The ‘Stand on the Line’ activity can be used as a barometer to test students’ prior knowledge - the focus of this lesson is the the human impact on ecosystems. Read a set of statements to students then use the additional notes provided to engage students in further conversation around each point.

This tool will help you to structure student research. It will assist them to organise ideas and help them to form opinions about new topics.

In this activity, students decide how they would like to help the plants that live around them to survive. Students make a promise that can apply in their home and at school and illustrate these promises. They will create short imaginative and informative texts that show emerging use of appropriate text structure, sentence-level grammar, word choice, spelling, punctuation and appropriate multimodal elements, for example illustrations and diagrams. They will represent and communicate observations and ideas in a variety of ways such as oral and written language, drawing and role play.

This lesson is based on the game 'Red Light, Green Light’, with a twist. The player nominated as ‘it’ is a frog and the rest of the class are insects, trying to cross the pond without being eaten. Students will understand that living things live in different places where their needs are met, will be able to articulate how the game illustrates the relationship between a frog and insects and learn to follow the rules of a simple game.

Students complete a classroom audit and explain how appliances are used in their homes and classroom each day. They will represent data with objects and drawings where one object or drawing represents one data value. Students will understand how people use science in their daily lives, including when caring for their environment and living things. Students wil be able to classify a range of everyday appliances in terms of their energy usage and record and tally items around the classroom and at home.

In this activity, students work in pairs to research the important issue of sustainable use of water resources. Students will discover the most appropriate way to find credible information about this issue on the internet. Students are given time to find internet material that they evaluate according to a set of criteria. Students identify websites that are credible, useful, and informative.

Students will think about what they encounter and consume in their day-to-day lives, and think about those things in terms of whether they fulfill a ‘need’ or a ‘want’. Students create a list of consumables and categorise them as needs or wants, then make a list of their own needs and wants.

In this lesson students find out which appliances in their classroom use energy and work together to create agreements for the classroom about switching off and adjusting these appliances. The lesson ends with students making informative stickers for these appliances. Students will use comprehension strategies to build literal meaning about key ideas and information in texts. They’ll be able to identify way to reduce energy use of items in class, clearly express instructions about how to use an appliance and work in groups to plan a text.

By the end of this activity students will be able to explain how water bottles and other drink containers should be used so that germs aren’t spread. Students will engage in conversations and discussions, using active listening behaviours, showing interest, and contributing ideas, information and questions. They will respond to and pose questions, and make predictions about familiar objects and events Students can state why it is important to stay have a clean, reusable water bottle, and list ways to keep their reusable water bottle clean and healthy

In this activity students work as a class to make a nature map of their school. Students take a walk around the school looking for signs of nature, drawing and taking notes about what they see and reporting back their findings to the class. They then create a new map that shows all the features of biodiversity they found in their school yard.

In this lesson students think about and discuss features of animals and the relevance of these features to ensuring the survival of the animal. They then create their own animals, describing and illustrating their features and developing a written description of their traits. This lesson draws on skills from Science, Visual Arts and English as students develop knowledge of living things, drawing skills and engage in descriptive writing.

In this lesson, students learn the difference between native and introduced species of plants and animals. They explore different ways they can protect native plants and animals as well as their pets and gardens.

The K-W-H-L thinking tool can be used throughout a lesson or unit. It serves as an aid to ensure a student’s interest is catered to and helps to determine what needs to be taught. The chart is introduced at the beginning of the topic, and can only be completed once a student have finished their investigation of the topic. The chart can also be used as an assessment tool. This thinking tool can be integrated into a number of subject areas as the focus is on developing general capabilities and 21st century skills. Students will be able to represent and communicate ideas and findings in a variety of ways.

Students can use this essay planner to organise their ideas before writing and expository or persuasive essay.

Children use a map to explore the features and layout of their outdoor learning area. They note personal connections to their outdoor environment and represent their thoughts, feelings and/or observations using their choice of medium. This activity is designed to help connect children to the wonders of the natural world through sensory and play-based learning. This activity is designed to be taught outside. By spending time outdoors and connecting to nature, children are more likely to care for and conserve nature as adults.

Children investigate a range of natural features of the yard by thinking about, talking about and describing how these things grow. They will look at parts of plants and explore where they come from and how they grow, engaging in role play and creating and making activities to develop and represent their knowledge. This activity is designed to help connect children to the wonders of the natural world through sensory and play-based learning. It is designed to be taught outside. By spending time outdoors and connecting to nature, children are more likely to care for and conserve nature as adults.

Students collect data completing a spot audit on all the lights that are on in their classroom and the school. Through this activity students will understand some of the ways we can save energy.

In this lesson, students investigate the way different appliances are turned on and off and explore how they can use these functions to save energy.

A rubric is a method for monitoring a student’s learning based on chosen criteria or guidelines. Rubrics are often provided to students before they commence an assessment task so they are able to think about the criteria that will be included in their assessment. The sample rubric for this unit of work is generic and is based on ‘A model of inquiry learning’ in which students will be collecting and using data. The criteria overlaps Science, English, Mathematics and Geography. Teachers are encouraged to modify this rubric to meet their specific assessment needs.

This activity is designed to encourage children to explore how shadows are created. Children will discover that different light sources and different materials can create different kinds of shadows. Older children will also discover that the sun can create shadows of different width and length at different times of the day. This activity is designed to help connect children to the wonders of the natural world through sensory and play-based learning.