AUSSIE STORIES

How The Kangaroo Got His Tail     How The Cockatoo Got Its Crest

Kangaroo Gets a Pouch      Koobar The Koala and Water

Platypus Plays Tricks     The Adventures of Hoppy 

Choose your story:  Boomer the Roo or Tangles the Emu

Koala Trouble   Choose your own story to read.
There are 15 great stories about Max the Koala

by Ann Watkins / Kelley Bockman

Kapunda Primary School

Level of Schooling: Reception

Duration: 7 weeks (1 x 50 minutes / week in the computing room)

The Context
Learning Outcomes
Teaching strategies / Learning strategies
Teacher evaluation

The Context

Areas of Study / Integrated areas:

English 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.5a, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9,1.10

Society and Environment 1.13. 1.17

Science 1.7, 1.8, 1.13, 1.15, 1.16

Technology 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 1.9, 1.10

Our focus was to integrate as many areas as possible. Emphasis on some of these outcomes was stronger than on others, but student activities were planned to achieve all of these outcomes. Kelley and I had one lesson per week to develop the topic in the Computer Room, so we developed the learning technologies section of this unit together. Kelley developed other learning activities to support and extend the scope of the unit in her classroom. We intended to cover a range of computing and software skills as well as developing the students’ knowledge of Australian Animals

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Learning Outcomes

Curriculum area outcomes

• Recognise that some animals are Australian animals, including some endangered Australian animals
• Recognise special features of Australian animals
• Learn names of animals introduced to Australia
• Name some less well-known Australian animals
• Understand the terms "pet", "wild animal" and "habitat"

Essential learnings

Thinking

Communication

Learning technology skills

• Embedding Technology across subject areas
• Constructing presentations to demonstrate knowledge
• Saving and accessing work
• Accessing programmes

Other Learning Technology outcomes

• Able to adjust Volume control
• Control Mouse
• Recognise software icons on desktop
• Use appropriate vocabulary related to accessing and using software Learn functions of toolbar buttons / tools
• Manipulating graphics
• Saving work
• Printing

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Teaching strategies / Learning strategies

Teaching strategies

• Demonstration
• Modelling
• Defining
• Describing

Learning strategies

In Class:

1. Whole class lessons on Australian Animals, endangered Australian Animals, Introduced / Feral Animals
2. Looking at structure of non-fiction books
3. Defining terminology
4. Modelling descriptions of animal appearance, habitat
5. Modelling alliteration, focussing on characteristics/appearance etc of animals
6. Modelling innovation on the text "Birds on Stage"

In the Computer Room:

1. Learn to recognise icons for "Wiggleworks" and "KidPix."
2. Model processes for accessing "Birds On Stage" book.
3. Read the book
4. Students innovate on text to answer the question "What can it be?"
5. Use the magnet board in "Wiggleworks" to write names of Australian animals
6. Use "KidPix" typewriter tool to type in an alliteration ( eg Playful Platypus")
7. Use "KidPix" to create a picture of an Australian animal in its habitat

Assessment task for students:

Create a poster about an Australian Animal in KidPix. Include the food it eats its habitat and explain why it is special.

Notes

The book "Birds On Stage" is a repetitive text and introduces some birds on a stage. Several of the birds were Australian, so it was easy to innovate on the text to incorporate other Australian animals.

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Teacher evaluation

Resources we had available:

Computer Resources – 15 computers in Computer Room (Students had opportunities to work with a partner for some lessons and alone in others)

Software Kid Pix Wiggleworks

Other locations used

• Resource Centre
• Classroom

Teacher evaluation: lessons learnt

The success of this unit was assisted by its direct relationship to classroom lessons on the same topic. Each time the class came in to the Computer Room the students were able to share the knowledge they had gained during the week since we last met. The obvious links to other classroom work and the preparation activities Kelley did in the classroom made it easy for students to tackle the computing tasks.

We were ambitious! We didn’t have enough time to do the slideshow we’d originally intended to do and didn’t introduce using Word for the final Assessment item (used KidPix instead). One of the most important lessons we learned was that developing a unit of work with activities that children can do on the computer that are firmly based in a current class topic is ideal. This ensures that the computer is used as a tool for learning, is immediately relevant and uses knowledge the students have already developed.

Student feedback / reflection:

As always much of the learning that the children talked about was not an organised part of the unit. For some students, the particular skills they developed were more important to them than the outcomes we planned, eg keyboard skills such as recognising upper and lower case letters. The students completed a questionnaire as a class at the conclusion of the unit. Some of their comments were: "I learned about (Australian) animals. "I can do pictures in KidPix" "It helped us to read." "It helped us to learn capital letters."

AUSTRALIAN ANIMALS UNIT for young children
http://www.preschoolbystormie.com/austranimls.htm by Jane Karyuka