Year: Prep

Unit Overview

Australian Curriculum Learning Areas:

History

Unit Title
Yours, Mine & Ours

Duration
5 weeks

Unit Outline

The Foundation curriculum provides students with the study of personal and family histories.
It allows students to learn about their own family and the history that entails. This unit will
allow students in the Foundation year level to explore and engage in lessons that are
structured around the Historical Knowledge and understanding of their own families as well as
being given the opportunity to explore other diverse families in the class. Students will then
become participants in their own history, and build on their knowledge and understanding of
how the past is different from the present.
Key Inquiry Question/s

A framework for developing students historical knowledge, understanding and

skills is provided by inquiry questions. The key inquiry questions at this year
level are:
What is my history and how do I know?
What stories do other people tell about the past?
How can stories of the past be told and shared?
Student prior knowledge:
Students will have a basic understanding of the concept of families.
Identify Curriculum: Strands and Content descriptors to be taught.

Historical
Knowledge and
Understanding
Personal and
family histories

Who the people in

their family are,
where they were
born and raised and
how they are
related to each
other (ACHHK001)
The different
structures of
families and family
groups today, and
what they have in
common
(ACHHK002)

Historical Skills
Chronology,
terms and
concepts

Sequence familiar
objects and events
(ACHHS015)

How the stories of

families and the
past can be
communicated, for
example through
photographs,
artefacts, books,
oral histories, digital
media, and
museums
(ACHHK004)

Year Level Description

Personal and Family Histories

The Foundation curriculum provides a study of personal and family histories.
Students learn about their own history and that of their family; this may include
stories from different cultures and other parts of the world. As participants in
their own history, students build on their knowledge and understanding of how
the past is different from the present.
The content provides opportunities to develop historical understanding through
key concepts including continuity and change, cause and effect,
perspectives, empathy and significance. These concepts may be
investigated within a particular historical context to facilitate an understanding
of the past and to provide a focus for historical inquiries.
The history content at this year level involves two strands: Historical
Knowledge and Understanding and Historical Skills. These strands are
interrelated and should be taught in an integrated way; they may be integrated
across learning areas and in ways that are appropriate to specific local
contexts. The order and detail in which they are taught are programming
decisions.
Links to other learning areas

Literacy connections:
Who the people in their family are, where they were born and raised and how
they are related to each other (ACHHK001)
Comprehending texts through listening, reading and viewing
Comprehend texts

Listen and respond to learning area texts

Interpret and analyse learning area texts
The different structures of families and family groups today, and what they
have in common (ACHHK002)
Composing texts through speaking, writing and creating
Compose texts
Use language to interact with others
Word Knowledge
Understand learning area vocabulary

Numeracy Connections:

Compare and order the duration of events using the everyday

language of time

Sequencing familiar events in time order

Year Level Achievement Standard

By the end of the Foundation year, students identify similarities and differences
between families. They recognise how important family events are
commemorated.
Students sequence familiar events in order. They pose questions about their
past. Students relate a story about their past using a range of texts.

Learning Sequence: Model of Inquiry

Learning experiences:
Tune-in

Explore

Explore

Look

In the Tune In lesson students are introduced to the

new unit of work Families who is in your family
and where do they come from, a song and ICT clip
along with a story book is used in the Tune In lesson
to help support and introduce the Unit to the
students. Once the Orientating Phase is complete
students are then given the opportunity to explore
the teachers family make up. Using an array of
photos looking at the family members in the
teachers pictures, before moving into their own.
Generations a group discussion about families and
who we might find in our families.
At the end of this lesson parent communication letter
are sent home, to set up future lesson, requesting a
family photo from home as well as a question sheet
needing to be filled out.

Teaching Approaches
and Resources
Instructional
Learning
Enquiry based
learning.
Scaffolded
questions.

Book.
ICT clip and song.
Teachers family
picture.

In the first Explore stage of the unit students will

recap the Tune In lesson, before moving forward.
Create a Family word wall. Teacher will write and spell
on the board the different family words. E.g. Mum,
Dad, Brother, Sister ect. Explain to students that
there are many different kinds of families. Have them
brainstorm all of the different types of families that
they can think of. Once this is complete each student
is to get a piece of paper and write down the family
words that are in their family along the bottom of
their paper. Once check, they can transition to their
desks and begin to draw each family member.

In the second explore lesson students will come

together and learn about different cultures and ways
of life. Students will be required to ask different
speakers from different backgrounds and families,
specific questions about their lives and families. The
goal of this lesson is for students to understand the
differences between the speakers lives and families.
In the first Look lesson students reflect on the
previous lesson on Family Day. Students alongside
with the teacher look at each concept map and
compare them against one other. Students are able to
gain an understanding of how each family is different
through family history, stories, photos and artefacts
and the component of comparison.

Scaffolded
questions.
Concept map.

Family tree.
Family words on
apples.
Paper.
Pencil.
Colours pencils.

Instructional
learning
Inquiry based
learning
Journalist
questions
Instructional
learning
Inquiry based
learning

Look

Sort

Sort

Test

The second Look lesson provides students with the

opportunity to visually recognize and establish their
peers families through the family wall. This gives
students the ability to easily make connections from
the pictures and real life, as well as make
comparisons between their own families. The Think,
Pair, Share activity reinforces making comparisons,
but it allows students to vocalize themselves and
their similarities or differences with peers. In this
lesson, students identify different families. They
realize that all families are different, in looks, size,
age and many other aspects. However, students also
make connections between each other and establish
that some families may also have commonalities.
In the second sort lesson students are required to
understand the meaning of artefacts and add it to the
word wall. Students will be required to understand
the concept and describe it in small groups. Students
will at the completion of the lesson write a sentence
to describe their artefact.

Instructional
learning
Inquiry based
learning

Students family
photos
Drawings
Family wall poster
Blu tack, scissors,
glue

Instructional
learning
Scaffolding

Artefacts
Paper
Pencils

The second Sort lesson is the lesson that ties all the
information together. This is the final lesson where
students discover and explore the content knowledge
in this unit. In this lesson students engage in many
different learning areas; ICT, numeracy and literacy.
The activities offered build on the skills students
would be using in other learning area lessons, such
as; comprehending texts, understanding number.
Students experience a range of learning strategies in
this lesson through the use of rotations, for example,
students explore different cultures, listen to a song
using an Ipad and make meaning of the text,
sequence their families using visual cues and listen to
a book about families and make connections to their
own lives.

The test lesson provides students with a scaffold of

how a family tree is structured. In this lesson students
learn about three generations and where to place
them on a family tree (testing their knowledge of who
goes where on a family tree). Students also learn
where extend families such as stepparents and
siblings would be placed on the tree. By the end of
this lesson students should be able to designate

Instructional
learning
Inquiry based
learning
Scaffolded
questions

Laptop/iPad
ICT clip and song.
Family word
examples
Pencil and paper.
Picture books
Packs x 8
Family Cards
Instruction Cards

Instructional
learning
Inquiry based
learning

where each generation is on the tree and where each

family member is situated.

Act

In the Act lesson, students will revise the template

used in the Test lesson to scaffold them through their
assessment piece done in this lesson. Students will
then be given the resources they need to develop
their family trees for their assessment.

Reflect

At the start of the reflect lesson students will perform

the Family Song they have been learning throughout
this unit to the other Prep class. They will then reflect
on the assessment piece they developed in the
lesson prior. Presenting each of their family trees to
the class, explaining who is in their family and some
facts about each of these people.

Assessment
Assessment
of learning

Presentation of Family Tree

Assessment
for learning

Think, pair, share

Assessment
as learning

Creating Family Tree

Inquiry based
learning
Scaffolded
questions
Reflecting

A3 sheet of paper
Green paper leaves
Stick (tree trunk)
Glue
Coloured Pencils
Student-centred
learning
Scaffolded
questions
Family Song
Students Family
Trees