Lessons in the gardens

OtherAustralian curriculum areas and cross-curriculum priorities - lessons for early childhood and years Prep to 12

Jumpstart your students’ imagination and creativity with a field trip to the botanic gardens. Take inspiration from the shape, colour, form and texture of leaves and flowers, or create botanical masterpieces from found materials. Explore Aboriginal or Japanese culture through their use of plants for aesthetic and practical purposes; get active and healthy by making your own garden for school or explore the historical role and importance of the botanical gardens to the development of Brisbane.

Year levels and topic / Content overview / Learning area/ Guideline / Australian curriculum/ Qld Kindergarten Learning Guidelines
Early childhood – Prep
Sensorama / Explore the exciting world of plants using language and the senses of smell, sight, touch and sound. Students create and take home a fragrant potpourri sachet to remind them of their botanical explorations. / Connectedness
Active learning
Communicating
English / Showing increasing respect for environments
Building positive dispositions and approaches towards learning
Engaging in ways to be imaginative and creative
Exploring and expanding ways to use language
Understand the use of vocabulary in familiar contexts related to everyday experiences, personal interests and topics taught at school
Years Prep - 6
Hands-on art / Students explore shape, line, colour and texture in hands-on art activities that focus on nature as a source of artistic inspiration.
(Years Prep-3).
Students examine the artistic possibilities of using natural images and vegetation. They experiment with patterns, balance, structure and contrast through sketch and making their own creations from natural materials. (Years 4-6). / The Arts / Visual Arts
Use and experiment with differentmaterials, techniquestechnologiesand processes to make artworks (Years P-2)
Usematerials, techniques and processes to explorevisual conventionswhen making artworks (Years 3-4)
Develop and apply techniques and processes when making their artworks (Years 5-6)
Years Prep - 6
Aboriginal games, arts and crafts
/ Students try string-making and painting and play a selection of traditional Aboriginal games. Students also view Indigenous arts and crafts and learn how they are made, what materials are used and their cultural significance.
Note: adapted to suit the age / year level of the class.
/ HASS
Visual Arts / How the stories of families and the past can be communicated, for example, through photographs, artefacts, books,oral histories, digital mediaand museums
The ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples maintain special connections toparticularCountry/Place
The diversity of Australia's first peoples and the long and continuous connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to Country/Place(land, sea, waterways and skies)
Use and experiment with differentmaterials, techniques,technologiesand processes to make artworks
Respond to visual artworks and consider where and why people make visual artworks, starting with visual artworks from Australia, including visual artworks of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples
Explore ideas and artworks from different cultures and times, includingartworkby Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderartists, to use as inspiration for their own representations
Cross-curriculum Priorities / Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture
Year 2-12
Aboriginal use of rainforest plants / Investigates how specific plants are / were used by Aboriginal communities for food, tools and medicine. Students examine and taste some bush foods and consider the diverse role of plants in Aboriginal culture. / HASS / The ways in which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples maintain special connections to particular Country/Place
The diversity of Australia's first peoples and the long and continuous connection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to Country/Place(land, sea, waterways and skies)
Thecustodial responsibilityAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have for Country/Place, and how this influences views about sustainability
Cross-curriculum Priorities / Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and culture
Year 4-12
Japanese Garden / Examines the cultural significance of Japanese gardens and investigates the overall effect of the design features. Students use the setting as inspiration for Japanese sumi-e painting and haiku poetry. / Languages
Geography
Visual Arts / Understanding language, culture and learning and their relationship
Australia’s connections with other countries and how these change people and places
Explain how visual arts conventions communicate meaning by comparing artworks from different social, cultural and historical contexts, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artworks
Cross-curriculum priorities / Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia
Years 3-4
The active and healthy garden
/ Students learn about sustainable gardening, create a vegetable and herb container garden for their classroom and use fresh herbs/vegetables to create a healthy snack. Includes a walk through the Kitchen Garden looking at the worm farm and compost heap, picking fresh herbs and tasting some seasonal produce. / Health and Physical Education
Cross-curriculum priorities / Participate in outdoor games and activities toexaminehow participation promotes a connection between the community, natural and built environments, and health and wellbeing
Describestrategies to make the classroom and playground healthy, safe and active spaces
Sustainability
Year 5
City Gardens time traveller / Step back in time as students explore the history of Brisbane through the City Botanic Gardens and its vital role in the establishment of the Colony of Brisbane. Enjoy the convict role-play and then discover some of the historically significant plants still living in the gardens today. / HASS / The impact of a significant developmentor event on an Australian colony
The role that a significant individual or group played in shaping a colony
The nature of convict or colonial presence, including the factors that influenced patterns ofdevelopment, aspects of the daily life of the inhabitants (including Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples) and how the environmentchanged