Lesson Plan: Year 1

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Inquiry Concept: Continuity and change, cause and effect, significance,
perspectives, empathy.


Unit Rationale

Foundation to Year 2 students learn about the heritage of their community. This Unit of
work responds to the Australian Curriculum: History, and utilises the ACT Museums and Galleries (ACT M&G) website and the ACT Historic Places (ACT HP); Mugga-Mugga, Calthorpes’ House and Lanyon, as case studies to focus on oral history and artefacts. The outreach resources include online lesson plans for Foundation to Year 2 students that can be downloaded from the ACT M&G website, as well as Artefact Chat boxes containing touch-and-handle items. The Unit can also involve a visit to an ACT HP house museum.


Focus Questions:

How has family life changed or remained the same over time?

How can we show that the present is different from or similar to the past?

How do we describe the sequence of time?


Elements of Achievement Standards addressed through this unit

By the end of Year 1, students explain how some aspects of daily life have changed over recent time while others have remained the same. They describe personal and family events that have significance. Students sequence events in order, using everyday terms about the passing of time. They pose questions about the past and examine sources (physical and visual) to suggest answers to these questions. Students relate stories about life in the past, using a range of texts.


Australian Curriculum: History descriptions contained in this unit


Historical Knowledge and Understanding

Historical Skills


Present and Past Family Life

Differences in family structures and roles
today, and how these have changed or remained the same over time (ACHHK028)

  • Literacy
  • Intercultural understanding
  • Personal and social capability
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures

How the present, past and future are
signified by terms indicating time such as
and seasons (ACHHK029)

  • Literacy
  • Intercultural understanding
  • Personal and social capability
  • Numeracy
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
  • Asia and Australia´s engagement with Asia




  • Literacy
  • Personal and social capability
  • Critical and creative thinking


Chronology, terms and concepts

Sequence familiar objects and events (ACHHS031)

  • Literacy
  • Personal and social capability
  • Numeracy

Distinguish between the past, present and future (ACHHS032)

  • Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • Numeracy


Historical questions and research

Pose questions about the past using sources provided (ACHHS033)

  • Literacy
  • Personal and social capability
  • Critical and creative thinking


Analysis and use of sources

Explore a range of sources about the past (ACHHS034)

  • Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking

Identify and compare features of objects from the past and present (ACHHS035)

  • Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking


Perspectives and interpretations

Explore a point of view (ACHHS036)

  • Literacy
  • Personal and social capability
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • Numeracy


Explanation and communication

Develop a narrative about the past (ACHHS037)

Use a range of communication forms (oral, graphic, written, role play) and digital technologies (ACHHS038)


Other Key Learning areas


Learning Area

Relevant Content Description



Understand that there are different ways of asking for information, making offers and giving commands (ACELA1446)



Identify the parts of a simple sentence that represent ‘What’s happening?’, ‘Who or what is involved?’ and the surrounding circumstances (ACELA1451)




Recognise and know how to use morphemes in word families for example ‘play’ in ‘played’ and ‘playing’ (ACELA1455)


Express preferences for specific texts and authors and listen to the opinions of others (ACELT1583)





Use interaction skills including turn-taking, recognising the contributions of others, speaking clearly and using appropriate volume and pace (ACELY1788)







Choose simple questions and gather responses (ACMSP262)



Observable changes occur in the sky and landscape (ACSSU019)



Respond to and pose questions, and make predictions about familiar objects and events (ACSIS024)


Use a range of methods to sort information, including drawings and provided tables (ACSIS027)

Through discussion, compare observations with predictions (ACSIS212)


Compare observations with those of others (ACSIS213)

Represent and communicate observations and ideas in a variety of ways such as oral and written language, drawing and role play (ACSIS029)


Unit Format

The following Unit lesson sequence is informed by the Learning by Design planning framework. It has been developed so that activity sequences A – F are ideally delivered sequentially to provide a rich opportunity to engage students through a range of learning styles, and so that they are able to demonstrate new learning and skills in a variety of ways. The Learning by Design planning framework moves through the following categories;


  1. Engaging the learner,
  2. What is the big understanding?,
  3. Why is this learning significant?, and,
  4. Applying the learning.


The format revisits some categories in order to review and reinforce some skills. ACT M&G are grateful to Bonython Primary School staff, and the ACT Education Directorate, for their invaluable support and guidance in developing this Unit.


Unit lesson sequence


Activity learning sequence A: Engaging the Learner


Purpose: Introduce the concepts of artefacts, and oral history through prior knowledge and experience, personal interests and the familiar. The learning activities also allow students to make connections to self and to other texts, and can expose them to guest speakers, presentations, etc, and offers opportunities to respond in open-ended ways.

Students can make a personal connection to stories people tell through prior knowledge and experience by sharing a personal experience. For example; they could recall a time when their parents or grandparents shared a story about their past or childhood. Secondly, students can make a personal connection to the idea that objects prompt stories about the past by, for example, talking about a souvenir they bought on holiday; what was the souvenir?, how does it remind them of the place they visited?, and why did they buy that particular souvenir?

Read the storybook You and Me: Our Place, written by Leonie Norrington, and illustrated by Dee Huxley, 2009. Ask the students to respond to the story; what did they enjoy, learn, not like about the story, what is the same or different to their experience in their community.

Introduce the concept of an oral history: people’s recollections of the past, which can be recorded through an audio or video interview. Many cultures around the world have a strong oral history tradition including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The class could review the illustrations in the story book You and Me: Our Place, to find the event in the story when Uncle Tobias is recalling the past. Working in pairs, students could imagine they are the two children in the story and develop some questions for Uncle Tobias, for example; where did he get his basket from?, who taught him how to fish using the lure and the net?, what is his favourite seafood to eat?, which is his favourite song by Slim Dusty?, what does he think about when he is sitting on the beach on his own?, etc. Review with the students that Uncle Tobias’ spoken answers to these questions would be a form of oral history.

Introduce the concept of an artefact. An artefact is something made or shaped by humans for their use, such as a stone tool, a metal sword, a plastic toy, a souvenir, or a building. Examples of artefacts in the natural environment include rock carvings and paintings, as well as botanical specimens that show evidence of modification by people, for example, activity of Ngunnawal people in the landscape such as the scarred trees at Lanyon, about which information can be found in the Lanyon Museum Guide, page 6. The Canberra City of Trees Education Resource also provides information about significant trees in Australian Capital Territory.

Review the illustrations in the storybook You and Me: Our Place and identify a range of human made and natural things. For example; Uncle Tobias’ bicycle, his basket, fishing spear, fishing line, prawn net, and his guitar are all made by humans so they are artefacts. By comparison, the pet dog, stingray, turtle, dolphin, jelly fish, prawns, rain, mangrove worms, fruit bats are not artefacts because they have not been made by humans. Students could label a copy of each illustration with the following terms; person, artefact, sky, egg, sea shell, etc.

Talk about how families are made up of multiple generations, for example, in the story book You and Me: Our Place, an illustration shows Uncle Tobias telling stories about the olden days to family members of at least two generations. Work out which class member has the most consecutive generations still living. Do any of the students have an artefact in their family that has been passed from generation to generation? Discuss for which family member the artefact is important, why the family have decided to keep it for so long, and what it can tell us about life in the past. Artefacts are often unique and can be difficult to preserve, and students could ask a family member about the positives, minuses and interesting aspects of their artefact. Artefacts are also described as having significance, for example; it can be one-of-a-kind, handmade, owned by a particular family member, etc, and they are often treated differently to objects used every day. Significant artefacts are often no longer used the way they were intended in order to preserve them. An artefact that is more than 100 years old can also be called an antique or an heirloom.

An alternative story book to You and Me: Our Place, is Crocodile Story told by Eva and Pat Pootchemunka, illustrated by Garry Namponan. This story is translated from Wik-Mungkan by Koppa Yunkaporta, and is told both in the first person by Eva, as well as in the past tense by her sister Pat. This written oral history, set in Australia’s Cape York Peninsula in the 1940s, describes the event of when a young mother and her baby, fishing in a bark canoe near Aurukun, were taken by a crocodile. The bravery of her father-in-law meant that they both lived to tell the story. The concept of personal history is demonstrated through the format of this book, and similar types of activities as those listed above can be used to engage students in the concepts of oral history and artefacts.


How has family life changed or remained the same over time?

With teacher guidance, access a virtual tour of either Mugga-Mugga and/or Calthorpes’ House to view room interiors and artefacts displayed in order to learn about the families who lived in each home. Whilst viewing a virtual tour, use the terms ‘long ago’, ‘in the past’, ‘olden days’, etc, to talk about what the students are seeing. Also, to assist teachers to understand how family life has changed or remained the same over time, the Calthorpes’ House Museum Guide, pages 17-19, provides a summary of ‘The Calthorpe family as seen through the artefacts’. Use the green [+] symbols, to find out more about an artefact. Where available, select the [AC] symbol to hear an oral history interview about the artefact. Please note; the virtual tour is not Mac compatible, follow the link directly to the Oral History Recordings page. After viewing the interior of Calthorpes’ House, students could talk about the differences in family roles today, and how these have changed or remained the same over time. The Calthorpes’ House Museum Guide, page 23, provides a brief summary, titled ‘Housework and domestic help’, that can assist teachers to lead this discussion.

With teacher guidance, access the Mugga Mugga breezeway virtual tour and select the green [+] symbol near the canvas waterbag hanging on the whitewashed timber slab wall. The canvas waterbag is not a collection item that belonged to the Curley family. Select the [AC] icon to hear an oral history recording of Miss Sylvia Curley talking about the waterbags and meat safe hanging on the veranda. Please note; the virtual tour is not Mac compatible, follow the link to the canvas waterbag audio. After hearing the recording and looking at the waterbag, students could list the ways families obtain water in their homes today, and imagine ways families might obtain water in the future.


How can we show that the present is different from, or similar to, the past?

To explore how the present is different from, or similar to the past, and to gain an insight into intercultural understanding, explore a variety of points of view about games children played in the past by accessing the short film found online at the British Library, Playground Games; Kids’ Zone. After listening to the description of games such as conkers and marbles, access other archival footage of children playing games in Britain in the past, for example footage made in 1957 of children playing The big ship sailed’. Talk about the differences in clothing, hairstyles, buildings, and play areas of children living in Britain more than 50 years ago.

With teacher guidance, access the Calthorpes’ House virtual tour of Dawn’s bedroom, select the green [+] symbol at the blue student’s study desk and bench to access the image of items displayed on the desk and look closely at the toys Dawn played with. Talk with the students about why they think the house, and collection items such as the toys, books and school equipment has been kept as a museum. Note the description of the artefacts includes: cards of famous movie stars with a specific selection featuring Shirley Temple. Access the British Library online resource to hear children singing the words to, and talking about playing a game called Shirley Temple in 1976. The class could find out who Shirley Temple was and compare that child star to favoured child stars of today including animations such as Dora the Explorer, to discuss the similarities and differences.


Activity learning sequence B: What is the big understanding?

Purpose; The following learning sequence of activities encourages students to develop a narrative about the past by describing an event of personal significance.


How do we describe the sequence of time?

Create a timeline of a familiar event. This can be carried out by students recalling a personal event such as going shopping with an adult, going to a friend’s birthday party, or their journey to or from school. Students could collect photographs of themselves and place them in a sequence, and then annotate the photographs with comments on how old they were and what they were doing. Students could answer questions about how they had changed and how they had remained the same over time as revealed in the photographs. Alternatively the class could collaborate to recall the timeline of events involved in a group activity such as going on a recent excursion, an annual school sports carnival, or the school assembly.

Read the following recount aloud to the students;

The day was beautiful, a very heavy frost early that morning clearing to a clear warm sunny day. During the latter part of the display by the Mounted Police another event occurred. Walking up from the Hotel Canberra, a traveller came into view. The traveller had a swag, carried a billy can and was followed by his little dog. The police and security guards seemed surprised but remained to attention. This traveller slowly walked to the official party, tipped his hat and bent his head and walked onto to his destination. This traveller was an Aboriginal man, a citizen showing his respect to the Royal couple. I felt proud and the entire crowd of visitors showed their appreciation for his courtesy.

My family was fortunate that we were able to attend three important events: the naming of Canberra by Lady Denman and the laying of the Foundation Stone in 1913, the visit of the Prince of Wales in 1920 and the Opening of Parliament House in May 1927.

Source of recount; Curley, Sylvia. 1998. A long journey; Duntroon, Mugga Mugga and three careers. ACT Government, Canberra.

Discuss the meaning of the words and phrases in bold, and any other words or phrases the students do not understand. After listening to the recount, students could order the sequence of events in the recount by listing what happened first, second, etc. Students could also draw a picture of Miss Curley’s description of the day. To assist with this drawing, the class could access the Old Parliament House, Mildenhall Photographic Collection that depicts this significant event.

Students can also learn to sequence familiar objects, and to distinguish between the past, present and future by looking at museum artefacts in the Calthorpes’ House virtual tour. For example, select the green [+] symbol near the wringer in the Laundry. If possible, print out a picture of the wringer, or use the template provided at the end of this document, to compare and contrast in timeline format the development of this technology. Find pictures of clothes washing machines used today and discuss the differences or similarities between the past and present day technology. Alongside these two images, students could draw what they think a clothes washing machine will look like in the future. Alternatively, teachers can access the Calthorpes’ House Museum Guide to view images of key rooms within the museum to discuss with the students familiar artefacts from the past and how they compare with technology used to carry out similar tasks today. Students could also use the information gathered in the activity above to identify and compare features from the past and present, and to compare a point of view, by filling out a Venn Diagram.


How has family life changed or remained the same over time?

With teacher guidance students should access the front door bell in the Calthorpes’ House virtual tour. Select the [AC] icon and hear Dawn talking about a family event that occurred on the veranda. The entry to the veranda, that is the area being describe by Dawn in the oral history recording, can be viewed within the virtual tour Front door subcategory. After listening to the oral history recording, recall by talking about or drawing a picture of Dawn’s description of the event. The drawing or recall should note each family member; Mr and Mrs Calthorpe, Del and Dawn. Compare this family structure to family structures today; how are they the same or different? List all the things students in the class do with their family on hot summer days.


How do we describe the sequence of time?

Listen to author Anna Walker talk about her childhood and her career as an illustrator and author. Review the interview of Anna Walker and listen carefully to the phrases she uses to describe the past, for example; ‘when I was little’, ‘I remember my mum saying’, ‘a couple of years ago’, etc. After listening to the interview, talk about or write down what questions Anna would have been asked so that she gave the particular information in each part of the interview. For example, based on the oral recording, the questions Anna was asked were likely to have been;


  • What is your name and what is your job?
  • Where do you work?
  • What were your favourite books when you were little?
  • Where do you get your ideas for stories from?
  • Can you describe how you got the ideas for Peggy the chook?




Investigate the places in your local area that store artefacts, for example in the ACT there are many such places including Canberra Museum and Gallery, the National Museum of Australia, Blundell’s Cottage, National Portrait Gallery, Museum of Australian Democracy, the Australian War Memorial, Mugga Mugga, Lanyon, and Calthorpes’ House. Talk about the types of artefacts each place collects, for example some places collect artefacts related to the lifestyles over time of people living in Canberra, or artefacts relating to warfare, or fine art that represents people who have made a significant contribution to society, etc. If the students have visited places like these, talk about what they remember of their visit. List reasons why museums are important, and why we should keep some types of artefacts inside certain buildings.


Activity learning sequence C: Engaging the Learner


Purpose; The following learning activities models the interview process in order to introduce and familiarise students with how an interview is carried out.


How has family life changed or remained the same over time?



With teacher guidance, access a virtual tour of either Mugga Mugga or Calthorpes’ House to view room interiors and artefacts displayed. Hear an interview of Mrs Dawn Waterhouse or Miss Sylvia Curley about family life before and during the time when the city of Canberra was being established.

The class teacher should describe an artefact to the class. The artefact could be a personal belonging such as a book, certificate of achievement, treasured garment or toy. Alternatively, look around the school for an artefact such as a trophy, framed certificate, the school flag, a letter of congratulations, a school photograph, etc.  The teacher should explain aspects of the artefact, for example;


  • why the artefact is special,
  • when it first came to be owned by their family or the school and how long ago this was,
  • where it came from or where it was made,
  • if it relates to either a tradition, leisure time, or technology,
  • how it was used in daily life in the past,
  • how and where the artefact is stored so that it is safe from being damaged,
  • why they have decided to keep it for a long time,
  • how often the family, or school community, looks at and talks about the artefact, and,
  • anything else interesting about the artefact.


After listening to the teacher talk about their artefact, students write questions for the teacher about the artefact. Students should pose questions about the past using sources provided that incorporate the terms: what, how, why, and when. Students respond to the student-teacher interviews by sharing what else they learned about the teacher and their artefact.

Encourage students to bring an artefact from home that is special to their family, or a photograph of a special artefact. If the students are planning to bring in a fragile artefact, talk with them about packaging it so that it can be safely transported to and from school. Present the artefact to the class and explain the significance of the artefact, using the points above that were made when the teacher talked about his/her artefact. Students can explore a point of view whereby the teacher compares and contrasts the differences and similarities between the modern and older toys.

Create a display of the artefacts, and any photographs of artefacts, students bring in. In order to plan the display, categorise the range of artefacts in a range of ways; chronologically based on the year or decade in which each artefact was made, country of origin, cultural context including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sourced artefact, gender use, hand or machine manufactured, or categorised depending on the room in which the artefact was used. An activity that could reinforce these categories could be for the class to think of one more artefact that could be added to each category. The class should plan how they will keep the objects from being damaged: display them away from high traffic areas, on a secure surface, and if possible away from direct sunlight. Have a special opening event and invite family and community members to the school to view the display of significant artefacts (or photographs of artefacts), which could also include a specific building or site in the local area.


Activity learning sequence D: What is the big understanding?


Purpose; The following activities allow students to generalise about what an artefact is, and to practise how to describe an artefact and think creatively about it.


How has family life changed or remained the same over time?

With teacher supervision, access the Calthorpes’ House virtual tour, view the kitchen, then select the green [+] symbol near the kettle. Review the description of the kettle with the students, then select the [AC] symbol to hear an oral history recording of Mrs Dawn Waterhouse talking about how often the kettle was used. Please note; the virtual tour is not Mac compatible, follow the link directly to the Kettle audio.

Gather a variety of small kitchen utensils (select utensils that do not have sharp blades), enough for one item between each pair of children in the class. Place each small utensil inside an envelope and distribute the packages one per pair of children. Children look inside the envelope so that no one else in the class can see the item, then close the envelope and brainstorm as many words as possible to describe the item. Each pair then reads out their
list of words and phrases to see if the class can correctly guess what utensil they have in
the envelope.



With teacher guidance, access the virtual tour of the Mugga Mugga kitchen. Look closely at all the artefacts in the room. What is the same and what is different about the kitchen furniture, utensils, building fabric, size, and technologies, etc, compared with the kitchens of the students’ own homes? What technology is missing from the kitchen that would be found inside today’s kitchens? With teacher guidance, select the green [+] symbol near the flour bin, then look at the materials it is made of; read the description of the artefact. What are flour storage containers made of today? Are they as large as the one at Mugga Mugga? Why or why not? Please note; the virtual tour is not Mac compatible, follow the link directly to the flour bin audio.

Students can identify and compare features of artefacts from the past and present by ordering a selection of images of the same kind of artefact from different time periods. For example, in relation to the flour bin, the teacher could gather a range of images showing flour storage containers from different time periods. The example below contains some images that could be used for this activity. Students could investigate the different materials used to manufacture flour containers over time, for example tin, paper, enamel, and plastic, etc, by asking senior local and family members in their community, and based on this information, place the pictures in order from oldest to newest.

Request to loan an Artefact Chat box: This is old, what’s new?, containing a range of objects related to daily life in Australia’s past, by contacting the ACT M&G Bookings Officer, phone (02) 6205 0916 or email historicplacesbookings@act.gov.au. Each box contains a range of artefacts representative of life in the past students can touch and handle.


Activity learning sequence E: Why is this learning significant?

Purpose; To explicitly teach interview grammar, as well as gesture and expression, in context prior to applying those skills to developing interview questions. The following learning activity is significant because it teaches the purpose of interview, when interviews are used, and why it is important to document the past.

After reviewing the interview process outlined in Interview Recommendations, students practise carrying out an interview in pairs using objects or photographs of objects gathered for the classroom display in Activity learning sequence C. Review different types of questions for example double header questions, and open and closed questions. Review the use of key terms to begin a question; how, what, when, who, etc. Review correct grammar, including that a question requires the punctuation symbol ‘?’. Review how spoken text often has key words that are emphasised when the question is read aloud so that the listener clearly understands the subject of the question. Students could also review the questions they prepared for the teacher in Activity learning sequence A for these interview techniques.


Look at what makes a good interview. Revisit the interview role play carried out during Activity learning sequence C, and talk about introduction formalities, pertinent terminology used during the interview listed above, as well as emphasis on key words and body language. Review with the class how careful listening during an interview is required so that subsequent questions allow new information to be provided rather than a repeat of information already given by the interviewee. Notice also how the interview process is concluded with a positive adjective, how the interviewer thanked the interviewee for their time, and that it was clear in the recording that the interview had finished.

Critically analyse the purpose of oral history interviews by talking with the class about when and why oral histories should be told and recorded. Revisit any of the oral history recordings found within the virtual tours of the websites for Mugga-Mugga and Calthorpes’ House; talk about who the intended audience would be for the recording. For example; people studying history, or those wishing to know more about the particular home and family life of the people who lived there, as well as historians and students wanting to learn about how old fashioned things were used in the past. To further critically analyse oral history interviews, the class could also discuss the positives, minuses and what is interesting about them.


Activity learning sequence F: Applying the learning

Purpose; The following activity provides an opportunity for students to independently apply what has been taught and provides assessment opportunities.

Write interview questions for a family or community member about an artefact. Students should understand the type of artefact they are going to interview about, for example, that it relates to a tradition, leisure time, or technology. Questions should also include the phrase ‘Can you tell me about daily life in the past?’. If the interviewee is a family member, the student should establish how the person is related to them. Develop interview questions that determine differences and similarities between students’ daily lives and life during the interviewee’s childhood, for example family traditions, leisure time or communications. The number of questions should allow the interview to last no more than 10 minutes. In addition to the artefact focus for discussion, if the person being interviewed lived in suburban Australia after 1930, students could use the Calthorpes’ House virtual tour as a prompt to focus the interview. If the person being interviewed lived in rural Australia after 1913, students could use the Mugga Mugga virtual tour as a prompt to focus the interview.  Practice reading the interview questions aloud to make sure each student is familiar with how to introduce and conclude the recording, the question sequence, as well as how to read the questions with animated expression and varied tone. Record the interview.

Submit interview to ACT M&G Education and Community Programs Historic Places Officer for screening. See the Permission to use oral history form (PDF), and ensure this is completed and submitted along with the recording to ACT M&G. ACT M&G will upload some interviews onto the website.

Activity learning sequence D: How we can describe a sequence of time


Wood, wallpaper, zinc-line flour storage bin.


Glass flour storage containers.


Plastic flour containers


Bakelite flour storage container.


Metal kerosene tin flour container.


Cardboard carton flour storage.

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