EASY LESSON PLAN FOR SHARING AUSTRALIAN HISTORY WITH YOUR CHILDREN

THIS PLAN TURNS YOUR PICTURES INTO AN EASY WAY TO DO AUSSIE HISTORY

FEEL FREE TO PRINT IT OUT AND GO!........
I just want to show mums and dads here at my blog that the pictures have enough information for you to use for Australian history studies with your children. Each picture has a rhyme that tells a succinct story so you have the information and the activity already for you. Read on to see a STEP BY STEP PLAN........


Choose the Picture/s or Pages Photocopy and GO!
The dc and I shared some Aussie history lessons together today.

Materials

I had the pages we were using photocopied and all ready to go and;
coloured pencils,
scissors,
double sided tape,
coloured pens all on the table ready for use.

Read Aloud the Rhymes

We started by reading aloud two of the rhymes it was great for read aloud practice for dd (12) some of the rhymes have harder vocabulary and ds (who struggles with reading) will read the easier rhymes (he did pretty well today though). Any new vocabulary can be learned/looked up as you go if you wish.

Children Retell in their Own Words

After the rhymes were well read I asked the dc to tell me something about what or who's in the picture, the rhymes tell the story or give pieces of information about what is in each picture and so a child will be able to come up with a narration that is worded differently whilst at the same time being true to the rhyme.

Discuss What Else they See

The dc love this part, kind of like a search puzzle, they take turns finding the other things in the picture and take turns saying/reading what they were (ds loves this) using the little additional notes, we go through each one and find out more.

Reports and Research Projects

If you wanted to expand the lesson further or the dc were interested in something in particular from the picture, rhymes or notes you could assign additional research to be reported on for next time. In fact there are pictures geared for older children such as those about what happened to the Aborigines in Tasmania or Immigration or the Colonies or Progress of Government or events like the Rum Rebellion.

Colour and Optional Reading of Additional Information/Stories

We opened our Australian history journals and the dc then began colouring.

Now, I have some Australian history books I've collected the odd one or two and here I may read additional relevant information or a short story or poetry while they colour, cut and set out the latest page of their journal. There is no need to do this though I sometimes just leave the dc to work on their own on their page now which takes time, sometimes it can be easy to overdo the information and give dc overload. Also it can be hard to get the page finished IYKWIM.

Library books may help if you wish to add information sometimes, I like George Finkel's series in the (Australian history section) see also the children's booklist on this and other boards in INTERNET LINKS and someone mentioned Jackie French's latest books which are clearly set out and so lend themselves to reading snippets IYKWIM not very poignant though. Usually library books like this are organised in themes so you can choose the book based on themes you are up to in the set. Eg First Fleet, Aborigines, Convicts/Penal settlements, Government, Settlement, Exploration, Gold & Minerals, Bushrangers etc.

Add to Their Australian History Journal

The dc can continue to add to their journal in many ways. For example; their own small sketches, Australian art resources can be helpful here, www.PictureAustralia.org has a great search engine for this, (using the Artists names from my pictures' Library Reference lists is a great idea to narrow down the field). They can add their own notes, narrations, words or observations, calligraphy or whatever they like by way of decoration.

Turn Janette's Pictures Into a Book

The pictures have a great deal of information so, you can place the pages into a plastic sleeved folder to turn them into a book with the indexes and How To Use pages at the rear and this helps if you are wanting to choose what to do or find relevant material to places in Australia such as the state in which you live. It also helps if you want to say just cover a particular topic like gold for instance.

More to come.... and THANKS FOR READING!!!

Warmly

Janette Cassey Ingham

PS I am writing some narratives/lesson plans/stories to go with the pictures but these things take time, there are already lesson plans including poetry ideas on this board and at my website below.

I have to say, I love using poetry to learn AH as you will see at the board and in my pictures it's quite amazing what atmosphere you can create with that powerful medium.

PSS Those who have already bought the pictures may like to print this off for a kind of very flexible guide to follow.

Aussie Homeschool Bloggers

Often people ask me about more information on support in Aussie homeschooling well, I've found this link to some great homeschoolers, I hope you enjoy browsing it!
Janette

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USE THE PICTURES TO COVER GEOGRAPHY AND MUCH MORE

I'm a big fan of making connections and covering more than one subject at once and I have tried to compose the pictures to help do this. Later when you use the pictures at home you can cover things like:

Art skills: practice colouring and art skills use that art program on the shelf or just work on technique, blending colours, using different strokes and values (shades of light to dark).

Geography: When you cover the explorers you can also use the pictures as springboards to find out about the Australian geographical region that man explored as they are mentioned in the pictures.

Where things Happened: Use the maps to look up your own Australian maps and locate where things took place, find out about the regions there. Take the pictures on holidays with you and find out what happened where you are driving.

Science: Different biomes are discovered usually with the explorers like wetlands, alpine, desert with some flora and fauna use these as springboards to explore further, have your dc research these ecosystems as they come up.

Science and Technology: There are pictures that deal with these topics in Australian history eg when you find out about the Overland Telegraph research that technology, allow the pictures to lead you and give you ideas for further investigation maybe tie in an experiment.

Society: Different types of Australian society are discussed Aborigines, convicts, bushrangers, settlers, leaders or government use the pictures to study these more. Some of this will be suitable when the dc are older.

Literature and The Arts: Learn about artists and the arts find out more. Use the poetry and stories of the writers mentioned they really tell a lot about Aussie history as they lived in those times! There's more about this on my board and website under workshop notes and lesson plans.

I hope these posts give you ideas for how easy the pictures are to use when you are ready of course. Both now and in the future.


Warmly

Janette

USING THE PICTURES WITH BOOKS & VISITING PLACES

USE THEM TO GO WITH A BOOK: ...we use them when we are reading good stories. For example when we read John of the Sirius we used the pictures for the First Fleet, Captain Arthur Phillip, convicts, even James Ruse etc and some Aboriginal pictures, in other words the things that are mentioned in the book. It gives the dc something to do with their hands while you read the story. You or they (depending on reading ability) may read the rhymes to begin with and they begin to colour the character as you read, you can also branch out from there and do the other early pictures/people after you finish the book you are reading. Alternatively you can use them for narration/reinforcement after you read aloud from your book.

USE THEM WHEN VISITING PLACES: You said Rose Hill or Parramatta is what you are reading about now, so the dc could be doing the Parramatta pictures (people and things that happened there) and seeing what it USED to look like before (perhaps) you visit. (Lisa is planning a trip atm) You could also do the Hawkesbury people and places in the pictures etc before or after your visit. The indexes should help you find things too, the chronological and contents index at the rear of the set gives more detail on that score.

HOW WE USE THEM: We use them when we are reading a book and when we visit places (it helps to keep lessons alive IMO) also with Aussie poetry or to give my older daughter someone to research. (See my website and board for more on this at http://janettecassey.proboards100.com information will continue to be added there)

My dc set their cut and coloured pictures out on some coloured A4 paper with their own additions i.e. small narrations/notes/own pictures/drawings/calligraphy and put them into a plastic sleeved A4 folder for Aussie history but if you didn't want them to do all that you could just have them colour the photocopied pages/individual pictures onto A4 and put that in a folder or paste it (even enlarged) up as a part of your timeline (I did this for a recent expo it looked great).

As they colour they are actually becoming familiar with the people's faces and even historical works of art and can look for them them when you visit. You could also take the set to read and project books or journals with you on holidays if you are visiting historical places and they may enjoy colouring in at night when they need something to keep them busy, depending on how old they, are my dc loved this when they were younger.