Teaching Sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

10 minutes

Part A: Watch Bluey

15 minutes

Part B: Discussion

5 minutes

Part D: Get Crafty!

Part A: Watch Bluey

Step 1. Share the Bluey episode Army with your students.

You can watch this episode on ABC iView or through Enhance TV.

Army synopsis: Jack’s the new dog at school and the newest recruits in Rusty’s army. Jack struggles with the following instructions and always forgets hit hat but Rusty will make a soldier of him yet.

Part B: Discussion

It is important for children to discover themes and lessons from the episode for themselves. It is open to their interpretation, and they cannot be wrong in terms of what they felt or gathered from the episode.

Step 1. Facilitate a class discussion about the episode.

You may need to probe further by asking:

What was happening at the start of the episode? What was happening at the end? I wonder if anything changed in between?
I wonder how Jack felt when he first arrived at school?
I wonder how Jack felt when Rusty said he was really good at sentry? How do you know?
I wonder how Jack felt when he ran faster than Rusty?
When Rusty and Jack were in the treehouse, I wonder what Jack meant when he said "there's something wrong with me"? Do you think there was something "wrong" with Jack?
What words would you use to describe Rusty? What kind of dog is he?

You might also display this prompt wall to inspire some observations.

In this episode I saw someone...
Listening	Being nice to other people	Figuring things out	Sharing with other people
Looking after other people	Waiting quietly	Asking questions	Working together
Being friendly	Trying again and again	Following the rules	Doing the right thing
I saw this when...

Step 2. Ask students to share some memories of when they first started at the school. How were they feeling? How did reality compare to what they were imagining?

Step 3. Can students remember the first person they talked to at school? Was it someone they are still friends with today? Do students know why they chose the friends they did? Was it because they had shared interests? Or was it just because they had good qualities, the same way Rusty was nice and friendly towards Jack.

Step 4. Jack lists a lot of things he's "not good at" - doing what he's told, sitting still, remembering things like numbers, letters, and his hat. What would students say to one of their friends if they were talking negatively about themselves in a similar way?

Encourage students to see that everyone is unique, talented and interested in their own way. Jack certainly had some other talents he should be celebrated for.

Step 5. Ask students to nominate one thing they are proud of themselves for. For example, "I am a great runner," or "I am great at counting."

Part C: Getting to Know You

Step 1. Have the class sit in a circle. This game is a lot easier if you have chairs, but you can still do it sitting on the floor - just make sure there are no gaps.

Step 2. Ask one student to volunteer to be in the middle of the circle - or you can play too. Take away one chair from the circle, so that there is one less chair than students participating.

Step 3. Ask the student in the middle to nominate a fact about themselves. For example, "I have a pet cat."

Step 4. Anyone else who shares that fact (eg also has a pet cat) has to stand up.

Step 5. Everyone now standing up has to switch seats. Remind students not to run and crash into one another as they are switching.

Step 6. A new student will be left standing in the middle of the circle without a seat. Now it's their turn to nominate a fact about themselves, and start another round of chair swapping.

Step 7. Sometimes a student might nominate something about themselves that no one else can relate to. Use this as an opportunity to speak to the uniqueness of that student.

Step 8. When you've played enough rounds, remind students of how diverse the class is. It would be boring if everyone was exactly the same person. However, there are also lots of things that students share in common. It's nice to be able to share interests with someone.

Step 9. As a class, brainstorm some simple questions you could ask the class to get to know them better. Create a list on the whiteboard. Closed questions with a maximum of three answers work best for this survey. For example:

What is your favourite kind of pet? Dog, cat, fish, or other?
What is your favourite sport to play on the weekend? AFL, Netball, Soccer, or other?
What is your favourite ice-cream flavour? Chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, or other?

Step 10. Independently, students use the Student Worksheet as a template for creating a survey and graph. Write the question along the top, and the three answers in the boxes along the bottom. Students could also add a little picture to remind them what the answers are.

Step 11. Once everyone is ready to go with their survey, line up in two lines, facing opposite ways. This method ensures everyone in the class is surveyed, and no data gets missed as would happen if you were randomly surveying people.

Line A -------------------->

<-------------------- Line B

Step 12. Students in Line A ask the student opposite them in Line B their survey question. Students record the response by placing an 'X' in the space above the answer. Further responses should be stacked on top of one another according to the dotted lines.

Step 13. Now students in Line B ask their question of Line A.

Step 13. Once everyone has filled in their survey, everyone moves one place forward. When students get to the end of Line A, they flip around and join Line B, and the same with the end of Line B. This ensures everyone asks their question of the whole class.

Step 14. At the end of the process, students coloured in all the squares with an 'X' in them, with each answer having a different corresponding colour. This will complete a column graph which is quick and easy to read.

Step 15. Invite students to reflect on the activity they took part in. Ask students,

What do you think we were practising?
What qualities do you think are important in a friend? Or, what makes a person friendly?

Friendly people understand others' emotions and perspectives, show sympathy and empathy, know how to participate in a conversation, are capable of compromise, know how to apologize, and have an awareness of how their emotional responses impact others’ feelings.

Part D: Get Crafty!

Make your own Bluey army map! Click here for instructions. You can find more crafty Bluey activities here.

Teacher Reflection

Take It Further

Try another Bluey lesson. Check out all the Bluey lessons here.

Bluey 'Army' - Friendship

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