Contents

HASS – ‘Teacher Dress-up’ Page 3

English – ‘Fact or Opinion Paddles’ Page 4

Math – ‘Manipulable Number Line’ Page 5

Science – ‘Toy Car Friction Experiment’ Page 6

Health – ‘Food Sort’ Page 7

HASS – ‘Classroom Culture Map’ Page 8

References Page 9
 Teacher Dress-up

Year Level:
Year four
Learning Area & Topic:
Humanities and Social Sciences
First contacts
The journey(s) of at least one world navigator,
explorer or trader up to the late 18th century (e.g.
Christopher Columbus, Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand
Magellan), including their contacts and exchanges
with societies in Africa, the Americas, Asia and
Oceania, and the impact on one society
(ACHASSK084)
Figure 1: Christopher Columbus (OnThisDay, n.d.)

Explanation of the Strategy:

The teacher is to dress up as Christopher Columbus
and act as if they are the famous explorer. The
teacher would introduce themselves as “Christopher
Columbus, world famous explorer”. And begin to tell
the students key facts about Columbus’ history, and
how he discovered the Americas accidentally. This
information would include what his original intentions
were when he discovered the Americas, what date
the event occurred, and what happened afterwards.
The skit would end with the teacher saying that
Columbus now has a Memorial Day celebrated in the
Americas each year, on the same day that he
discovered them.

Follow-up Questions:
1. Who can tell me what the Americas are?
2. Can anyone remember what date I said that
Columbus discovered the Americas?
3. What was Columbus looking for originally?
4. What date is the Memorial Day made for
Columbus?
5. Does anyone know if there was anyone
already in the Americas before Columbus
discovered them, like how in Australia we
already had the indigenous Australians?

Figure 2: Christopher Columbus costume (Party City, n.d.)

2
 Fact or Opinion Paddles

Year Level:
Year four
Learning Area & Topic:
English
Language for Interaction
Understand differences between the
language of opinion and feeling and the
language of factual reporting or Figure 3: Facts and opinions (Prinzing, 2016)

recording (ACELA1489)

Explanation of the Strategy:

The teacher is to create a list of statements that are a mix of
fact and opinion that the students will be able to answer. The
list cannot be comprised of any questions that the students
would not know the validity of, such as ‘I have four brothers’.
With this example, they would not typically know how many
siblings the teacher may have. Before beginning the activity,
the teacher would remind students that “a fact is a statement
that is known and proven to be true” (“Fact”, 2019), and “an
opinion is the personal view that we hold on something”
(“Opinion”, 2019). The students are to each be given a
paddle or a double-sided piece of paper that says ‘FACT’
on one side and ‘OPINION’ on the other. After each
statement has been read aloud by the teacher, students
are to hold up their answers for the teacher to see. If any
students get it wrong, then the teacher can briefly reword it
to make the correct answer clear. E.g. “One plus one is
two. It is a proven fact that one plus one is two” or “Apples
are delicious. It is my opinion that, when I eat them, apples
taste delicious”. You would likely want to have around five
fact statements and five opinion statements or more.
Figure 4: Wood popsicle sticks (KegWorks, n.d.)
Figure 5: Fact and opinion paddle signs

Follow-up Questions:
1. What is a fact?
2. What is an opinion?
3. Where might we find facts and opinions in our lives?
4. Why is it important for us to know the difference between facts and opinions?

3
 Manipulable Number Line

Year Level:
Year four
Learning Area & Topic:
Mathematics
Fractions and Decimals
2 3
2
Count by quarters, halves and thirds, including
with mixed numerals. Locate and represent
these fractions on a number line (ACMNA078) 4
Figure 6: Clothes pegs (GoBamboo, 2018)

Explanation of the Strategy:

Figure 7: Fraction cards

The teacher is to collect three pieces of string, approximately 1.5 metres in length.
! # $ % " ! # $ % ! # $
They will also need to prepare cards reading", ", ", ", ", %, %, %, %, $, $ and $. The
teacher will ask students for three volunteers to begin with. They will select students
! # $
to come up and hand them the $, $ and $ cards. The teacher will tell the class that the
students must go and peg these places onto the appropriate spot on the number
line, using their prior knowledge of these fractions and what part of a whole they
represent. This will be repeated for the other two fraction groups; however, the
teacher will involve different students each time, allowing students to get into the
mindset of fractions, preparing them for the new content. These lines will be pinned
up to the board for the rest of the lesson to provide visual guidance and tools for
manipulation if required.

0 1 2
2 2 2

Figure 6: Clothes pegs (GoBamboo, 2018)

Figure 8: Fraction cards on a line

Follow-up Questions:
1. Do any of these equal the same amount as another that we can see?
#
2. There’s another word we can use to represent $. Does anyone know what that
word is?
#
3. There’s also another word we can use to represent ". Does anyone know
what that word is?
#
4. There’s also another word we can use to represent %. Does anyone know
what that word is?
% " $
5. What is another way that we can represent a number like % or " or $?

4
 Toy Car Friction Experiment
Year Level:
Figure 9: Toy cars (Blue Babies Store, n.d.)
Year four
Learning Area & Topic:
Science
Physical Sciences
Forces can be exerted by one object on another
through direct contact or from a
distance (ACSSU076)

Explanation of the Strategy:

The teacher is to gather some sand (and a dustpan and brush to clean it up), a
carpet square, a student’s desk, a toy car around the size of a Hot Wheels, and a
slope for the car to roll down to pick up speed. The teacher is to explain that they are
going to be performing an experiment today, and that “I’d like to see which surface
the car will travel the furthest on”. The teacher will tell the students what surfaces
the car will be travel tested on and ask for a raise of hands as to what surface the
students predict the car will travel the fastest on. The car is to roll down the slope
and onto the surface and the teacher will then state a rough estimation of how far the
car rolled. The different surfaces were chosen as they will produce very different
results, so exact measurements will not be necessary for the purpose of this
demonstration. This will be done for each of the three surfaces.

Figure 10: Car travelling down a ramp (Pearson Education, 2002)

Follow-up Questions:
1. Which surface did the car travel the furthest on?
2. Why do we think the car travelled the furthest on that surface?
3. What made the car move in the first place?
4. What do we think made the other surfaces hard to go far on?
5. Is there anything that we could change to make the car go further besides the
surface?

5
 Food Sort
Figure 11: 65 roses bar (William Dean Chocolates, 2017)

Year Level:
Year four
Learning Area & Topic:
Health and Physical Education
Being Healthy, Safe and Active
Strategies to ensure safety and wellbeing at home and at
school, such as:
• identifying and choosing healthier foods for themselves Figure 12: Gala apple (Walmart Canada, 2019)

(ACPPS036)

Explanation of the Strategy:

The teacher is to prepare picture cards of assorted foods that are
‘always foods’, ‘sometimes foods’, and ‘treats’. These will be
jumbled up and placed into a hat, bucket or something
similar. On the board, there will be three headings in the Figure 13: Fried egg soap (Wunderbath, 2019)

demonstrated colours: ‘always foods’, ‘sometimes foods’,

and ‘treats’. The teacher will select one student at a time to
come up, select a card out of the hat and stick it onto the
appropriate column, allowing them to think about what
foods are healthiest to eat and what should be had in
moderation. The teacher will give descriptive prompts to
students who are feeling unsure about where their food
should go, such as “what is it made out of?” or “do you
think it is as good as the food already in the ‘always foods’
column?”.
Figure 14: Mary washington asparagus (GrowOrganic, n.d.)

Follow-up Questions:
1. What foods tend to be the healthiest for us to
eat?... What can we see a lot of in the ‘always foods’
column?
2. What foods tend to be the least healthy for us to
eat?... What can we see a lot of in the ‘treats’
column?
3. What could we say to describe the food that we see
in the ‘sometimes foods’ column?
4. What food column fills us up the most when we eat
it?
5. How many ‘treats’ do you think it might be okay to Figure 15: McDonald’s logo (McDonald’s Australia, n.d.)

have in a day?

always foods sometimes foods treats

6
 Classroom Culture Map
Figure 16: Map pin icon (mmi9, 2016)
Year Level:
Year four
Learning Area & Topic:
Humanities and Social Sciences
Government and Society
People belong to diverse groups, such as
cultural, religious and/or social groups, and this
can shape identity (ACHASSK093)

Explanation of the Strategy:

The teacher is to pin a large world map onto the whiteboard and, using small sticky
note tabs with the students’ names pre-written onto them, ‘pin’ where all the
students’ families are originally from. The teacher may start off by ‘pinning’ their own
family’s country of origin on the board first, as a means of explaining the activity. The
teacher should then ask for students to have a think as to where their family is from
and begin to ask students one by one for their answers. If a student does not know
their family’s origin, then they will have their ‘pin’ placed in Australia. This can also
be done on the smartboard using https://mapfling.com/ as opposed to a physical
map and sticky note tabs.

Figure 17: World map with pin drops (houzz, 2019)

Follow-up Questions:
1. Besides Australia, where are most of the people in our class from?
2. Is there anyone here that wasn’t born in Australia?
3. Does anyone have a mum or dad who was born in another country?
4. Does anyone have any special activities they do because of where they come
from, such as making pasta with Nonna or celebrating a special holiday that
we don’t celebrate in Australia as much, like Hanukkah or Diwali?
5. Does anyone know any words of their culture’s language?

7
 References

Blue Babies Store. (n.d.). Toy cars. Retrieved from https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1pcs-

For-Children-Baby-Kids-Color-Randomly-7cm-Mini-Toy-Cars-Christmas-Birthday-

Gift-Car-Set/1000005946667.html

Fact. (2019). In Oxford English online dictionary. Retrieved from

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/fact

GoBamboo. (2018). Clothes pegs. Retrieved from https://ohnatural.co.nz/product/go-

bamboo-biodegradable-clothes-pegs/

GrowOrganic. (n.d.). Mary Washington asparagus. Retrieved from

https://www.groworganic.com/asparagus-mary-washington-10bdl.html

houzz. (2019). World map with pin drops. Retrieved from

https://www.houzz.com.au/product/4887172-world-map-with-pin-drops-wall-decal-

contemporary-wall-decals?irs=US

KegWorks. (n.d.). Wood popsicle sticks. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/Wood-

Popsicle-Sticks-1000-4-5-Inches/dp/B003UCFPJ6

MapFling. (2017). MapFling map marker. Retrieved from https://mapfling.com/

McDonald’s Australia. (n.d.). McDonald’s logo. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/maccas

mmi9. (2016). Map pin icon. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/vectors/map-pin-icon-map-

pin-travel-1272165/

OnThisDay. (n.d.). Christopher Columbus. Retrieved from

https://www.onthisday.com/people/christopher-columbus

Opinion. (2019). In Oxford English online dictionary. Retrieved from

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/opinion

Party City. (n.d.). Christopher Columbus costume. Retrieved from

https://www.partycity.com/adult-christopher-columbus-costume-P700869.html

8
Pearson Education. (2002). Car travelling down a ramp. Retrieved from

https://www.sciwebhop.net/sci_web/science/ks3/worksheets/word/default.asp?topic=

9K

Prinzing, M. (2016). Facts and opinions. Retrieved from

https://practicalphilosopher.prinzing.net/facts-and-opinions-are-not-contraries-

3da8d787885b?gi=819b61948bb8

School Curriculum and Standards Authority. (2014). English v.8.1. Retrieved from

https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/teaching/curriculum-browser/english-v8

School Curriculum and Standards Authority. (2014). Health and Physical Education.

Retrieved from https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/teaching/curriculum-

browser/health-and-physical-education

School Curriculum and Standards Authority. (2014). Humanities and Social Sciences.

Retrieved from https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/teaching/curriculum-

browser/humanities-and-social-sciences

School Curriculum and Standards Authority. (2014). Mathematics v.8.1. Retrieved from

https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/teaching/curriculum-browser/mathematics-

v8

School Curriculum and Standards Authority. (2014). Science v.8.1. Retrieved from

https://k10outline.scsa.wa.edu.au/home/teaching/curriculum-browser/science-v8

Walmart Canada. (2019). Gala apple. Retrieved from https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/apple-

gala/6000195494284

William Dean Chocolates. (2017). 65 roses bar. Retrieved from

https://www.williamdeanchocolates.com/product/65-roses/

Wunderbath. (2019). Fried egg soap. Retrieved from

https://www.zalora.com.my/wunderbath-fried-egg-soap-1254309.html

Please note: any figures not referenced have been created digitally by myself and are my

own work.