Captain Cook - A Brief History Of Australia

Did you see my introductory post on our Brief History Of Australia Unit? If not you might want to go visit that one first.

We've moved forward a considerable amount of time and are now looking at Captain Cook.

Please note, this is not an exhaustive covering of Australian History, there will be many things left out. This is deliberate for a few reasons.

Firstly I have prepared this to work with our micro school and needed to fit in with our term blocks. Secondly, I wanted to use picture books and therefore most of what I chose has been based on the books I was able to access. Finally, this is purely just an introduction into the history of our nation, these kids have plenty of years ahead of them where they will spend time delving deeper.

Of course you could use these ideas simply as a jumping off point, there is no need to have to finish each topic with a single one hour lesson block.

Captain Cook is such an easy topic when it comes to book choices, there really a good number of picture books out there, for varying age levels. The one I chose is a longer more in depth look at the man himself.

Whilst I read the kids water coloured their timeline page of Captain Cook. You can download this for free via the link at the bottom of this post.

After watching a brief you tube clip we headed off to complete the corresponding art activity I had planned - mapping Cook's expedition to Australia.

I had outlined a map each for them onto brown paper, simply because I knew our time was limited. We wanted the maps to have an aged feel and everyone certainly enjoyed scrunching the maps up to give them that.

They set about adding water colours to their maps. During the drying time we briefly looked at the Compass Rose, discussed compass points and made our own simple one to place onto our map.

Once they were dry we added, first in pencil, the route Captain Cook took on his voyage to Australia. These turned out fabulously well. The kids were all very proud of their maps.

Once again, after all of our discussions were complete each child coloured and added some notes inside their mini Captain Cook booklet, in preparation to add to their lapbook.

Would you like a copy of the A4 Timeline Colouring Page for Captain Cook? Please use this link to download one for your personal use.

Other posts in the Brief History Of Australia Series

• The First Australians

Happy Homeschooling
Kylie

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Looking for more captain Cook related activities?
Have a look at my Australian History Themed Board on Pinterest.

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The First Australians - A Brief History Of Australia

If you've been a reader for a while now you already know that we participate in a small home based micro school or co-op with three other families.

I have been writing down some details to share with you all about how these days work and how simple it is for you to have a go at getting one off the ground. I hope to have that post to share with you soon.

One of the subjects we decided to focus on this year was that of Australian History. We have our kids break into two groups, a lower high school aged group and a primary aged group. I chose to work with the primary kids for this topic.

I really wanted this introduction to Australian History to be as fun and as interactive as possible, so rather than trudge through various texts or long narratives I chose to put together A Brief History Of Australia, using picture books, crafts, You Tube videos and lapbooking activities.

The first topic we covered was the always fun and interesting First Australians. I only have one hour to cover everything that I want to, so it is quite a fast paced block of time, but that generally keeps all interested as we are always changing gears.

I had booked earlier in the year a group visit to the always fabulous Ngutana Lui, preparing for the fact that we would be covering this topic. I had no idea that when I made the booking it would coincide with the exact same week we did this mini study. Don't you just love when things work out like that!

For each brief history lesson I wanted to try and follow a similar predictable pattern, each topic will be based around a picture book. Some of them were tricky to find and if there were any issues all of the topics are covered in The Australia Book, so really you could get by without any of the picture books at all.

There are so many children's books available about our First Australians that I thought it would be a really simple exercise to choose which book would be our focus.

It was not!

I really wanted the story to show the traditional way of life and not just focus on dreamtime stories or a particular topic. In the end I decided on You and Me, Murrawee. It is a lovely story and does cover some way of life elements.

Whilst I read the children water coloured an A4 timeline colouring page. They will continue to add to these with each lesson to create a quick glimpse full colour (brief) timeline of Australian History.

I'm sharing this download with you, via a link at the end of this post.

We spent time chatting about how early Australians lived in comparison to our current day way of life.

From there it was time to get our hands dirty with some dot painting. I encouraged everyone to first watch an artist at work to view their technique and the things they included in their pieces.

Whilst we painted we listened to and watched a few animated Dreamtime stories.

My kids are not first timers to the dot painting technique. Not only did they complete some lovely art during their visit to Ngutana Lui but they've also explored dot painting during art lessons, like this one here and this particular post, which is still one of my most visited blog posts.

During the last few minutes of our lesson we recapped all that we had learned by completing the first mini book in the series. I gave the kids total autonomy as to what they added in terms of written details inside their booklet. I wanted them to record things that were important to them.

We will continue adding to the mini books with each history lesson and will compile them into a lapbook at the end of our unit.

To download the First Australians Colouring Timeline Page please visit this link.

Be sure to keep an eye out for future posts in this Brief History Of Australia series.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

Come on over and join me at

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Looking for more Aboriginal related activities?
Have a look at my Aboriginal Themed Board on Pinterest.

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Australian History with SKWIRK

During the lead up to ANZAC Day we spent the week exploring the topic further.

I also had the kids jump on to Skwirk and work their way through the appropriate levels for each of them that covered Australian History, looking in particular at the ANZAC topic.

I have children in three different levels of the Skwirk program so I thought I would give you a glimpse inside each of them and how they cover Australian History via screen shots from within the Skwirk program.

**As you all know our family have been given a subscription to Skwirk to be able to give you a peek inside. All opinions expressed from here on in are those of my kids and myself.**

My eldest is currently in the Grade 7/8 Level. 

At this level in the Australian Curriculum, history is mostly world history, but it does contain a full unit on ANZAC day, exactly what we were looking for.

Within each chapter there are reading passages, various images, animations and short video clips.

Each chapter begins with a reading passage.

This is just one of the many images that can be found within the ANZAC Unit.

Several short video clips, are included. This particular one gives you a glimpse inside the trenches. (excuse the quality of the videos, they are taken with my iphone)

Animations are also included within the unit, again a brief view of the conditions in the trenches.

If you like to give your children tests they are also included here.

My middle child is using the Grades 3/4 Level

Skwirk is completely curriculum aligned and in this level Australian History has a focus on Exploration and Communities.

Here you can see the topics covered within the units of work.

This is the next level up from the K - 2nd, which primarily uses animated content for young children. At the 3/4 level it is similar to the upper levels with reading passages such as the one seen here.

Whilst they are shorter and more simple in nature when compared to the 7/8 level I would personally still like to see this level supplemented with animations and many more videos for the children of this age group to watch.

I feel this is the trickiest level when it comes to readers, most kids by this age are reading at some level or another, but whether they want to be reading often remains to be seen. 

If there was a way they could still access all of the information but in a video format I think this would make a big difference to this particular level of the program. At least I know it would in our house.

Once again, there are several images all related to the content for the children to view.

Find A Words seem to be the go to game for this particular unit of work. My daughter really enjoys these at the moment so they are a nice bonus.

In some of the units there are also animated activities.

Whilst there are no exams at this level, most of the topics within this unit have worksheets that can be printed. Each worksheet shows the appropriate codes required for outcomes.

My youngest is currently in the K to 2nd Level

Here, as it does with the Australian Curriculum, history has a focus on the family, the child and exploring what history actually is.

The topics for the younger years are primarily animated video concepts, which are relatively engaging for the child to watch.

They generally always have a short game at the end of each video and the information presented is also included in the unit in written form as a read aloud option.

Whilst Skwirk is not our primary resource, I do really like knowing that I always have a curriculum linked product, that is quick and simple to use when we want to supplement what we are currently working on.

Would You Like A Half Price Skwirk Subscription?

Skwirk have very kindly offered all of you 50% Off a 12 month subscription, simply by using the code - worldwide - on sign up.

This code is only valid until April 30th though so you need to be quick!

Jump over to Skwirk and register now.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

Disclosure: Our family has been given a subscription to the Skwirk Website in return for my reviews. All opinions regarding Skwirk are mine (and my children's).

ANZAC Day 2015 Picture Diary

We spent some time each day this week on the importance of ANZAC Day and remembering the sacrifices made by others.

I've put together what we covered this week in pictures.

Our picture book collection grows each and every year. We were particularly moved by The Red Poppy this year.

We completed our WW1 Coin collection that was put out and distributed through our local newsagent.


This 45 minute mini documentary retraces some of the steps from the landing in ANZAC Cove and the battles that followed in the hills. Very informative, we all learned a great deal from this one.

My eldest has been reading My Fathers War.


We watched several you tube clips.

During read alouds we painted our own version of a field of poppy's.

The kids purchased a badge each to wear during the march.


This is a Scottish clip, but still explains the story of the Poppy quite well.

Made ANZAC Biscuits.

We received a great pack put out by Veteran Affairs and spent some time looking through some of what it included.

The ABC interactive Gallipoli website is a wealth of information and we watched several of the clips on this site.




This song, The Little Red Poppy, was actually on a disc in the back of the book, The Red Poppy. It is very beautiful and extremely moving.

We visited our national War Memorial a couple of years ago and we spent some time looking back over the photographs and talking in detail about the various exhibits on display there.

Utilised our Skwirk subscription to extend the learning further.

Attended our local ANZAC March to cheer on the diggers and other participants, including my son, who marched with his Cadets Troop.


Shed many a tear as we imagined what an absolutely horrible experience it must of been.

 I do feel it is important we continue to remember, without glorifying war. Our younger generations need to know these stories, the complete stories, and so we will continue delving deeper into the ANZAC legend with each coming year.

Lest We Forget

More ANZAC themed posts:

• The Big List of ANZAC Day Ideas

• ANZAC Picture Books

• Printable ANZAC Unit for Young Learners

Looking for more ANZAC Day Ideas? 

Visit my Pinterest Board:

Follow Kylie @ Our Worldwide Classroom's board ANZAC (Australian) Day on Pinterest.


Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

The Big List Of ANZAC Day Ideas

ANZAC Day is around the corner. I have been searching the web to gather as many resources as I can for us to help our kids understand what ANZAC Day is all about. I hope the resources listed below help you as much as they have me.

ANZAC KIDS - has a gamut of games and interactive activities all for children.

ANZAC Day.org is an introduction to ANZAC Day for early childhood.

Why Are They Marching Daddy? Is a book we use over and over again here in our home.

ANZAC Websites has a huge amount of ideas and activities over in the classroom area of their website.

Suzie's Home Education Ideas shares ten ways to help children understand ANZAC Day

 The Australians At War website offers a 30 page printable document for primary aged children. This includes a teachers guide, outcomes and worksheets. They also provide documents for secondary students, war games and more.

The Book Chook has shared a collection of ANZAC Day books

K-3 Teacher Resources has a set of ANZAC themed printable words and offers ideas on various ways to use them.

For Teachers For Students has a great deal of information pertaining to the centenary, including printable pdf files.

RIC Publications has a free download available over at Teachers Pay Teachers, the pack contains a craft, writing prompts and other related activities.

 The Learning Curve has this very cool Slouch Hat craft with template available over on her blog.

Art Room With A View shares their Fields of Poppies art piece.

 I shared a glimpse inside a handful of ANZAC picture books here.

You can download my Free Printable ANZAC Day unit for young learners here.

ANZAC LIVE - have you heard of this site? It is brand new this year and sounds like a great idea. Follow the real people as they journey through the ANZAC experience. You have to check this one out.

I think I could continue sharing links and websites for some time. Once you start looking there is a wealth of information out there. I do hope some of what I have gathered though is useful to you over the weeks leading up to ANZAC Day. I have also included my pinterest board below where I have many more ANZAC activities.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

Follow Kylie @ Our Worldwide Classroom's board ANZAC (Australian) Day on Pinterest.