AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM UNIT PLAN

Subject: HASS
Year Level: 1 Teacher: Alannah Heyman, Cass Kotsoglous, Abhaya Racic
Topic: First Nations Peoples and Sustainability Duration: 9 weeks

PART 1: PURPOSE

☒ Literacy ☐ Numeracy ☐ ICT ☐ Critical and Creative

General Thinking
Capabilities
☒ Ethical Understanding ☒ Personal and social ☒ Intercultural
capability Understanding
Cross-curriculum ☒ Aboriginal and TSI ☐ Asia and Australia’s ☒ Sustainability
Priorities Histories and Culture Engagement with Asia

Strands, Sub-strands and Content Descriptors:

 identifying the similarities and differences of a range of family structures; for example, nuclear
families, one-child families, large families, single-parent families, extended families, blended or
step families, adoptive and foster parent families and grandparent families, and kinship groups
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differences in family structures and roles today, and
 comparing families in the present with those from the recent past, for example, the size of families
how these have changed or remained the same over
across the generations
time

 examining the roles of family members over time, such as roles of parents, children and extended
Knowledge and family members, and comparing these with family roles today
Understanding
 comparing and commenting on photographs and oral histories to find out how daily lives have
History changed and remained the same over time; for example, talking to parents, grandparents and other
elders
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continuity and change between aspects of their daily  comparing what has changed in daily life over time; for example, homes, family
lives and their parents’ and grandparents’ childhoods traditions, diverse religious and cultural practices, leisure, school life, rules, and
shopping/consumer habits

 examining the traditional toys used by First Nations Australian children to play and learn; for
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 example, Arrernte children learn to play string games so they can remember stories they have been
told

 identifying similarities and differences in classroom equipment, learning activities, school

playgrounds and playground games through observations of provided artefacts and photos, and
asking questions of adults from different generations

 identifying natural features (for example, hills, rivers, native vegetation and weather), managed

features (for example, farms, parks and gardens) and constructed features (for example, roads and
buildings) and locating them on a map

 listening to and viewing Dreaming and Creation stories of First Nations Australians that identify
the natural features of a place

 listing the different types of buildings in their local area; for example, houses, shops, offices,
AC9HS1K03 factories, religious buildings and farm buildings
the natural, managed and constructed features of local
places, and their location  describing the daily and seasonal weather of their place using simple terms such as “rainy”, “hot”,
“cold”, “windy” and “cloudy”, and comparing it with the weather of other places that they know or
are aware of; for example, “It was windy at the beach but not at my house”, “It is colder on the
mountain”, “It is rainy in the winter”, “It is hot in the summer”

Knowledge and  explaining to classmates where places are and the directions to be followed when moving from one
Understanding place to another, with the use of appropriate terms for direction and location; for example, terms
such as “beside”, “forward”, “up”, “down”, “by”, “near”, “further”, “close to”, “before”, “after”,
“here”, “there”, “at”
Geography
 observing changes in natural, managed and constructed features in their place; for example, recent
erosion, revegetated areas, planted crops or new buildings

 identifying which resources they can recycle, reduce, re-use or none of these, and what local spaces
and systems support these activities; for example, rules, signs, waste collection truck routes
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how places change and how they can be cared for by  describing how local places change due to changing weather and seasons, and how we can care for
different groups including First Nations Australians places because of those changes; for example, not walking in muddy areas during wet weather, and
watering plants in dry weather

 describing local features that people look after, finding out why and how these features need to be
cared for, and who provides this care; for example, bushland, wetlands, a park or a heritage
building

 investigating examples of how First Nations Australians manage and care for places
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  posing questions with the stems “where”, “what”, “how” and “why” about families and places
when provided with everyday objects and other sources, such as photos, found objects, maps and
observation sketches
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develop questions about objects, people, places and  asking questions before, during and after listening to stories about people and places, and about
events in the past and present their past and present

 preparing questions for parents and members of older generations about how and where they lived
in the past, and the places they value

 exploring stories from the past and present about people and families (for example, fiction books,
Skills letters, diaries, songs) and about places (for example, myths, Dreaming and Creation stories,
fiction, story maps, films)

Questioning and  gathering evidence of features in a local place; for example, using observations, online aerial
Reasoning photographs and sketches, and noting how they change, such as by comparing current observations
AC9HS1S02 of a place with photographs of it taken in the past, or recording observations of weather and seasons
collect, sort and record information and data from
observations and from provided sources, including  developing a pictorial table to categorise information; for example, matching clothes with seasons,
unscaled timelines and labelled maps or models activities with the weather, features with places, places with the work done there

 creating a peg timeline in which labelled, drawn or photographic representations of events or

objects from different generations are pegged onto string in the correct sequence

 recording data about the locations of places and their features on maps and/or plans; for example,
labelling the location of their home on a map of the local area, using a provided plan of their
classroom and labelling its activity spaces
 using information gained from sources, such as stories, photographs, fieldwork observations,
satellite images and rock art, to answer “when”, “where”, “what”, “how” and “why” questions

 identifying similarities and differences between activities over time by comparing objects of the
past with those currently used; for example, comparing toys, games, clothes, phones, cooking
AC9HS1S03 utensils, tools, homework books
Interpreting, interpret information and data from observations and
analysing and provided sources, including the comparison of objects
 using comparative language when describing family life over time and/or comparing features of
evaluating from the past and present
places, such as “smaller/bigger than”, “closer/further”, “not as big as”, “younger/older than”, “more
rainy days”, “fewer/less”, “hotter/colder”, “sunnier/windier than”

 exploring traditional and contemporary First Nations Australian stories about places and the past,
and how places have changed

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  categorising objects, drawings or images by their features and explaining the reason for their
categorisation; for example, categorising the features of a local place into natural (such as a native
forest), constructed (such as a street of houses) and managed (such as a windbreak of trees)

 comparing students’ daily lives with those of their parents, grandparents, elders or a familiar older
AC9HS1S04 person and identifying which aspects of the past they would or would not want to experience
discuss perspectives related
to objects, people, places and events  sharing personal preferences about their world (for example, their favourite weather, activities,
places, celebrations, objects from the past) and explaining why they are favoured

 using collected information (for example, from stories told by parents, grandparents, elders or
familiar older people; from comparison of objects; from geographic pictures) to make conclusions
about continuity and change over time (for example, how family roles, occupations and/or
technologies have changed or remained the same) and how places change (for example, because of
the seasons)
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Concluding and
draw conclusions and make proposals
decision-making  describing features of a space or place that is important to them and explaining what they could do
to care for it; for example, a chicken coop, a play area, their bedroom, the reading corner, the beach

 imagining how a local feature or place might change in the future and proposing action they could
take to improve a place or influence a positive future

 retelling stories about life in the past through spoken narratives and the use of pictures, role-plays
AC9HS1S06 or photographs
develop narratives and share observations, using
Communicating
sources, and subject-specific terms  using terms to denote the sequence of time; for example, “then”, “now”, “yesterday”, “today”,
“past”, “present”, “later on”, “before I was born”, “in the future”, “generations

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UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN STAGE 1: DESIRED RESULTS KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS
TRANSFER GOAL: Knowledge and Understanding:
Students will be able to independently......

DEEP UNDERSTANDINGS:
Students will understand that:

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN STAGE 2: ASSESSMENT EVIDENCE

YEAR LEVEL ACHIEVEMENT STANDARD

By the end of Year 1, students identify continuity and change in family structures, roles and significant aspects of daily life. They identify the location and nature of the
natural, managed and constructed features of local places, the ways places change, and how they can be cared for by people.

Students develop questions and collect, sort and record information and data from observations and provided sources. They interpret information and discuss
perspectives. They draw conclusions and make proposals. Students share narratives and observations about people, places and the past, drawing on sources and
incorporating subject-specific terms.
Performance Task(s):

Assessment task:

Other Evidence of Learning:

Feedback:

Self-assessment:

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UNDERSTANDING BY DESIGN STAGE 3: LEARNING AND TEACHING PLAN

Differentiation: Adjustments for Needs of

Teaching and Learning Sequence Thinking Models
Learners
Learning Dispositions
Week 1: Collaborative
Learning Intention: Courageous
We are learning about the terms surrounding Indigenous Creative
Australians and can state who they are. Curious
Success Criteria: Reflective
Resilient
I can state the two cultures in Australia.
Self-regulated
I can identify the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
flags. Interdisciplinary Connections

Learning Activities
 Discuss how Australia has two indigenous groups who
have been in Australia for a very long time.
 Introduce the terms Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islanders.
 Show on a map where the Torres Strait Islands are and
how Aboriginals were spread out over the rest of
Australia.
 Talk about how these groups have a very close
connection with the land and sea. It takes care of them
and they take care of it, only ever taking from the land
what they need.
 These two groups are still found in Australia today
and continue with their culture but it has been changed
by modern means.
 Display pictures to help students understanding and

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 talk about what they notice.
 Teach students the name of their local Indigenous
group.
 What do you know about Aboriginal culture?
 Read Welcome to Country by Aunty Joy Murphy
 Why do we say an Acknowledgement of
Country/Welcome to Country at the beginning of
ceremonies or events? (Think. Pair. Share.)
 Read the Acknowledgement of Country and share a
version of Welcome to Country (short version for
ceremonies/events)
 What is the difference between the Acknowledgement
of Country and Welcome to Country? (Discussion)

 Create a very large map of Australia, Aboriginal Flag

or Torres Strait Islander Flag with a solid black
outline.
 Fill the map or flag with students’ handprints.
 Show and discuss what each part represents
(Aboriginal flag: black represents their people, yellow
the sun and red the dirt. Torres Strait Flag: green the
land, blue the sea, black lines the people, the five-
pointed star represents the five major groups and the
white dhari is a dancers headdress representing the
people).

Week 2:
Learning Intention
We are learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Peoples and their culture.

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Success Criteria
I can describe ways First Nations people communicated
such as talking, cave/rock paintings, symbols.
I can use symbols to communicate a story.

Learning Activities
 Show students some of the different symbols
Aboriginal people used to represent things.
 Show Rock Art Video
 Have students practice drawing these symbols on a
sand table or sand trays.
 Encourage students to tell a story using these symbols.
For example, a man walked past an emu and found a
campsite. He got water from a nearby billabong and
then threw a boomerang.
 You may like to take a picture of their drawing and
annotate their story to go with it.

 Show Hand Stencils

 Students create their own stencil art like Aboriginals
did on cave walls. On a piece of card have students lay
their hands down and then cover the rest of their paper
with lose pigment i.e. chalk (they can blow it on and
maybe spread with straws) other natural materials that
leave a stain/colour or use paint in a spray bottle. You
might like to have students work in pairs to borrow
each other’s hands. Discuss what leaving hand prints
might have represented (who was there at different
times). You might like to have them repeat this
activity using other things as stencils. The Aboriginal
people also did stencils of boomerangs, spears etc.

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Week 3
Learning Intention
We are learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Peoples and their culture.

Success Criteria
I can give reasons why Country is important to
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
I can create artwork of a significant landscape or
landmark.
Learning Activities
 Read ‘Our Island’ by Alison Lester. Discuss how
important the land (called country by Aboriginal
people and place by Torres Strait Islanders) is to
Indigenous people and how they are connected.
 You could develop a poetic story similar to ‘Our
Island’ for your local place. Have students think about
key places (especially those important to the local
indigenous groups) in their community that can be
included, especially those of family significance and
create artwork
 Or have students paint a picture of a landscape feature
from their local community such as a beach, hills, rock
formation etc that is important to them or means
something to them or the community. Do not provide
students brushes, instead give them a wide variety of
items from nature they could use, like leaves, nuts,
bark, sticks etc. You may like to give them a piece of
paper to experiment with the items first before
choosing the most suitable choices for their particular
landscape/mark. You may also like to provide a
picture of the different places to encourage greater
detail. Have students explain why the place is
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 important to the community.

Week 4
Learning Intention
We are learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Peoples and their culture.

Success Criteria
I can list some ways that Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people got their food (hunting, gathering,
fishing)

Learning Activities
 Read ‘You and Me: Our Place’. Discuss different
ways the people in the story caught food. Add other
ways the Indigenous people caught food such as
hunting with spears and boomerangs.
 Watch videos about bush tucker and making damper.
 You could make damper following a recipe. Talk
about different parts of the recipe and what each part
means including how you need to do the steps in
order.
 You could create baskets to carry around food by
taking a paper plate and cutting lines about half way in
towards the centre of the plate. Make at least four
sections (you can have more if you have more
advanced students. Fold up each of the sections and
then start weaving wool or similar in and out of the
sections to bring the sections together to form a
basket. You might like students to alternate colours or
stick with one the entire time. Allow students to go
outside and gather items up with their basket.

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Week 5
Reconciliation Week Activities

Week 6
Learning Intention
We are learning about how Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander People describe the seasons.

Success Criteria
I can identify the Kaurna seasons.
I can identify images from wet and dry seasons in Kakadu
National Park.
I can identify where places are located
Learning activities
 Explore the Kaurna seasons and how they are
identified.
 Explain that First Nations people in other areas have
different seasons depending on where they are located.
 Explore the 6 seasons in Kakadu National Park
 Complete worksheet sorting Wet and Dry seasons

Week 7
Assessment

Week 8 and 9

Excursion to Blackham

NAIDOC Week Activities

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UNDERSTANDING AND DESIGN STAGE 4: LEARNING SUPPORT
ASSESSMENT ADJUSTMENTS
CLASSROOM ADJUSTMENTS
CURRICULUM ADJUSTMENTS Example: Presentation of work,
STUDENT Example: Quality differentiated
Example: Curriculum standard student working on method of presentation (scaffolding),
teaching, seating
extra-time, rest breaks

TEACHER REFLECTION ON THE UNIT PLAN

Identify what worked well during and at the end of the unit, including:
 learning tasks that worked well and why

 learning tasks that could be improved and how

 assessment that worked well and why

 assessment that could be improved and how

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`

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