Humanities and social sciences / Year 2 / Knowledge and Understanding / History

Curriculum content descriptions

The importance today of a historical site of cultural or spiritual significance in the local area, and why it should be preserved (ACHASSK045)

Elaborations
  • discussing why a particular site has heritage significance/cultural value for present generations (for example, it provides a record of a significant historical event, has aesthetic value, reflects the community’s identity)
  • identifying, in consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and visiting (where appropriate) local sites, places and landscapes of significance to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (for example, engraving sites, rock paintings, natural sites or features such as the Birrigai rock shelter, creeks or mountains)
  • identifying and designing a local historical tour of a building or site (for example, one related to a particular cultural group)
General capabilities
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • Intercultural understanding Intercultural understanding
ScOT terms

Historic places,  Sacred places,  Local history

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Sydney Harbour Bridge: the past in the present

This lesson plan provides five learning activities which examine the significance of the Sydney Harbour Bridge as a place for the community. Students will learn how it was built, alternate designs that were not chosen and explore the reasons behind this decision. They also identify reasons why the Sydney Harbour Bridge ...

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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 ...

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Whose Country: exploring First Nations peoples languages map (7-13yrs)

Learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages can help children build their understanding of land, water and people. This activity helps to assist the identification of the language group/s on which the school, youth group or home is situated. To understand local perspectives and support these activities, ...

Downloadable

Commemorating Anzac through engaging learning

This resource supports quality teaching and learning through specific curriculum learning opportunities to engage students, as well as enhancing whole school and community interactions and events commemorating Anzac. Part of the Bringing communities together series in response to the NSW State Anzac Centenary.

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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.

Interactive

Gold rush: level 1

Dig for gold on the Ballarat goldfields in 1865. Try your luck at alluvial or shaft mining. Buy a miner's permit, tools and enough supplies to last a month. Discover how hard life was on the goldfields. Explore a map showing the countries migrants left to join the gold rush in Australia. Find out which towns developed due ...

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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 ...

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For the Juniors: Candles, cards and carols: Christmas in 1983

How do people celebrate Christmas now? This clip shows some of the ways Christmas was celebrated in 1983. People sent cards, gave presents and sang carols. Have things changed?

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'Panorama of Challicum, No. VIII', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 15.8 cm x 24 cm showing the vast, yellowing Challicum plains with grassfires burning smokily in the distance. A flock of sheep is being watched by a shepherd and dog. The artist, Duncan Cooper, included this painting as the sixteenth watercolour in his field sketchbook and inscribed the title ...

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Chequerboard: Twinkle, twinkle, little ducks

A class of children join in a singing lesson on their first day of school in 1974. Watch and see how school has changed, and stayed the same, over time.

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Australian Disaster Resilience Knowledge Hub: Australian disasters

This is a curated collection of articles, photographs and internet links related to natural, technological and human-caused events including bushfires, cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes, shipwrecks, urban fires, chemical and industrial events in Australia. Events included have posed a serious threat to a community or property ...

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Virtual reality and the stereoscope

Do you know what virtual reality (VR) is? VR is something you can experience if you put on a VR headset. The headset lets you see and hear things that make you feel like you're in a completely different place. Perhaps you've seen people using VR headsets or even tried one out yourself. In this video, Margot shows us an ...

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What is a meat safe?

Before fridges were invented, people used meat safes to keep their food cool. But what is a meat safe? Watch this clip to find out! What was the meat safe made out of? How was it designed to keep bugs out? And how did the meat safe actually keep food cool? Think about the way we keep food cool today. How do the fridges ...

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ABC Open: A special day for Buddhists

Watch this clip to learn about a Buddhist festival called Vesak (or Buddha Purnima). It's a special day that commemorates the Lord Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death. Vesak is celebrated on the day of the full moon in May and in India it's a public holiday. How is Vesak day celebrated? Do some research and find out ...

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Lest we forget

This resource will lead students in commemorating the centenary of the First World War. Students will develop historical research skills through the investigation of the use of symbols, memorials and the Anzac spirit and their significance in Australia and across the world. The resource will support the introduction of ...

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Ironing clothes in the olden days

How do your parents get all the wrinkles out of your clothes? Do you sometimes see your parents using an iron? In the olden days there was no electricity, so the iron had to be heated up on a fire. In this video, Buckingham House volunteer Jeannie Green shows us some old-fashioned irons and explains how people used them. ...

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Boats and supplies at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, 1915

This is a sepia-toned photograph of Anzac Cove on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey taken in early June 1915. Boats and barges are moored at several temporary pontoon piers. On the shore are many soldiers, a row of guns and several barrels. The photograph measures 17.1 cm x 27.7 cm.

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'Discussing the site at Tumut', 1902

This is a black-and-white photograph, measuring 18.4 cm x 24.0 cm, taken in 1902 during a tour of inspection by senators from the Federal Parliament of possible sites for the proposed federal capital. Senators and local dignitaries are posing in groups on a hillside, ostensibly discussing the merits of a site at Tumut in ...

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'Panorama of Challicum, No. II', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 16 cm x 24.5 cm showing the Victorian squatting runs Challicum and Yalla-y-poora from a south-south-westerly viewpoint. In the midground is the yellow grassland of the Fiery Creek plains, gum trees dot the countryside and the distant bluish mountain is Mount Weejort. Two emus are shown in ...

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'Panorama of Challicum, No. VII', c1850

This is a watercolour measuring 15.7 cm x 24.4 cm, showing a mounted man herding a small group of cows past scattered native bush and trees, beneath the backdrop of the Mount Cole ranges. The artist, Duncan Cooper, included this painting as the fifteenth watercolour in his field sketchbook and inscribed the title 'Panorama ...