Activity 5: How can we care for our school or local community?

Activity 5: How can we care for our school or local community?

NOTE: Choose one culmination option below, or blend some, to suit your class schedule and resources.

Focus: Sharing what we have learnt with others so everyone can look after Country.

Possible overarching question: How can we teach others to care for Country using our new learning?

Step by step guide

• Step 1: Connecting to students’ prior learning

• Step 2: Choose a caring for Country action

• Step 3: Planning and preparing

• Step 4: Taking action

• Step 5: Reflection and celebration

Required Resources

• Teacher Support Material

• Our learning journey resource

• Resources dependent on culmination of learning option

Step 1: Connecting to students’ prior learning

Using the our learning journey Resource "Marlu the Kangaroo” is back. This time they take the class on a journey of reflecting on their learning during the unit. You can either include examples of learning in the resource or point to these examples displayed around the classroom.

Step 2: Choose a caring for Country action

For the next part of the activity, students will select (or you will assign) one or more caring action options. Decide in advance whether the class will vote, rotate through stations, or have the teacher choose. The five suggested caring action options are

Action project: Help students turn their observations (from Activity 2) into a real-world plan for caring for Country at school (or in a nearby community space). Begin by revisiting the changes they noticed across the unit and asking, “What does Country seem to need from us right now, and at other times of the year?” Brainstorm practical ideas, then vote on one or two manageable class goals, such as:

• mulching or planting a small garden

• starting a weekly rubbish collection roster

• setting up a watering schedule for dry periods

• designing and posting signs to protect sensitive areas (“Keep off the garden beds – plants and insects live here”).

If time and resources allow, expand to a larger project, e.g., creating a native garden.

Call to action recording or assembly item: As a culminating showcase, students script a short performance (or film a simple video) that weaves together key moments from the unit, season signs, senses at work, and “help/heal” actions for around the school or local community. Students could share examples of where Country may be “hurting” and calls for action to help or heal this example. Whether presented live at assembly or shared as a recorded clip, the item spreads their learning beyond Year 1 and may inspire the wider school to care for Country.

Seasons Storybook – Helping and Healing Country: Students collectively author and illustrate a picture book that link the signs of the local Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander seasons to simple caring actions. Working in pairs, students choose one season indicator (buzzing bees, wattle blossom, cool fog) and create a double page spread: the left page shows the sign, the right page completes the sentence “We can help/heal Country by …”. When the pages are assembled in seasonal order and bound, the class has a storybook that can be revisited, sent home, or placed in the school library. The project turns personal observation into a shared resource, reinforces that every season brings new responsibilities, and gives Year 1 students a lasting reminder that paying attention to Country leads to concrete ways of helping and healing.

Walking Museum: The classroom and/or hallways transforms into a “Living Country” gallery: walls display the six case study posters, students’ season wheels, noticing cards, soundscapes, photos from the spotlight walks and possible Help and Heal tips. Small groups become tour guides, standing beside their section, and ready with one or two sentence explanations of the sign they noticed and the caring action it inspired. Other classes, families, or community visitors stroll through at their own pace. The Walking Museum turns students into knowledge sharers, celebrates their learning, and spreads practical ideas for caring for Country across the whole school.

Senses Soundscape – Caring for Country Audio Journey: Students become “sound detectives,” roaming the school grounds (and/or local community areas) with a tablet or recorder to capture the current seasonal clues they have learnt to notice (buzzing bees, wind, birds, rain). Back in class they use these recordings and insert whispered messages that call people to action: “Stick to walking on paths because these insects will not have a home.” The finished track could be paired with student drawings in a simple slideshow and shared with the school community.

Step 3: Planning and preparing

Work with students to draw up a simple plan for the option(s) you have chosen. Together, agree on success criteria, assign clear roles and responsibilities, and set a realistic timeline. Use questions such as:

• What do we need?

• What caring actions will we include?

• What are our steps?

• Who will do what?

Step 4: Taking action

Give students the time they need to carry out the plan. Run short mini workshops to teach any key skills (e.g., how to plant seedlings, record audio, or write sentences).

Step 5: Reflection and celebration

Bring the class together to think about both the process and the final product. You might ask:

• “Which part of this task made you feel proud?”

• “What is something new that you have learnt about Country?”

• “What is something new you have learnt to do?”

• “How does our project help or heal Country?”

• “What might Country need us to continue to do?”

If possible, invite another class or family members so students can share their work with an authentic audience.