Activity Instructions

Part A: Starting the conversation

Step 1.

Begin by having a chat with your child/ren.

What is energy? Energy is all around us. When you cook over a campfire, you’re taking the stored energy in the wood you’re burning and transferring it to the food you’re about to eat to warm up that meal. However, when we talk about energy in our homes, it's usually synonymous with electricity.
What do you know about how we produce energy? Children might be able to talk about solar panels. You can feel the energy of the sun when you feel the warmth of the sun on your back, and solar panels convert that energy into electricity. Children might also know a little bit about fossil fuel power plants. This is where we burn coal and oil (fossil fuels) in order to produce energy - which is exactly what we're doing when we burn wood to create fire to warm up our camping meal, just on a way bigger scale.
Do you know of any challenges when it comes to producing energy? Children might be able to talk a little bit about pollution. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide (CO2 emissions), which are harmful for our planet as they cause global warming. You can find out more in this parent activity, What is Climate Change?

Asking Quality Questions

- Open-ended questions encourage children to develop their language by using a wider range of vocabulary to answer the question in a more nuanced way. Open-ended questions require them to provide more information and detail, and to actively process how to structure their thoughts in order to deliver a coherent answer and provide sufficient details.

- Position yourself as genuinely curious, about the world but also a child's thoughts

- Ask genuine questions (those that you don’t know the answer too)

- Try to avoid judging answers as right or wrong (posing questions such as “I wonder…” questions helps to take the wrong and right out of the answer, and allow children to explore and test their own ideas without fear of being wrong)

- Work to invite a genuine response, rather than expect a specific response

- Continue questioning after children have answered, asking, “Why do you say that?” This further reveals their thinking.

For more evidence-based advice on developing oral language in children, click here.

Part B: Reading the book

Step 1.

Read Amy's Balancing Act. Read until the end of the story "And the mail is always on time" - we don't need to go into the 'unpacking the fable' section just yet.

You can find a physical copy of the book here.
You can also access the book for educational purposes here, using the password SchoolAccess.

Step 2.

Keep this guide handy as you read, and as you go through the book, pause at certain sections to ask questions:

On page 4:

Clyde reminds me of fossil fuel power plants, the way they cause some pollution. Even though Clyde is good at delivering the mail, and fossil fuel power plants are useful for producing power, do you think it's worth all that dust and pollution and tearing up the soil?
How do you think you would feel living in that kind of world?

On page 9:

One What do you think about this goanna, Sol? He's being very useful helping to carry some parcels, isn't he?
Does Sol remind you of some sort of energy-producing thing that is powered by the sun? (Solar panels).
I wonder if there's going to be a challenge for Sol to deliver the parcels, if he is powered by the sun? Do you think this is the same problem for solar panels?

On page 11:

The farmers seem to like Sol because he doesn't cause as much dust as Clyde. Do you think that's the same for pollution from fossil fuels compared to solar panels and other green energy producers?

On page 13:

Wow, how about the albatross? Do you think they're more useful than Sol? Why? (They can work during the night time).
Does Gail remind you of some sort of energy-producing thing that is powered by the wind? (Wind turbines).
Hmmm, but can you see a challenge for Gail to deliver the parcels, if she says 'as long as the wind is blowing'? Gail might struggle if the wind isn't blowing, just like wind turbines won't be able to produce any energy when the weather is still.

On page 21:

Amy really appreciates her team all working together, doesn't she? Have you ever been on a team?
What's good about being part of a team? (You can discuss how everyone contributes, and shares the load, and how some people have strengths where other people have weaknesses, such as how Sol can't work at night, but Gail can, but Sol can work when it's windy when Gail can't)

On page 23:

I wonder why Amy didn't transfer all of Clyde's packages to Sol straight away at the start of the story? Why did she only do it gradually, ie: slowly over time? (Children might be in favour of an all or nothing approach, but discuss how you can't just switch everything all at once - otherwise Amy would've been in big trouble when the sun went down and Sol couldn't work. It's better to be careful and make the change slowly so that you can work through these challenges.)
Remember at the start of the story, where Amy just wanted to get a new horse, because horses are all she knew? Is that a good idea? Why do you think she would be feeling like that? (It's natural for us to be cautious about new things that we don't really know about. Amy had no idea whether Sol would be good at delivering parcels! However, encourage your children that taking chances and exploring new things is good for us. It helps us grow, and we might find even better solutions to problems we thought we had worked out. Clyde was good, but a combination of Sol, Gail and Snowy was even better!)

Part C: Reflecting on the book

Step 1.

Discuss your thoughts on the book.

What did you like about this story? Why?
What didn't you like about the story? Why?
What did this story make you think about? Do you have any questions about this story, or about energy? You might like to write these down.

Step 2.

As we've already discussed a bit, this story wasn't really about delivering packages. It was about energy and how we make it.

Watch Cool Australia Presents Energy (youtube.com/watch?v=OgGiHnQ_MBc) to learn more:

Step 3.

You can now return to Amy's Balancing Act and read the 'unpacking the fable' section at the end, which explains how all of the characters relate to energy.

You might like to read Cool's Everything you need to know about energy factsheet to learn more.

Step 4.

Children can now write a review of the book. The review should answer the questions:

What did you most enjoy about this book? Children could reflect on their favourite character, their favourite page, or their overall impressions of the book.
Who would you recommend this book to? (Boys/girls? Children? What age? People interested in animals?)
What did you learn from this book? Children should talk about the book's links to energy production, as well as the other themes about teamwork, cooperation, and problem-solving.

Step 5.

Finish off by drawing some pictures of Amy and the gang.

Children might like to take the book to school and share with their peers.

Where to next?

Children might like to take the book and their review into their classroom and share their learning with their peers.

If you're seeing a lot of interest in the energy side of things, you might like to check out another Cool lesson - Everything you need to know about energy. This lesson is Cool's one-stop-shop on fossil fuels, renewable energies, and how they impact climate change. It's a little bit different to this activity because it's designed for teachers in a classroom, but that shouldn't stop you from giving it a go with your kid/s.

Amy's Balancing Act - Books about climate change

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