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Australian animals
What animals look like and where they live (My animal friends cards). Little Roos has 5 free games, tours and things to make that practise it, for ages 3-7.
Where it fits
In the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 (birth to five) and the Australian Curriculum v9 (Foundation to Year 2), with the official wording:
- AC9SFU01 (Australian Curriculum v9: Science, Foundation): observe external features of plants and animals and describe ways they can be grouped based on these features.
- AC9S1U01 (Australian Curriculum v9: Science, Year 1): identify the basic needs of plants and animals, including air, water, food or shelter, and describe how the places they live meet those needs.
Games that practise it
- Frog's Big Change: Life cycles: put the stages in order, from egg to frog and egg to butterfly. Ages 4-7.
- Dugong Remembers: Remembering things in order: watch and listen, then do it back. Ages 3-6.
- Syllable Stomp: Hearing the beats in a word: how many stomps in koala?. Ages 3-6.
- The Nature Walk: Something to make.
- Weather and Seasons: Something to make.
Away from the screen
About two minutes each, with things most homes have.
Watch something grow (from Frog's Big Change)
- Look for tadpoles in a pond or a creek (look, don't take them), or for a caterpillar on a leaf in the garden.
- Go back each week and see what's changed. Draw what you see.
- Talk about what comes next: what will the tadpole grow first? What will the caterpillar turn into?
What's in the bag? (from Dugong Remembers)
- Put three things from around the house in a line: a spoon, a sock, a toy.
- Name them in order together, then cover them with a tea towel.
- Can your child say them back in the same order? Swap, and let them test you. Add a fourth when three is easy.
Things to ask while they play
- What does a tadpole grow first, its back legs or its front legs?
- Where does a butterfly lay her eggs?
- Which one came first?
- What came after the octopus?
More skills in The world around us, or every skill.
Updated