Special Places
Special Places is a HSIE unit of work about the geography of natural and built
environments and the importance of caring for the environment to sustain life.
HSIE Syllabus references:
CC
CU
EN
SS
ENES1 Patterns of place and location and Relationship with places
Gathers information about natural and built environments and communicates some of the
ways in which they can interact with, and can care for, these environments
Students will learn about:
• features and places in the immediate environment
• natural and built features of their immediate environment and of areas they have
visited
• experiences and interactions with their immediate environment and with areas they
have visited
• features, places and environments that are clean and safe
• care of natural things in the immediate environment.
Teaching and learning
Evidence of achievement
My place, my home
• Using Google Earth, students journey from space to visit
their local neighbourhood (by inserting a local address in
the Search function in the side menu). Students identify
places they go to and use in the local neighbourhood –
include places with significant natural features e.g. beach,
park, bush, creek, and places that are built e.g. playground,
church, friends/relatives houses, shopping centre.
• Using the ‘street view’ option in Google Earth students
journey into street bubbles and talk about features of the
environment they observe. They identify features that are
built by people (manmade) and features that are natural.
• Introduce the term ‘environment’ as meaning a place or a
space. Explain that our environment is made up of
manmade and natural places.
ENES1
Gathers information about
natural and built
environments and
communicates some of the
ways in which they can
interact with, and can care
for, these environments
• describes natural and built
environments of personal
significance.
Observing the school environment
Students walk around the school playground and find a spot
that is special. Explain that the activities are about using our
senses to learn about the spot.
Students sit quietly and listen to the sounds for 60 sec with
their eyes closed. They recall and mimic the sounds they can
hear.
Give each child a colour and they find something in the space
to match the colour. They share their discovery with a friend
Students follow a scented trail (created by the teacher)
smelling everything along the way e.g. grass, soil, leaves,
flowers. Students describe all the different smells they came
across.
Blindfold partners – in pairs students are given a blind fold –
one student is blindfolded and the partner leads them by the
hand to three different objects. The blindfolded student feels,
scratches and sniffs the object and is then led away. The
blindfold is removed and students rediscover the objects they
experienced and share information about textures, shapes and
smells.
Photographic partners – in pairs students take turns at playing
a camera and a photographer. The photographer covers the
camera’s eyes and takes a photo by uncovering the camera
for 5 seconds to view a specific scene. The camera is led
away and then has to recount the detail of the scene. This is
repeated in three different locations: from a long way, from
close up and from an in between distance.
Have students re-visit their favourite personal place at school
and take a photograph of the place using a digital camera.
Using the recorded images on the IWB students respond to
the question: When I am in my special place I
feel..................My special place is important because.......
Special places at home
Students identify a place that is special to them at home. They
respond to questions:
- is this outside or inside?
- what do you do in that place?
Teaching and learning
- what do you find in that place? Refer to the activities
used in the previous activity.
- why is it special? What do you do there? What things
would you find there?
Students draw a picture of their special place at home. They
talk about their picture with a partner, group or class and tell
what makes it special to them by responding to questions:
- what do you hear when you are in your special place at
home?
- what do you feel when you touch things in your special
place?
- who do you share it with?
- why is it special?
• Choose two or three of the student’s pictures to model the
writing of a short descriptive sentence to accompany their
work. Students, with assistance, write their own short
descriptive sentences.
• Select books that explore special places to read as a class
e.g. Moving house – Rebecca Hunter; A new room for
William – Sally Grindley and Carol Thompson; Minto goes
home – Anna Fienberg and Kim Gamble; No place like
home – Colin Thompson and Anna Pignataro.
Evidence of achievement
Teaching and learning
Evidence of achievement
Our place our school
Walk around the school taking digital photos of the different
places in the school environment.
• Discuss simple directions such as, ‘where is the library?’
and ‘what is the best way to get there?’
• Discuss the position of objects on the class walk. Ask:
- where are you now?
- what is next to the garden?
- what is behind the wall?
• Have students describe places in terms of location and their
location in relation to other places e.g. behind, beside,
across, next too.
• Print and label the places in the photos and talk about the
purpose and use of each place. Add these words to a class
word bank.
ENES1
Gathers information about
natural and built
environments and
communicates some of the
ways in which they interact
with, and can care for, these
environments
• observes and identifies
natural and built features
of the school environment
• suggests purposes and
uses of different places.
Introduce the terms ‘natural’ and ‘built’ when discussing
features of the immediate environment, and stress that built
features are made by people.
• Give students an enlarged photocopy of one of the photos.
Students cut up the photo and sort the objects in the photo
into natural features and built features. Paste objects into
groups onto A3 art paper. This can be adapted for use with
an IWB.
• Word/ image wall grouping natural features of the
environment and built feature and things that come in
between
Use reading material from www.starfall.com – I’m Reading
Fiction and Non Fiction Texts ‘Its Earth Day and Dear Dragon
– to assist students to differentiate between natural, built, real
and imaginary features.
Looking after our environment at home and at school
• Develop students’ understanding of caring for the natural
environment by planting a class tree (native or Indigenous)
in the playground. Students undertake to care for the tree.
Discuss and identify strategies to protect the tree from
damage by students’ play activities. Discuss the values
associated with taking care to not damage other plants and
features of the natural environment. Relate the school
situation to out of school activities e.g. not picking wild
flowers or damaging plants, keeping domestic animals out
of bushland, moving rocks.
• Discuss the effect of rubbish on the natural environment.
Use images of natural environments polluted by rubbish.
Include images of Australian wild animals, fish and birds
that have been affected by rubbish pollution.
• Discuss where rubbish goes. Ask:
- what could happen if rubbish is not put in bins?
- how could rubbish lead to an unhealthy situation?
- how can we have less rubbish?
• Ask students how they might prevent rubbish from collecting
ENES1 Gathers information
about natural and built
environments and
communicates some of the
ways in which they interact
with, and can care for, these
environments
• participates in caring for
the natural environment
• articulates reasons for
caring for the natural
environment
• identifies reasons for
disposing of rubbish
appropriately
• participates in recycling
activities.
Teaching and learning
in areas of the school playground.
• Conduct a picture talk on clean/unclean environments,
using an image that portrays a clean/unclean environment.
Ask students to give words to describe the difference
between clean and unclean.
Recycling
What can you do to help the environment?
• Students sort rubbish from lunch boxes into groups to
decide:
- what can be recycled?
- what can be composted?
- what goes in the bin?
• Discuss what is being done at school and at home to
recycle.
Assessment strategy
The teacher:
• analyses questions/answers –why the tree needs to be
cared for and protected
• analyses student’s explanation of the effect of rubbish on
the environment
• observes demonstrated ways of caring for the immediate
environment.
Assessment criteria
The student:
• talks about caring for the natural environment
• explains the effect of rubbish on the environment
• participates cooperatively in caring for the immediate
environment.
Evidence of achievement