Humanities and social sciences / Year 3 / Knowledge and Understanding / Geography

View on Australian Curriculum website Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority
Curriculum content descriptions

The representation of Australia as states and territories and as Countries/Places of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples; and major places in Australia, both natural and human (ACHASSK066)

Elaborations
  • using geographical tools (for example, a globe, wall map or digital application such as Google Earth) to locate and name significant places such as the states, territories, major cities and regional centres in Australia
  • identifying and describing the major natural features of Australia (for example, rivers, deserts, rainforests, the Great Dividing Range, the Great Barrier Reef and islands of the Torres Strait) and describing them with annotations on a map
  • comparing the boundaries of Aboriginal Countries with the surveyed boundaries between Australian states and territories to gain an appreciation about the different ways Australia can be represented
  • describing how the territory of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples contains the Country/Places of many individuals and language groups
  • exploring how oral traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples were used to map landscapes
General capabilities
  • Numeracy Numeracy
Cross-curriculum priorities
ScOT terms

Cultural identity,  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples,  Australian languages

Video

Say hello in Dharug

Watch this video to learn how to greet someone in the Dharug language, spoken by the Indigenous people of the Sydney Basin area. How do you say 'hello, how are you?' in Dharug? And what are the words for good and bad? Practise these phrases with Jacinta Tobin and then teach them to a friend or family member.

Online

GeogSpace: year 3 - exemplar

This is a web page consisting of an overview and two illustrations of practice on the GeogSpace website, a resource for teachers. The illustrations develop the concept of place into a more complex idea with subtleties of function, and contrasts in settlements between different places. Illustration 1 develops students' knowledge ...

Online

The world of Mickey of Ulladulla

This series of learning activities is based on a past State Library of NSW exhibition, Mari Nawi: Aboriginal Odysseys containing links to video content and collection items including artworks by Mickey of Ulladulla, letters, journals and official documents. Activity 1, explores how life for the Aboriginal people changed ...

Interactive

Waters of Kamay

This learning sequence explores the salt and fresh waters of Kamay Botany Bay, its importance as a life source and the cultural connection it has to the Aboriginal people living at Kamay. Water is essential for life. It nourishes our bodies, our lands and supports all life on earth. It is home to wondrous and significant ...

Online

Narragunnawali: Reconciliation in Schools and Early Learning

The Narragunnawali website is a portal of rich content and professional resources for teachers and students in schools and early learning centres that promotes reconcilation between the wider Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The website includes curriculum- aligned resources and professional ...

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 ...

Video

Counted: Australian culture in the 1960s

What was Australia like in the 1960s? Why does reporter Stan Grant say that "change is coming" at this time, for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people? Choose one of the people mentioned in this video and do some research into their sporting, artistic or political achievements.

Interactive

Botany of Kamay

This resource explores the plants of Kamay Botany Bay – their significance to the Aboriginal people of Kamay, and to the botanists on the Endeavour in 1770. This resource is one part of the 'Endeavour – eight days in Kamay' resource.

Interactive

The importance of protecting local Indigenous heritage

Students research the history of The Hills Shire Darug tribe in the importance of Indigenous sites in the area and Indigenous names associated with the North West region of Sydney. Students gain an understanding of local Indigenous groups’ connection to North West region communities through individual Indigenous inspired ...

Interactive

Who lived here first and how do we know?

In this lesson students explore the importance of country and place to Aboriginal people, with a focus on the Darug proper of the North West Sydney region. Students examine a range of evidence about the Darug to help answer the questions ‘Who lived here first?’ and ‘How do we know?’.

Text

Indigenous science: Australia had ancient trade routes too

This is an article about the ancient overland trade routes of Aboriginal Australia. Written by Kudjala/Kalkadoon Elder from Queensland Letitia Murgha and intended mainly for teachers, it compares Aboriginal trading routes based on Dreaming pathways and songlines throughout Australia to the Silk Road and the spice trade ...

Text

Activity guide for RAP (reconciliation action plan) partners

This is a four-page PDF Activity guide for RAP partners that provides a range of ideas for participating in National Reconciliation Week. It provides an overview of the importance of reconciliation and recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, definitions and examples of both Welcome to Country and Acknowledgement ...

Video

Outback House: Aboriginal bush foods

Imagine leaving your home and travelling back over 150 years to live and work on an outback farm. Sixteen Australians take part in a reality TV show about life on Oxley Downs, a sheep station built to look and work like an 1860s station. Witness the excitement as two visitors from the local Wiradjuri nation arrive at the ...

Text

Five fast facts - NAIDOC week

This is an information sheet that introduces five fast facts relating to the National Aborigines and Islanders day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) week, an annual celebration of the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Tracing back to the Aboriginal rights movement of 1938, NAIDOC ...

Video

Farms and people’s connections to them: producer video

This is a video about the operation of the Outback Pride project and the value of the Australian native food produced in conjunction with Aboriginal peoples. To a visual background of the nursery at Reedy Creek in South Australia and some of 25 Aboriginal communities involved in the project in SA and Northern Territory, ...

Interactive

Sites2See: The Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples

This resource links to video coverage and key websites related to the apology to Indigenous Australians by the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 13 February 2008. Selected sites provide background information to the apology and personal stories about what happened to members of the Stolen Generations, with a focus on reconciliation.

Interactive

First contacts

In this lesson students explore what life was like for Aboriginal people before the arrival of Europeans, with a focus on the Sydney region. Students investigate what the natural environment was like and how Aboriginal people made use of the resources around them, managing them sustainably.

Interactive

Endeavour – eight days in Kamay

This learning and teaching resource provides a range of viewpoints and works to challenge current perceptions of the arrival of Captain James Cook and the HMB Endeavour at Kamay Botany Bay in 1770. It is an inclusive resource, placing value on the Aboriginal perspective to "balance the history books" by looking both from ...

Interactive

WeCommemorate

WeCommemorate is a series of challenges for teachers to use with students to commemorate Australia's involvement in the First World War. These project-based challenges have been designed to engage students from Early Stage 1 to Stage 5 in the production of creative multimedia works and to develop 21st century learning skills. ...

Interactive

Indigenous weather knowledge

An interactive map of traditional weather and climate knowledge that has been developed and passed down through countless generations by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The site provides descriptions of the sixteen seasonal calendars used by First Nations peoples across Australia.