Lesson 1
Lazy Jack text
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Lesson Plan
Preparation
Aside from readying copies of the student summary, no other preparation is necessary for this lesson.
Curriculum links
- Australian Curriculum: ACELA1478, ACELA1676
- NSW Syllabus:
- Vic. Curriculum:
- WA Curriculum:
Elaborations
- Can retell a fairytale
- Offers opinions about a character’s behaviour, feelings, thoughts and motives
- Justifies opinions with evidence from text
Suggested teaching strategies
- –
Introduction
Discuss fairytales the students have heard/read before. Centre the discussion on common features (set in the past, beginning with the phrase ‘Once upon a time’ and ending with ‘lived happily ever after’, involving magical/mythical/far-fetched events). Scribe this list on the board during the discussion.
Development
Read and discuss the text, as a class or in groups. Assist students to decode new words if necessary. Discuss the meaning of any new or unfamiliar words and phrases; e.g. yarn, spinning yarn, hearth, tomcat. Question individual students to gauge their understanding of what they have listened to or read.
Students should be encouraged to ask questions about parts of the text they are unsure of. Discuss the themes in the story such as the importance of working for a living, lack of common sense and how luck can come your way in an unexpected way.
Differentiation
- Ask students to suggest some other silly things Jack could have done. They should write these in the style of the story (e.g. On Monday, Jack worked for a ______. He/She paid Jack with ______. On the way home, ______).
- Have some students create a diary entry giving Jack’s point of view. Others could create a diary entry for the same day(s) from his mother’s point of view.
Conclusion
Invite some students to read their work and invite comments from the other students. Have students think about the events in the story.
Using a round robin approach, have one student begin the retelling, and have each subsequent student add the next event.
Preparation
Aside from readying copies of the student summary, no other preparation is necessary for this lesson.
Curriculum links
- Australian Curriculum: ACELA1478, ACELA1676
- NSW Syllabus:
- Vic. Curriculum:
- WA Curriculum:
Elaborations
- Can retell a fairytale
- Offers opinions about a character’s behaviour, feelings, thoughts and motives
- Justifies opinions with evidence from text
Suggested teaching strategies
- –
Introduction
Discuss fairytales the students have heard/read before. Centre the discussion on common features (set in the past, beginning with the phrase ‘Once upon a time’ and ending with ‘lived happily ever after’, involving magical/mythical/far-fetched events). Scribe this list on the board during the discussion.
Development
Read and discuss the text, as a class or in groups. Assist students to decode new words if necessary. Discuss the meaning of any new or unfamiliar words and phrases; e.g. yarn, spinning yarn, hearth, tomcat. Question individual students to gauge their understanding of what they have listened to or read.
Students should be encouraged to ask questions about parts of the text they are unsure of. Discuss the themes in the story such as the importance of working for a living, lack of common sense and how luck can come your way in an unexpected way.
Differentiation
- Ask students to suggest some other silly things Jack could have done. They should write these in the style of the story (e.g. On Monday, Jack worked for a ______. He/She paid Jack with ______. On the way home, ______).
- Have some students create a diary entry giving Jack’s point of view. Others could create a diary entry for the same day(s) from his mother’s point of view.
Conclusion
Invite some students to read their work and invite comments from the other students. Have students think about the events in the story.
Using a round robin approach, have one student begin the retelling, and have each subsequent student add the next event.

Student Pages






















Lesson 6
The creatures and the five islands

Lesson 6
The creatures and the five islands


The following is a
Dreaming story.



Once upon a time in the Dreaming, three warriors lived together on a little island off the coast of the mainland.
Their names were Whale, Starfish and Koala.


Whale, Starfish and Koala had lived on the island for a long time.
They began to run out of food.


One day, Koala and Starfish said to Whale, ‘Can we borrow your canoe to go to the mainland to get food? We will bring it back for us all to eat’.


Whale thought for a while, then he said, ‘No. If I let you borrow my canoe, you will leave me here and I will starve.’


Koala and Starfish decided to steal Whale’s canoe.
Koala sent Whale to sleep by combing his hair (as Whale liked him to do) while Starfish stole the canoe.


Starfish got in the canoe and started to paddle. Koala ran to the water but Whale woke up. Koala and Whale started to fight.


Koala was getting beaten by Whale until he stabbed him in the back of the neck with a sharp stick.
Koala then swam to the canoe and they paddled away.


Whale pulled the stick out of his neck and swam after them. He was a good swimmer so he caught up to them just before they reached the mainland.


Whale came up out of the water and crashed down onto the canoe. It smashed into five pieces. The five pieces became five islands.


Whale saw Koala swimming to shore so he grabbed him, punched him in the face, flattened it and stretched his ears.


Koala escaped by running up a gum tree. He sat there in the fork of a tree, shaking with fright.


Then Whale saw Starfish creeping into a rock pool on the beach. He grabbed him, pounded him flat and stretched him. And he stayed that way.


That is the way the animals and the islands are today.





Starfish
Koalas sit in the forks of gum trees. They have a flat face and big ears.
Starfish live in rock pools and are flat and stretched.
Koala


Whales have a hole in the back of their necks called a blowhole which they use to breathe.


The five islands sit off the coast of mainland Australia.
The myth says that each year whales go up and down the coast, looking for koalas and starfish.



What natural features did you learn about in this story?



Lesson 6
Complete