Education. Worksheets Stage One. Designed in conjunction with ACARA curriculum

Education Worksheets Stage One Designed in conjunction with ACARA curriculum 2016-17

Foreword For over 40 years, Featherdale Wildlife Park has been welcoming visitors and introducing them to the incredible fauna of Australia. Featherdale has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a small poultry and plant nursery, with a dedicated team of zoo keepers now caring for over 1,700 individual animals encompassing over 250 different species. Featherdale is strongly involved in the captive breeding programs of numerous endangered species including Yellow-footed Rock-wallabies, Spotted-tailed Quolls, Koalas, Regent Honeyeaters, Plains Wanderer, Bilby and Woma Pythons. Featherdale was the first facility in the world to breed White-bellied Seaeagles in captivity and second in the world to breed Wedge-tailed Eagles. Featherdale s highly successful Koala breeding program has not only been a significant contribution to knowledge of the species for research and conservation, but has also resulted in a large, healthy and genetically viable colony of Koalas at the park. Featherdale is dedicated to education, having provided a comprehensive array of education materials for schools since the early 1970s. Each Education Resource has been specifically designed to meet the current ACARA Science curriculum as well as integrating key learning areas from English, Geography and HSIE. We can cater for any subject matter, so if you have something outside the square you what to cover with your students, make contact and discuss. 2

For the Teacher General Information Welcome to Featherdale Wildlife Park! Our Wildlife Park is a great place for learning. Our team aims to support student learning by providing resources to assist classes to have educational and enjoyable experiences at our park. These worksheets will provide a range of activities which may be undertaken by your students during their visit to the park. A map and suggested order of activities is provided to give a logical circuit to travel during the visit. In planning, please consider whether: You would like your class to regroup for lunch, animal feeds or exit at the end of your visit. If so, relay times and meeting places to students and supervisors. If you have booked a hands-on education lesson, ensure your students quietly wait outside the Learning Burrow 5 minutes prior to your lesson time and have had the opportunity to use the bathroom and eat something before entering. It is our preference that any belongings brought by students be carried by them on the day, so please bear this in mind when making preparations. If your class is not booked for hands on lesson involving an education officer, we will attempt to meet your class at the entrance on arrival at the park. At this meeting the group will be welcomes and given some information about the park to assist their visit. General behaviour expectations will also be outlined. 3

Pre Excursion Contact Featherdale s Education team to organise a pre-excursion visit if you have not visited before. Discuss your needs (VERY IMPORTANT) Apply to principal or school activities coordinator to run an excursion that meets curriculum requirements. Make an excursion booking with Featherdale s Education team, ensuring that any special requirements have been discussed. In the week leading up to the excursion, have students work on the Pre-excursion worksheets provided by Featherdale. Motivate students and ensure they understand the purpose of the excursion and encourage a range of questions during the lesson. During Your Excursion Enjoy the park activities and animal encounters with your students Ensure students are supervised at all times and enter the Farmyard and Kangaroo Country in small groups (no more than 10 at a time). Encourage observation skills that lead to a higher level of thinking. Use questioning techniques that stimulate a quest for knowledge. Please ensure students are calm and respectful of other visitors and the animals in the park, and do not display any behaviour that may stress the animals such as yelling or hitting enclosure walls or glass. After Your Excursion Discuss the day and if there are further questions please do not hesitate to email back for a reply. We love to reply and get feedback from schools and students. Look at projects to illustrate learning s on the day. Some options could include: o Setting up a terrarium in class o Setting up an aquarium in class o Building a worm farm or a garden using recycled materials o Building an animal enclosure out of craft items to reflect needs and wants (food, shelter, water, enrichment etc) o Setting up some animal signage, on a classroom wall reflecting endangered animals, conservation issues, Australian animals and the like. 4

ACARA SYLLABUS OUTCOMES A student: describes external features, changes in and growth of living things ST1-10LW describes ways that different places in the environment provide for the needs of living things ST1-11LW CONTENT Living things have a variety of external features. (ACSSU017) Students: describe some external features of a variety of living things, including plants and animals use a range of methods, including fieldwork, to identify plants or animals in their local area devise simple classification systems based on the observable external features of plants or animals identified in the local area Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves. (ACSSU030) Students: record the changes in growth of a common plant or animal, using informal units, provided tables and digital technologies as appropriate observe and record some of the changes a common plant or animal shows during its life, using an appropriate digital technology, e.g. a camera compare the appearance of adult living things with their offspring, e.g. trees, insects, birds, reptiles, cats or humans Living things live in different places where their needs are met. (ACSSU21 5

ACARA SYLLABUS REQUIREMENTS Students observe the different places in a local land or aquatic environment where living things can be found, e.g. a schoolyard, pond, beach or bush explore the needs of a plant or an animal in its environment describe how some different places in a local land or aquatic environment provide for the needs of the animals or plants that live there observe and record ways people use science knowledge and skills in their daily lives to care for living things, such as gardeners, farmers or pet carers (ACSHE022, ACSHE035) 6

ACARA SYLLABUS OUTCOMES CONTINUED Based on Bloom s Taxonomy of learning skills we have prepared a set of topics to discuss and make learning as colourful and rewarding as possible back in class. These topics can be discussed even if the school has not had a lesson. The Six thinking skills include: Knowledge What is a living thing? What makes living things different? Name the characteristics of placental mammals-marsupials and monotremes? Comprehension Make a cartoon strip showing the life cycle of a Koala or a kangaroo. Application Take items from home and craft department and build (a model) a natural habitat for an animal (as groups or individual). Show the classroom and discuss what the habitat represents and how it keeps the animal alive and healthy. Analysis Use the built environment or habitat (re application) and discuss with the class what would happen if some of its environment or habitat changed. Maybe take away some of the built environment from the model and talk about the changes. Synthesis Make a sign for the animal habitat similar to the signs at FWP. Discuss as a class. What does it tell us about the animal? Evaluation Discuss projects the class can do at the school to make it a better environment for animals and plants to survive. Maybe build a native garden, a frog pond or a vegetable plot at school. 7

Choose a word to fill in the blanks Water Shelter Air Food What keeps living things alive! To LIVE, PEOPLE and ANIMALS Need a home for S. We need F to eat, A to breathe and W to drink. 8

What are living things? Circle the living things 9

Plants are a living thing too! Plants need to eat, drink and breathe just like other living things. The leaves are used for breathing and catching sunlight so they can make food, while their stems are like straws to suck up water for survival. They also use roots to suck water while leaves make food for survival. Flowers are there to make the plant look beautiful and make seeds. These seeds when they fall on the ground will grow into other plants. Draw a plant with leaves and roots. 10

Body Parts Did you know that Tasmanian Devils have a backwards facing pouch! Draw lines to join the body parts to their names. Wing Foot Eye Beak 11

Dry Environments Draw a bird, a mammal and a reptile that live in dry environments like the Australian Banksia Scrub. 12

Cool Environment Draw a bird, a mammal and a reptile that makes its home in a cool habitat like a rainforest 13

Home Sweet Home Pythons like to live in long grass, logs, rocks, trees, water, caves and burrows. What other homes or shelter do you think you could find a python in? These shelters keep them safe from predators like eagles, dingoes, What will happen if we took their home away? 14

Changing habitats What would happen to Koalas if this tree disappeared? Make notes or scribble the answers on the picture. 15

Did you know that an Echidna s tongue is 20cm long! What do living things eat? Grass Termites Meat Fruit Echidnas have a long sticky tongue and a long, thin beak. They like to eat T. Owls have very sharp claws, strong feet and a sharp beak. They like to eat M. Wombats have flat teeth which are good for chewing. They like to eat G. Flying foxes have sharp teeth and long tongues to slurp their food. They like to eat F. 16

Did you know that the little penguin is only the size of a ruler! Big and Small, Short and Tall We measure things every day! We can measure how tall something is, how heavy, or how fast something moves. Measurements are all around us. Using your hand to measure, find out: How tall do you think an Emu is? Hands tall. How far above the ground is a Little Penguin? Hands long. How long do you think the shingleback Lizard is? Hands long. 17

What covers their body? Spines Fur Scales Feathers Wombats are covered in F to keep them warm. Echidna s have S on its back to protect them from predators. Tawny Frogmouth s have F to fly and hunt. Snakes have S on its body to slither. Did you know that snakes do not have eyelids but scales on their eyes! 18

Did you know that koalas are the size of a jelly bean when born! How does it move? How do these animals move? Draw a line to the correct word. Climb Slides Hop Swim Fly 19

How do living things move? All birds have W. Some birds use them to F. Did you know that Shingleback Lizards pair up and stay together in a kind of lizard marridge! Ducks use their webbed feet to S in water. Wombats use their feet to D burrows in the ground. Sugar gliders have sharp claws to help them C. 20

Did you know that a baby echidna is called a puggle! Growing and Changing Most animals have two parents. Some animals are born alive and usually look like their parents. Other animal mothers lay eggs. Their babies grow in the egg and after a period of time they hatch. Draw a line to match each parent to its young. 21

Lifecycle Did you know that when a Tasmanian Devil is born it s the size of a cooked grain of rice when born! All living things have a life cycle. They are born, they grow up, they reproduce and they die. Different groups of living things have different kinds of life cycles. The life cycle of an insect is very different from the life cycle of a mammal or a reptile. Below you will see the life cycle of a Kangaroo. Draw a line from the description to the picture. The Joey soon grows hair, and pops its head out to look around. When the Joey is too big for the pouch it is then free to hop around and eat grass. The Joey is born tiny, pink with no hair. It is about the size of a jelly bean. The Joey crawls up into the pouch and grows, drinking the mother s milk from a teat. 22

Lesson Project During or after the lesson fill in this report about an animal Use park signs if you did not have a lesson. What am I? Where do I live? What do I eat? What is my lifecycle? What fun fact do you know about me? Draw me 23

Sign Project Make your own sign with one of your favourite animals from the park. Size: Status: Habitat: Diet: Breeding: Picture by General Information: EXAMPLE Size: 40cm. Status: Vulnerable in NSW. Illustrations supplied from the Simpson & Day Field Guide to the Birds of Australia Habitat: Open eucalypt forests and woodlands. Diet: Small mammals and birds are the main prey but they will also eat insects. Breeding: Breeds between July and November, nests in an open hollow of a tree where two to four eggs are laid. General Information: The call of this Owl resembles a dog barking and is used to signal each bird s territory. 27

Glossary Air: What we breathe into our lungs. Breathe: When a living thing inhales air. Burrow: A large hole underground. Camouflage: When an animal becomes invisible in its home or habitat. Carnivorous: An Animal that eats another animal, eating only meat. Change: When a living thing becomes different. Constrict: A python that squeezes its food very tightly. Covering: The type of skin an animal has. Deforestation: When trees are taking down and disappear. Diet: What an animal eats. Difference: A thought or way that is not the same Eggs: A shelled oval thing where birds and some reptiles are born from. Endangered: An animal that is disappearing in the wild Environment: The surroundings of a home of an animal. Eucalyptus: A type of Australian tree. Extinct: An animal that no longer exist on earth. Feathers: The body covering of birds. Food chain: An animal that uses a smaller animal as food. Fur: The body covering of mammals. Grow: When a living thing gets bigger in size or changes. Habitat: The home of an animal, where it lives. Herbivorous: An animal that only eats plants or vegetation. Indigenous: An individual-human, plant or animal that is native to the country. Lifecycle: The stages of how a baby animal is born. Live birth: An animal that is born alive. Living Thing: Is something that breathes moves, grows changes, eats and drinks and has babies. Marsupial: A mammal with a pouch. Movement: How an animal gets to one place to another. Nocturnal: Animal that sleeps during the day and has breakfast at night. Omnivorous: An animal that eats both other animals and plants. Predator: An animal that hunts another animal. Prey: An animal that is used for food. Purpose: The reason why something is done. Protect: To keep safe or away from getting hurt. Quills: The hard spines on an echidna Scales: The body covering of reptiles. Shed: When an animal loses its old body covering for a new one. Shelter: An area where an animal can stay protected from danger. Slither: The way a snake or python drags itself on the ground. Slough: When a snake or python start to lose their outer layer of skin. Venom: A toxin that snakes inject from their sharp fangs to make their food die quickly. Water: What an animal drinks. 28

Thank you for visiting Featherdale Wildlife Park. We hope you had a fun day with all the animals and the team! Draw a picture of your favourite animal at Featherdale. 29