Year 2 – Junior Primary Poster Kit Activities
What you need to know
1. To obtain your free set of posters email info@ausmepa.org.au
2. Go to the website www.ausmepa.org.au/poster to download information sheets to be used
with the posters
3. The titles of the posters are:
a. Anemonefish
b. Cuttlefish
c. Dangers
d. Hermit crab
e. Fairy penguin
f. Seahorses and seadragons
g. Sharks and Rays
h. Turtle
4. These activity sheets cover the Australian Curriculum for Foundations Year to Year 4
5. In the future we hope to also provide some smartboard activities which will be available on
the AUSMEPA website.
Activities for primary posters
www.ausmepa.org.au
©AUSMEPA and Bob Winters
Year 2
Australian
Curriculum
Science
Content description
Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves (ACSSU030)
Earth’s resources, including water, are used in a variety of ways (ACSSU032)
People use science in their daily lives, including when caring for their environment
and living things (ACSHE035)
Geography
The influence of purpose, distance and accessibility on the frequency with which
people visit places (ACHGK013)
English
Create events and characters using different media that develop key events and
characters from literary texts (ACELT1593)
Create short imaginative, informative and persuasive texts using growing
knowledge of text structures and language features for familiar and some less
familiar audiences, selecting print and multimodal elements appropriate to the
audience and purpose (ACELY1671)
Teacher and classroom preparation:
- Download and skim through the poster factsheets before the lesson. Have the factsheets handy if
you want to refer to them during the lesson.
- If you are going to use the activity sheets, you will need to make copies.
- A touch table of material commonly washed onto the beach would be valuable.
- Have a street directory on hand if it includes the coast.
- Equipment to show and for students to use powerpoint presentations.
- Computers or tablets with internet access.
Lesson 1 – How marine animals have their young.
 Prior learning
o Use posters to find out what students know about the animals and how they have their
young.
 Finding out
o Present the powerpoint ‘How marine animals have young’ and discuss as you go.
o Students do some basic research on the internet about how marine animals have young. As
a class experiment with different search features when looking up information. Do they find
the information they want faster if using image or video searches?
o Provide groups of students with one of the posters of the animals and a related fact sheet.
They can also use the internet. Ask students to find out as many facts as they can about their
animal having young and growing up.
o They produce notes and then design their presentation.
 Presenting
o Each group presents their information to the class.
 Consolidating (and assessment)
o Students complete the activity sheet ‘How do these animals have their young?’
 Extension
o On the web search for videos of animal eggs, young and growing.
Lesson 2 – How we use the sea and coast
Activities for primary posters
www.ausmepa.org.au
©AUSMEPA and Bob Winters



Prior learning
o Use the posters to ask students if we use any of the animals presented in the poster. You
might provide some prompts eg ‘where have you seen penguins?’ so students can link it to
tourism.
o Ask questions about what the sea is and what the coast is? (The coast is where the land and
sea meet and includes the land near the sea, the intertidal zone and the shallow sea near
the land)
o Get some examples of what they might find on the coast.
Examples of how we use the sea and the coast
o As a class view the powerpoint ‘How we use the sea.’
o Go through the suggested questions at the start of the Powerpoint.
 What do you see?
 Are people having fun?
 Are people making a living?
 Are goods being transported? Can you work out what is being transported?
 Is the marine and coastal environment being affected?
o As a class discuss each photo.
o Make a list of their main ideas.
o At the end of the powerpoint ask students to write a paragraph about how they use the sea.
Getting to the sea
o Use public transport information, Google maps and if available a street directory.
o Where is the sea in relation to the school?
o How could students get to the sea?
 Walk?
 Rides a bike?
 Catch public transport?
 Drive by car or a hired bus?
 Catch a flight and then other transport?
o Where would be the best place to visit the sea that is easy to get to?
Lesson 3 – Using the sea
 Using the sea for food
o Download the powerpoint ‘Food from the sea.’
o As a class discuss the powerpoint.
o As the class goes through the powerpoint they will build up a story about seafood.
o The following questions are provided at the middle of the powerpoint:
 Look at the photos
 What do you see?
 What kind of seafood is being sold? What kind of animal is it?
 Was a boat used to catch the seafood?
o Choose a controversial issue concerning the use of marine resources for the class to discuss.
Examples include whaling, killing sharks just for their fins or birds being killed by fish nets or
fish hooks.
 Using the sea for transport
o Download the powerpoint ‘Transport on the sea.’
o The powerpoint provides a range of examples of ships and boats and their transport
functions. Each slide has a general description. Students should be able to read most of the
texts.
o Divide the class into small groups so each group can access the powerpoint on a computer or
tablet.
o The groups are to each produce a small report on how the sea is used for transport.
Activities for primary posters
www.ausmepa.org.au
©AUSMEPA and Bob Winters
o
Students can illustrate their report by downloading images from the AUSMEPA website,
www.ausmepa.or.au > Student research > Photo library enter site and choose ships in the
category box and click on search.
Lesson 4 – Looking after the coast
 Changes to the coast
o Go through the powerpoint ‘Changes to the coast.’
o Ask students to think and discuss these questions as they go through the first section of the
powerpoint
 Where is the photo taken?
 What can you see? Which things are natural? Which things are not natural?
 What can you see that might be wrong?
 Why is it happening?
o In the second part of the powerpoint they discuss questions about how people are helping
the coast:
 Where is the photo taken?
 What can you see?
 How have people been caring for the coast?
 How does it help the coast?
o The third part looks at how students can prevent pollution from reaching the sea.
o At the end the class makes a short list of things they can do to protect the coast and sea.
 Investigating signs
o A powerpoint ‘Investigating signs’ can be downloaded. It has about 40 signs that were
photographed along the coast of Australia. There is also an activity sheet students can fill out
for each sign It is in word, so teachers can easily modify the equations if they wish.
o Each sign on the powerpoint has a number on the upper right hand side.
o Divide the class into small groups with a computer and a copy of the powerpoint.
o Designate which numbers each group will do (there are around 40 signs)
o Explain the activity sheet ‘Investigating signs.’
o Each group carefully looks at their sign and tries to interpret what the signs mean.
o When the class has finished each group presents their findings to the class pointing out the
significant features of the sign and how they are designed to help. Teachers and students
can discuss and add as each group presents their interpretation.
o Once all the signs have been presented, students choose a theme they could do at their local
beach and design a sign.
 Touch table
o If you have a touch table of marine artefacts provide students with some questions when
they handle them.
o What kind of animals and plants did the artefacts belong to?
o Why were they on the beach?
o Are they dead or alive?
o Do they think they died on the beach or they were washed up because they were already
dead?
Lesson 5 - Visiting the beach
Preparing students
 Safety at the beach
 Download the safety fact sheet and read it before the lesson.
o Use the safety poster with the class. Look at each item on the poster and discuss how each
one might be a safety problem when visiting the beach.
Activities for primary posters
www.ausmepa.org.au
©AUSMEPA and Bob Winters
o Read relevant text from the safety fact sheet to fill in student information.
o Point out there is many other safety issues such as drowning and sunburns as examples.
o Discuss how broken glass and fish hooks may have got onto a beach.
o Complete the activity sheet ‘How will I stay safe?’
 Decide on what other rules and preparation are required eg:
o Suncream
o Hydration
o Clothing and footwear
o Getting wet?
o Distance from a supervising adult
o Going to a toilet
o Running on slippery surfaces
o Handling wildlife
o What will students do with their rubbish?
 Getting to the beach
o Explain to students where they will be going when visiting the beach.
o Identify the form of transport and discuss how the form of transport work eg Teacher
phones and books the bus and then the teacher collects money from families so the bus
company can be paid.
o Use maps to find the best roads to travel to the beach location.
o Use online maps to investigate the location students will be visiting. Change the online maps
to show different features. Discuss what the benefits are of the different types of maps eg
outline vs aerial photography v street view.
 Other preparation
o Providing students with a beach bucket and a plastic ruler helps them explore and reduces
the chance of students handling harmful material. An excellent piece of equipment rather
than a ruler is a cheap plastic spaghetti spoon.
o Decide what activities and equipment you need for the beach.
o Have a plan B if the weather is going to be nasty.
o Accompanying adults/parents need to be provided with a set of instructions. (Advise that
these adults have no smaller children with them and they are not to disappear to a nearby
coffee shop)
o Designate an adult to inspect the beach for dangerous objects when you arrive.
o Consider using a large tarp and tent pegs for students to have their lunch on.
o Beach toys are useful but large blow up plastic balls will blow away even in a light wind.
Examples of activities
 Where will you visit
o If the beach you visit is regularly cleaned by a tractor then there may be little for students to
find. However there are often places the tractor can’t go which may be full of washed up
marine bits and pieces. You will need to be aware of these locations before your visit.
o The location must have easy and safe access to toilets.
 How will you start your visit?
o Will the bus remain or disappear?
o Where will lunches and bags are placed so that lunches stay out of the sun and away from
birds?
o Will students be able to use a toilet as soon as they get off the bus?
o When will students have a snack/drink/lunch?
o Will you give students some free play time before you start on activities?
o What instructions will you give students about where they can and can’t go?
o How will you communicate with students when you want them to return to you?
 What we can see at the sea
Activities for primary posters
www.ausmepa.org.au
©AUSMEPA and Bob Winters
o
o
o
o








Gather students in a line or a circle. A circle usually works best. Choose a location where
there are some interesting objects on the sand.
Ask students to look for different things in the circle and provide different students to
describe them. The teacher can move in the circle and point out the different objects being
described.
When finished asked students to turn around so they face outside the circle.
Students are to pick out different landforms, plants, feature etc that they learnt about in
class. This will need to be done twice by getting the circle to move half way around.
Take note of lines of tidal seaweed and other marine objects.
o
Sounds
o This can be done while students are still in the circle.
o Students close their eyes and place their hand over them
o Direct students to listen to different sounds which will include waves, wind, birds and
possibly cars, dogs, aircraft, other people etc. Start each sentence by saying “listen to.” If
you say “Can you hear?” they will answer you and that interrupts their listening.
Seaweed collection
o Using their buckets and rulers/spaghetti spoons, students collect seaweeds washed up onto
the beach.
o The spread their collection out and form a circle around it.
o Go through the different seaweeds and describe their features. Look at shape, length, colour
and feel the texture.
o Talk about why they are washed up and what will eventually happen to them.
o Students could us their collection of seaweed to sort into different types and find which is
the longest.
Tides
o If you want to introduce students to tides you will need something like a garden steak that
can be placed at the water line when you first arrive at the beach.
o Towards the end of their visit they can see how the water line has changed,
Smallest shell
o Find a location where the tide has accumulated shells.
o Have a competition among students to find the smallest shell.
o If students are allowed to remove shells from the beach, tell them they can only take three
home (this is a simple way to introduce sustainability).
Acting out our favourite animals
o Designate each student an animal that lives on the beach or in the sea.
o Ask students to move like that animal and if it makes a noise to imitate the sound.
o Go around and help students to perfect their movements.
o Once everyone is in the grove, ask them to think what features their animals have and how
they use them? Can they add anything to their act?
Where seaweeds live?
o Rockpools are the easiest place to observe live seaweeds.
o Look at where and how they are anchored.
o See how the plants float in the water.
o Observe the colours and shapes. Most of the seaweeds are not green.
Where animals live?
o The easiest animals to observe will be birds. Look at where they are and what they can do.
How do the move on the beach, in the air and on water?
o If there are wet exposed rocks, an adult could turn them over to find crabs.
o Many snails and other shellfish will be holding tight onto rocks.
o The most likely place to find sea stars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers is in rockpools.
How do those creatures use their features?
Activities for primary posters
www.ausmepa.org.au
©AUSMEPA and Bob Winters
o


Using buckets and rulers, students collect as many animal objects on the beach as students
can find.
o They talk about the features on the objects.
o They then work out how the animals could use their features.
Drawing in the sand
o Using their rulers, students are provided challenges to draw different marine related themes
in the sand.
o To extend the activity they could draw a comic strip about a marine animal having an
adventure.
Litter watch
o Students are taken in a group to observe litter. The teacher could use a ruler/spaghetti
spoon to point to litter. (students should be discouraged from picking up any beach litter)
o What is the kind of litter?
o Will it rot?
o Will it float or sink?
o How did it get onto the beach?
Lesson 6 – Caring for a sick turtle
 Use one or more photos of sick turtle to write an imaginative story. Use photos from the photo
library to make the story
http://www.ausmepa.org.au/photos.asp?category=&animal=337&photographer=&location=
 Students write about
o How the sick turtle was found.
o How the sick turtle ended up being cared for by a vet.
o What happened to the sick turtle once it was better?
Activities for primary posters
www.ausmepa.org.au
©AUSMEPA and Bob Winters