Lesson Focus and key question:

Bushfires
Q. What impact do bushfires
have on the environment and
people?
Learning Area / Strand
Geography
Year
Level
5
Implementation
Date
Duration
60mins
Prior knowledge of learners (What do they already know?)
Students may already know that fires are dangerous and can start up easily
Students know correct safety procedure for a fire drill at school (stop what are you are doing and
listen to instructions)
The importance of environments to animals and people, and different views on how they can be
protected (ACHGK022)
Lesson objective/s
To experience what a dangerous bushfire in Australia actually looks like and to see the damage it can
cause to the environment.
*Check with school or chaplain to find out if any students have had a past with bushfires. If yes, talk to
the student before class to ask how they feel about the class learning about bushfires. Offer the
student the option to learn with the school chaplain while the rest of the class are doing the lessons on
bushfires.
Evidence of learning
Students are given a personal journal that is collected by the teacher and will not be shared or seen by
any other students. This is to allow students to feel safe to explain their thoughts and feelings about
the topic. Students with learning impairments can share their personal thoughts confidentially with
the teacher after class or with a teacher aide.
Resources
Video (Appendix 1)
Personal journal for each student
Lesson
Introduction
Introducing
the topic
Engagement
of the
Explain that the new unit of work is going to be about bushfires.
Ask who has ever seen a bushfire? Bushfires can be extremely
dangerous for people and animals and harm the environment.
Introduce video: this clip the class is going to watch shows a real
life bushfire that was extremely dangerous and actually
happened in Victoria, Australia.
The video we will be watching was actually taken by real fight-
Teacher
notes:
*Check with
school or
chaplain first
LEP 1
learners fighters which is why the fire will look very close, but we need
to remember that fire fighters are trained to be near fire,
whereas we should be somewhere safe and nowhere near a
fire.
As we are watching I want you to think about what is
happening, How would you feel if this was somewhere where
you lived? Think about all of the animals that are losing their
homes from the bush land being on fire.* good idea to have
these questions prepared on board.
Introduce journals: I want you to think of all of this stuff
because you need to write it all down into a journal that I will be
giving you. These journals will not be read by anyone other than
me so feel free to write as much as you want about how this
makes you feel.

Make sure
you are
building the
seriousness
of the topic

Lesson Body
Delivering
the content
through
specific
strategies
Show the video: ask all students to leave the questions to the
end. *stop the video at certain parts and ask questions.
Once finished remind students that this was from the bushfires
that happened in Victoria and caused lots of devastation.
Prompt students to think about how the people would feel that
lived so close to these fires- would they be scared to have to
evacuate their house and not know if it would be there when
they come back? Think about the animals that lived in the bush
land area, if they escaped where would they live now?
Hand out journals while students are spending quiet time
thinking about the questions.
Explain that students are to write their thoughts down about
the bushfires.
Write questions on the board to help, e.g. How would you feel if
your house was one of the close houses nearby? What would
happen to the animals that come back and have their home
burnt down? Was the fire small or big? Did the fire make you
feel scared?
Explain that students are going to do this quietly on their own
and that this is a very serious activity so we need to make sure
we are not hurting anyones feeling and that we are letting our
classmates work quietly on their own.
Collect journals
Ensure
everyone can
see
Circle the
classroom
and make
sure students
are on task

Can do 3 min
pause here to
prompt
question
Make sure
students are
working
quietly and
are on task. If
students
cant think of
anything to
write give
them
prompts or
ask them to

draw what
they saw.
Lesson
Conclusion
Concluding
activities
Summarizing
the lesson
Recap: What did we look at today? Why did we watch the
video? What was it about?
Explain the seriousness of bushfires to the environment and to
people
Fires are very dangerous and serious but we need to remember
to stay calm if we are ever in any emergency situation
What do we do at school when we have a fire drill?
Ask students what is some more stuff they would like to know
about fires that a firefighter may be able to answer? (how do
we prevent fires, what do we do if we see a fire starting up,
what happens to the animals) Write these down and leave on a
wall.
Prompt
students for
answers. Do
not end the
class on a
negative
note- focus
on the safety
procedures.
Reflection:
Was my class engaged enough?
Did the students need more information about the bushfires?
Will the reflection activity be more effective if I provide students with base questions to answer?