, territory inhabited by peoples whose social or political organisation was not recognised was considered terra nullius. Sovereignty (rule) over territory was established by effective occupation by a sovereign state.
    Reference page 95 of HSIE K-6 Syllabus
    Was Australia really terra nullius?

  • Show text called, ‘The Endeavour’s arrival: from two points of view’ #23. Students identify who is speaking in each frame. Have students draw the characters and scenery. Can students identify the different points of view in the text?

  • The teacher explains that the British Government had a meeting with Joseph Banks nine years after Cook’s journey to Australia, to discuss the possibility of setting up a penal colony on the eastern coast of Australia, which they named New South Wales. Teacher asks students what questions they think the government asked Joseph Banks. Write these on the board. Show students original questions Banks was asked and have students answer them on behalf of Banks. #23a

  • Examine the original answers of Banks. Discuss any differences between their answers and Banks’ answers. Discuss the meaning of terra nullius from this point of view.

 

4. What plants/trees were native to the Sydney region?

Outcomes: SGS2.3, TS2.2, CUS2.4, RS2.7, VAS2.1

Resources: Additional resource #24 Bush food (Photos of Bush food taken from Stewart, K and Percival, B, 1997, Bush Foods of New South Wales, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney. Material used with permission of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.)

  • Teachers and students can locate information on website: Joseph Banks

    www.sl.nsw.gov.au/banks/index.html

  • Using the above sites, display etchings commissioned by Banks. Explore the school gardens for native plants and trees. Identify their botanical and/or common names. Students sketch samples using a graphite pencil or pastel chalks.

  • Students make own etchings. Collect polystyrene trays or boxes. Students transfer design onto tray using a sharp pencil or skewer. Roll block printing paint (water based) over the design, place a sheet of art paper on top of the design and press. Peel the design off. The design can be washed, and more detail added. Roll a contrasting colour over the tray, align tray over original print, and press. The same process can be adapted to perspex etched with the sharp end of a compass or nail.

  • Organise an excursion to the Botanical Gardens in Sydney (or visit the website) where there is the Cadi Jam Ora First Encounters garden which includes an exhibition of plants used by the Cadigal people. The area around Sydney contains at least 200 plant species, of which fruit, seeds, tubers or nectars are edible. #24 See additional resource material. Local Botanical Gardens may be another source of native flora used by Aboriginal people from that area.

 

continue on to next learning sequence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
top of page