Humanities and social sciences / Year 2 / Inquiry and skills / Communicating

Curriculum content descriptions

Present narratives, information and findings in oral, graphic and written forms using simple terms to denote the passing of time and to describe direction and location (ACHASSI043)

Elaborations
  • conveying information about the past and familiar places by representing ideas in written, spoken, pictorial or performance modes and by creating imaginative responses
  • composing reports with multimedia to share findings (for example, findings of a comparison of past and present daily life, a report on how access to and use of a place has changed over time, or recommendations on a building of significance)
  • describing a significant person from their community’s past in a short report or biography or through a fictional journal based on facts
  • using terms in speech and writing to denote the passing of time (for example, ‘in the past’, ‘years ago’, ‘the olden days’, ‘in the future’) and to describe direction and location (for example, north, south, opposite, near, far)
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Numeracy Numeracy
ScOT terms

Oral presentations,  Creating texts,  Direction (Geometry),  Sense of place,  Navigation,  Prepositions

Video

School in the 1940s

Imagine going to school in the 'olden days' (the 1940s). Find out what morning assembly looked like. Discover the things that children kept in their desks and what they used to do their writing. This clip shows you what school was like in the past as two adults (actors Terry Norris and Carmel Millhouse) remember what they ...

Text

Civics in Pictures

This site lists picture books that can be used as a springboard for discussion and activities about topics such as sustainable living, more effective learning spaces, media literacy, and positive action towards inclusion. The site hosts teaching suggestions and activity sheets for each picture book.

Interactive

How times change

This resource is a website supporting teachers and students of the Australian Curriculum: History in Year 1. Includes teacher support, curriculum connections and ready-to-use digital resources about the present, past and future and about differences between their own lives and those of people in the past.

Text

Farms have distinctive features

This resource is a 32 page pdf integrated inquiry unit, for junior primary students, exploring how the distinctive qualities of a farm space influence farming practice. This unit uses the five stage inquiry model to sequence activities. Topics explored include: how do weather patterns and seasons affect farms?; Why are ...

Text

Farms and people's connections to them

This is a teacher resource containing a sequence of activities for investigating farms and the connections that diverse groups of people have to them. It contains material to assist planning, implementing and assessing a study of different Australian farms, the primary resources that come from farms, and connections that ...

Image

Students digging trenches at Ascot State School, Brisbane, 1942

This black-and-white photograph shows schoolchildren digging air-raid trenches in the grounds of Ascot State School in Brisbane, Queensland, on 24 January 1942. Working in the slit trenches, knee deep or deeper, the male students use picks and shovels to dig and remove the earth. A man digging with them on the right is ...

Image

'The new rush', 1865

This is a coloured print, measuring 19.4 cm x 25.2 cm, by the famous colonial artist Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80), published in 'The Australian Sketchbook' in 1865. It shows a gold rush scene, probably in Victoria, with a stream of prospectors travelling along a dirt road. Several are walking beside their horses and heavily ...

Image

Panning for gold on the Mulgrave River, c1888

This is a black-and-white photograph showing five miners prospecting for alluvial gold on the banks of the Mulgrave River in Queensland. Two of the men hold shovels and stand by a sluice, two others pan for gold and the fifth rests on a wooden wheelbarrow. Several other mining implements are in evidence - a pan, pick, shovel ...

Image

Schoolboy being vaccinated against diphtheria in Brisbane, 1940

This 1940 black-and-white photograph shows a young boy, not entirely at ease, being vaccinated against diphtheria at East Brisbane State School by the City Medical Officer of Health, Dr R Weaver. A woman dressed in white stands behind the boy and steadies his outstretched left arm for the injection. Medical implements and ...

Image

Women stapling ration books, 1943

This is a sepia-toned photograph, taken in April 1943, of young women at the South Australian Government Printing Office using large machines to staple ration books.

Interactive

Environmental and Zoo Education Centres – primary school resources

A collection of digital resources for primary school teachers and students to support teaching and learning from home, with a particular focus on geography, science and history. The resources were developed by Department of Education teachers from 25 Environmental and Zoo Education Centres in NSW and include Google Sites, ...

Image

The 'Dig' tree in 1878

This is a watercolour by Arthur Esam (1850-1938), created in 1878 and measuring a modest 32.5 cm x 26.7 cm. It shows a coolibah tree with two sections of bark missing - the famous 'Dig' tree of the Burke and Wills Expedition of 1861. A man (perhaps Esam himself) is standing holding the reins of a horse, and appears to be ...

Image

Indigenous Australians defending their land, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 27.9 cm watercolour showing about 40 Indigenous Australian people attacking a rowboat carrying five colonists. Most of the warriors are on a steep, rocky headland and those close to the water have spears raised. Two appear to be picking up stones while those further up the cliff watch on. About ten Indigenous ...

Image

Air-raid shelter in Brisbane, 1942

This black-and-white photograph shows two women and two uniformed servicemen in a backyard featuring a homemade air-raid shelter during the Second World War. The two men, Private Dick of the AIF and US soldier Tom Squires, are standing in the shelter with Anthea Dyke while Doreen Smythe is jokingly pointing a hose at them. ...

Image

US soldier and air-raid shelter, Brisbane, 1942

This colour photograph taken in May 1942 shows a US army officer posing at the entrance of an underground air-raid shelter in Brisbane. The photo was taken in the grounds of Somerville House, an exclusive girls' boarding school requisitioned by the US forces in the Second World War as one of their headquarters in Brisbane. ...

Video

The Traditional Owners of Perth: Whadjuk country

Ever wondered what life was like for the traditional owners of Perth before the British arrived in 1829? Whadjuk [pronounced wod-JUK] Noongar Elder and ambassador Dr Noel Nannup talks about traditional Whadjuk ways of life and key cultural places in Perth, and he teaches us the Noongar words for some Perth suburbs (such ...

Image

Clean up Back beach Bay

This persuasive digital text is a poster advertising a community clean up day. The resource includes a teaching sequence related to the Big Six components of literacy development (oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension) with student activities, graphic organisers and worksheets, ...

Text

Move, Move, Move!

This persuasive digital text is for teachers to read aloud to students. This digital book uses persuasive language and images to highlight the benefits of being active. The resource includes a teaching sequence related to the Big Six components of literacy development (oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, ...

Interactive

The Orb

The Orb is a collection of multimedia learning resources about Tasmanian Aboriginal histories and cultures. It explores the interconnections between people, Country, culture, identity, and the living community. The multimedia resources have between three and five sections in which Tasmanian Aboriginal people share their ...

Interactive

Standing on Country

The purpose of this resources is for students in Stages 2 and/or Stage 3 to create meaningful Acknowledgements of Country collaborating with your local Aboriginal community; local Aboriginal Language group and/or Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG). The Standing on Country resource includes lessons with comprehensive ...