Glenorie Public Schoolt
CONCEPT
THE NEED FOR
SHELTER
Stage 1
DURATION – 10 WEEKS
Assessment and Evaluation
Children will be asked to carry out self-evaluation tasks related to their group work and individual
efforts during the activities.
Assessment will be carried out by peers for group presentations.
Teacher observations / anecdotal notes will be ongoing throughout the unit. These will concentrate on
research skills, group participation, effort, contribution to discussion, problem solving skills,
communication skills and achievement of unit outcomes.
During all activities emphasis will be placed on explicit and systematic teaching of literacy
components related to activities covered. e.g. report writing, public speaking, journals, recounts etc.
THE NEED FOR SHELTER
The following pages contain a unit of work for Stage 1. The unit content has been developed from the
Board of Studies HSIE K-6 Units of Work titled “THE NEED FOR SHELTER” (pp63-66).
The unit provides opportunities for students to explore the need of people and other living things for
shelter, and how built and natural environments can provide this. The unit focuses on the students’ local
area and safety needs on familiar environments.
Outcomes
 ENS1.5:
 ENS1.6:
Compares and contrasts natural and built features in their local area and the ways in
which people interact with these features.
Demonstrates an understanding of the relationship between environments and people.
Literacy Links
 Provides opportunities for students to explore information reports, descriptions and recounts.
 The HSIE teaching strategies/practices in this unit include flow charts.
Links with other KLAs
 English: structure and language features of the text types students create and interpret
 Science & Technology: Built Environments / Products and Services strands
 Mathematics: 3D shapes, models, length, area, tracing, grouping
 PD/H/PE: Positive relationships, individual choices, safe practices
Resources
The following resources are recommended:

Board of Studies website (http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au)list current available resources
such as some background information sheets, websites, texts and other material to support this unit.

Source material and resources about how animals and humans use the environment for shelter, about
how the process of making shelters can change the environment, and about our responsibilities
towards the environment.
Glenorie Public School
THE NEED FOR
SHELTER
AREAS OF INQUIRY:
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How do living things adapt their environment to meet their needs?
How do plants use the environment for shelter?
What is a shelter?
How do people adapt to their environment?
How did Aboriginal people use their environment to survive?
DURATION - 6 to 8 WEEKS
STAGE 1
LEARNING OVERVIEW
KNOWLEDGE / UNDERSTANDING
Children are able to:
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investigate ways in which humans and animals depend on their natural environment.
investigate ways in which people are able to adapt their environment to meet their needs.
read and view texts about caring for the environment, both natural and built.
accept and fulfil responsibilities towards the class and school environments.
appreciate that people are responsible for environmental change, both negative and positive.
participate in activities to maintain and improve the school environment.
draw and label aspects of the local area.
SKILLS
Children have developed skills in:
 acquiring information from a variety of sources through, accessing, selecting and critically
evaluating information.
 using an inquiry process when participating in meaningful research related to important social and
environmental issues. This involves initiating an investigation, gathering, analysing, synthesising,
applying information and reflecting on their learning.
 social and civic participation that will allow them to accept and fulfil their social responsibilities.
VALUES
Children have developed:
 an appreciation of the environment, one’s personal relationship with it and one’s responsibility for
its future.
 an understanding of the interdependence of people and the environment.
 a commitment to ecologically sustainable development and lifestyles.
 environmental responsibility.
 a responsibility for their own actions.
 a curiosity to learn about people, society and the environment.
CONCEPTS
 people adapt their environment to meet their needs.
 all living things need shelter.
 Aboriginal people were able to survive in hostile environments.
GENERALISATIONS
 groups provide for the needs and wants of community members
 the environment affects the availability and variety of group activities
 all people belong to groups
UNIT EVALUATION
Title of Unit:
Outcomes:
 ENS1.5:
 ENS1.6:
THE NEED FOR SHELTER
EN
Compares and contrasts natural and built features in their local area and the ways
in which people interact with these features.
Demonstrates an understanding of the relationship between environments and
people.
Indicators of Achievement
 examines how animals use the
environment for shelter.
 examines how plants use the
environment for shelter.
 defines the meaning of shelter
 examines how people adapt to
different environments.
 investigates survival skills for people
lost in a hostile environment.
Teaching / Learning Activities
Read and display texts that show how animals use the
environment for shelter. Look at ways animals adapt to
suit their environment. Research different animals and
compare their lifestyles. Look in detail at how they survive
and how they shelter. Find examples of animals that adapt
their environment to suit their needs. eg platypus makes a
burrow in the bank, kookaburra uses hollow in tree branch
etc.
Provide opportunities for students to explore ways plants
adapt to different environments.
Jointly construct a definition for shelter using the
dictionary to verify or amend student ideas. Have students
draw pictures or complete a model of an animal shelter or
plant environment. Have students describe their picture.
Include an explanation as to how they would feel in this
environment and display with picture or model.
Select text to read to students that show people adapt to
different environments. Look at some harsh environments
such as Antarctica or desert regions. Talk about what
explorers and scientists went through to survive in the
Antarctic. Point out changes that are occurring due to
global warming etc. Read and jointly view texts about
homes in different parts of Australia and the world that
show how humans have built homes to adapt to the
environment. eg. with stilts, steep roofs, wide verandahs,
grass huts.
Read Robinson Crusoe to children and discuss the needs
for survival and how Robinson Crusoe addressed these
needs. Relate other stories of survival after plane crashes,
shipwrecks, getting lost etc. Jointly construct recounts or
descriptions about the survival of people in different
situations. Have students draw pictures of shelters they
would construct if lost with an explanation of how they
would build the shelter and materials they would use. If
possible have a returned service person or current soldier
talk to the class about survival skills. Watch Bush Tucker
Man.
 explores survival skills used by
Aboriginal people.
 examines ways people adapt to their
environment.
 investigates how humans change the
environment.
 identifies ways in which people’s
interactions with the environment can
change that environment.
 investigates safe practice in and
around the home and school.
Visit a museum or art gallery and investigate the
traditional culture of Aboriginal people, or have an
Aboriginal person talk to the class, about the skills that
enabled them to survive in different environments such as
the harsh desert environment. Provide opportunities for
students to demonstrate their understanding of how
Aboriginal people met their need for shelter through work
sheets and individual activities.
Look at household appliances/equipment such as heaters
and air conditioning units and different rooms in the house
which show adaptations to the environment. Ask students
to look through magazines for pictures to use in a mural of
built environments, equipment and rooms that show
adaptation to different environments and weather
conditions. Organise an excursion around the local area
and observe and draw pictures of homes and other
buildings that show adaptation to the environment, and
discuss.
Observe examples of how humans change the environment
by using it to help provide shelter, eg farming for wool
cotton for clothing, cutting down trees for building
materials, building dams for water. Discuss the changes
that occur and the effects on the environment (include the
effects on other living things.)
Jointly construct flow charts of the building of shelters,
showing where the change to the environment can occur.
Discuss the responsibilities that humans have to the
environment when making shelters, and ways that the
environment can be protected eg. using fewer natural
resources and less energy, farming/logging sustainability,
minimising environmental disturbance, recycling waste
and water, regenerating cleared bushland. Explore the
damage animals can make when they make their shelters.
eg. rabbits.
Provide opportunities for students to observe the homes in
their local area, including their own home, and make
judgements about efforts being made to protect the
environment, any damage that is being caused and changes
that could be made.
Read and jointly view texts about safety at home and at
school, and students’ responsibilities. Ask students to
complete a poster showing a safety rule for their home.