Teaching Sequence

40 minutes	Part B: Thinking About Our Neighbourhood
60 minutes	Part C: Exploring The Community

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

Part A: Activating Prior Knowledge

Begin this lesson by inviting students to create a mind-map with three bubbles in the centre. Label one bubble 'human-made', label another as 'animal', and label the last bubble as 'environment' (see example below). You could create your mind-map on the board or use an online mind-mapping tool like bubbl.us, mindmeister or Padlet.

You can then invite students to suggest objects around the school that are human-made, animal or environmental and add these to the mind-map. You could also invite students to suggest features that belong to more than one category and add lines to reflect this.

Students could work in groups or as a class in this activity.

Through the mind-mapping process ensure that students understand the following definitions for these categories:

Human-made - Something that is made by people as opposed to something that occurs naturally in nature.
Animal - A living creature that eats plants or other animals, that has senses and that grows and reproduces.
Environment - All the living and non-living things that occur naturally.

Part B: Thinking About Our Neighbourhood

Preparation:

Prior to sharing the neighbourhood map with students (Step 3), decide where in the neighbourhood this walk will take place, and locate this route on a map that can be shared with students (e.g. Google Maps).

Step 1.

Explain to students that in this lesson they will be taking a walk around a part of their local area, observing the human-made, animal and environmental features in their community. They will then be creating a map that incorporates details about these features.

Begin by sharing a map of your school with students. Your map could be a hard copy map or an online map using an online tool such as Google Maps. Work with your students to identify the main features of your school, such as the office building, the oval or playing fields, any areas of natural vegetation and the building you are in.

Step 2.

Now invite students to think about the information this map doesn’t include. Prompt students by posing the following scenario:

Invite students to make suggestions and record these on the board. Prompt students to remember the points addressed in Part A of this lesson. In addition, you could provide additional prompts with the following:

Where animals live, feed and shelter
What plants there are and which ones have the best flowers or scent, biggest or smallest leaves, most peely bark, or which are the smallest and largest plants
Where kids do or don’t like to play, away from play equipment and playing fields
Where you will usually find the most litter or which bins are always full
Which things at the school that might be broken or not working
Which are the best and worst bits of the school yard

Step 3.

Now share a map of the area of your neighbourhood you are going to explore with your students. Pose the following question:

I wonder what this map DOESN’T tell us about our community?

With the map still displayed, break the class into groups and invite each group to come up with three “I wonder…” questions around what this map might not be telling you. The questions could include things like:

I wonder if we will be able to see that creek?
I wonder where the animals live along that road?
I wonder what things we will find in that park?
I wonder what that building is?

Invite students to share their questions with the class and to keep a record of their questions in their workbooks.

Step 4.

Now explain to students that they will be taking a walk around their neighbourhood finding the answers to their “I wonder…” questions while also observing any other interesting human-made, animal and environmental features of their neighbourhood. They will be recording this information by taking photos. They will be then using this information to create a map of their neighbourhood that tells a more complete story about the human-made, animal and environmental features of their neighbourhood.

Note: Check to ensure appropriate risk management procedures and ratios have been followed prior to leaving the school.

Part C: Exploring Our Community

Step 1.

Before your head out on your walk, remind students of your guidelines for going outside as a class, for example:

Step 2.

Ensure you have a printed version of your map with the route of your walk marked on the maps. Depending on age, students can work as a class or in groups to record the human-made, animal and environmental features of their neighbourhood using a device capable of taking photos (e.g. camera, tablet or phone).

As you walk around your neighbourhood, invite students to reflect on what they notice using questions such as:

Do you notice any people: what are they doing and where might they be going?
Do you notice any native animals? What are they doing? Where do you think they might get food? Where do they go to play? Where do they go when they are sick?
Do you notice any animals that aren’t native? Where are they are what are they doing? Do they look like pets? How can you tell if they are being looked after?
Do you notice any particularly interesting plants or trees? What makes them interesting? How do you think they got there?
Do you notice anything problematic, like broken things or litter? Why are they like this? How might they have gotten this way?
Which things that you notice are human-made and which ones are natural? How can you tell?

Part D: Creating Your Map

Step 1.

Back in the classroom you can work with students to begin creating your maps.

Differentiation –

Year 3 – Students could work in groups or as a class to create an annotated map. Give each group a printed copy of the area you walked on with the route marked on the map. Using the images you collected on the walk, invite groups to annotate their map to show the main features they observed on the walk. Students should create symbols that represent the features they observed and should colour-code these according to whether the features are human-made, animal or environmental (for example, human-made features could be blue, animal features could be pink and environmental features could be green). Students should also ensure their map includes cartographic conventions such as map symbols, title and north point.

Years 4 to 6 – Students could work in groups or as a class to create an annotated map using an online mapping tool like ZeeMaps. Using the images you collected on the walk, invite groups to record these features on the map and to annotate their maps to include details about these features where necessary (this could be done in several ways:

By giving each feature a significant name and then creating a separate sheet with information about each named feature.
By giving each feature a number and creating a separate sheet with information about each numbered feature.
By creating symbols that represent the features they observed and creating a separate sheet with information about each symbol.

In addition, students could colour-code the features according to whether the they are human-made, animal or environmental (for example, human-made features could be blue, animal features could be pink and environmental features could be green).

The following tasks could be incorporated:

Year 4 - Maps need to include cartographic conventions such as map symbols, title, scale and north point.
Year 5 and 6 - Maps need to include cartographic conventions such as border, source, scale, legend, title and north point.

Older students could also incorporate photos or their own drawings into their maps by scanning images and uploading to the map.

Step 2.

Invite students to share their maps with the class. Encourage students to provide feedback on maps of their peers, remembering to be kind, helpful and specific when providing their feedback:

Part E: Reflection

Step 1

Invite students to discuss what they have created. Consider the following questions in your discussion:

What interesting or surprising things did you notice in your neighbourhood?
What in your neighbourhood do you now want to know more about?
What was the best part of creating this map?
What would you do differently next time?
How does creating a map help you to understand your neighbourhood more clearly?

Step 2.

Finally, invite students to think about the feature of their walk that they found most interesting, surprising or worrying and to reflect on why this feature stands out for them. Students can respond to the following questions in writing (also available on the Student Worksheet):

What animal, human-made or environmental feature did you find most interesting or surprising or worrying?
Why does this stand out for you?
Imagine that you were to improve this feature – what would you do?

Younger students could work in pairs to answer these questions.

Step 3.

Once complete, invite students to share their thoughts with the class.

Take it Further

An important element of any observation is to ask questions about what is being noticed. This could be extended by encouraging students to dig deeper into specific problems or observations they are interested in. For example:

Identify and research specific observations to find out the impact that it is having on animals, people and the environment.
Write a letter to an expert to find out more about a specific problem or observation.
Create a survey for teachers and students to complete to find out what people think about a problem.
Interview local businesses or residents to find out more about local problem or issue.

The Roots and Shoots Taking Action lesson has been designed to follow on from this lesson and help students dig deeper into observed problems and take action.

Teacher Reflection

Take this opportunity to reflect on your own teaching:

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

Roots & Shoots - Observe Your Neighbourhood

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