Designed in conjunction with ACARA curriculum 2016-17

Education Worksheets

Early Stage One

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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 Sea-

eagles 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.

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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

welcomed and given some information about the park to assist

their visit. General behaviour expectations will also be outlined.

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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 Draw up animal signage on a classroom wall reflecting endangered animals,

conservation issues, Australian animals and the like.

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OUTCOMES

A student:

Identifies that the way objects move depends on a variety of

factors STe-6NE

Observes, using their senses, how daily and seasonal changes in

the environment affect them and other living things STe-7NE

Identifies the basic needs of living things STe-8NE

CONTENT

The way objects move depends on a variety of factors, including

their size and shape. (ACSSU005)

Students:

Observe the way a variety of familiar objects move, e.g. sliding,

rolling, spinning and bouncing on the ground

Identify that the way an object moves depends on its size and

shape, e.g. tennis balls and blocks

Daily and seasonal changes in our environment, including the

weather, affect everyday life. (ACSSU004)

Students:

Describe how people respond to familiar changes in their

environment, e.g. day and night and seasonal changes

Identify how plants and animals respond to changes in the

environment, e.g. trees losing their leaves and the thickness of

animals' fur

Living things have basic needs, including food and

water. (ACSSU002)

Students:

Describe what plants and animals, including humans, need to stay

alive and healthy, e.g. food, water and air

Identify the needs of a variety of living things in a range of

situations, e.g. pets at home, plants in the garden or plants and

animals in bushland and/or on farms.

ACARA SYLLABUS

REQUIREMENTS

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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

Describe three animals seen on the excursion.

What do these animals need to survive-Food, Shelter etc?

Comprehension

Collect pictures of various animals and their homes. Get students to match

them. How are they similar/different?

Application

Take items from home and craft department and build a home for an animal

(as groups or individual). Show classroom results and what the

home/enclosure represents.

Analysis

Use the built home (re application) and discuss with the class all the

furnishings in it. – Food bowl, shelter, tree, burrow etc. How do they benefit

the animal?

Synthesis

Make a sign for the animal home similar to the signs at FWP. Discuss as a

class. What does it tell us about the animal?

Evaluation

As a class discuss the visit to FWP. What did they like and what could be

better next time? Any questions that need answering can be sent to the team

for reply.

ACARA SYLLABUS

REQUIREMENTS

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What do living things need? Circle the words that living things need to

survive.

WATER

LOLLIES

FOOD

SHELTER

CUPS

AIR

TV

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What are living things? Circle the living things

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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.

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Body Parts

Draw lines to join the body parts to their names.

Wing

Foot

Eye

Beak

Did you know a fruit

bats tongue is longer

than yours!

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What covers my body? Draw a line from the animals to their body

covering

Spines

Fur

Scales

Feathers

Did you know

Echidna’s use their

back feet as combs!

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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.

Is the emu taller or shorter than you?

Is the little penguin larger or smaller

than you?

What about the shingle back lizard? Is

it bigger or smaller than you?

Did you know that

kangaroos are the size

of a jelly bean when

born!

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Dry Environments Draw as many animals as possible that shelter in

dry environments like the Australian bush.

Look around the park to get some ideas

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Wet Environments Draw as many animals as possible that shelter

in wet environments like the Australian

billabong.

Look around the park to get some ideas

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Home Sweet Home Pythons are snakes, and their shelters include long grass, logs,

water, caves and burrows.

What other homes do you think you could find a snake in?

These shelters keep them safe from predators like eagles, dingoes,

people, large snakes and large lizards.

What would happen if we took their

home away?

Did you know that

snakes have scales,

even on their eyes!

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My home Draw my home in the empty boxes.

Did you know that

Koalas have two

thumbs!

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What does it eat? Draw a line from each animal to the food you think

it likes to eat.

Did you know that gum leaves

are poisonous! Never try to eat

them!

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What does it eat?

Did you know that most

owls like to have their

breakfast at night!

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Climb

Slide

Hop

Swim

Fly

How does it move?

How do these animals move? Draw a line to the

correct word.

Did you know that crocodiles

jump really high in water by

using their tail!

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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.

Growing and Changing

Did you know that a baby

Quokka is called a Joey!

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Lesson Project During, or after the lesson fill in this report about an animal, any

animal. Use park signs if your excursion had no lesson

What am I?

………………………………………………………………………………………………....

Where do I live?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

What do I eat?

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What fun fact do you know about me?

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Draw me

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Lesson Project During, or after the lesson fill in this report about an animal, any

animal. Use park signs if your excursion had no lesson

What am I?

………………………………………………………………………………………………....

Where do I live?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

What do I eat?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

What fun fact do you know about me?

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Draw me

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Lesson Project During, or after the lesson fill in this report about an animal, any

animal. Use park signs if your excursion had no lesson

What am I?

………………………………………………………………………………………………....

Where do I live? What is my shelter?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

What do I eat?

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What fun fact do you know about me?

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Draw me

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Lesson Project During, or after the lesson fill in this report about an animal, any

animal. Use park signs if your excursion had no lesson

What am I?

………………………………………………………………………………………………....

Where do I live?

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..

What do I eat?

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

What fun fact do you know about me?

………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Draw me

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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.

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Word meanings

Air: What we breathe.

Breathe: Taking in air to live.

Burrow: A large hole underground that is someone’s home.

Camouflage: When an animal becomes invisible in its home or shelter.

Carnivorous: An Animal that eats meat.

Change: When a living thing becomes different.

Eggs: A home for baby animals like lizards, birds, and frogs. It’s hard and protects them

while they are growing inside.

Eucalyptus: A type of Australian tree. Sometimes called a Gum Tree.

Feathers: The body covering of birds.

Food: What an animal eats.

Fur: The body covering of mammals.

Grow: When a living thing increases in size or changes.

Habitat: The home of an animal, where it lives.

Herbivorous: An animal that only eats plants or vegetation.

Living Thing: Is a thing that breathes moves, grows changes, eats and drinks and has

babies.

Marsupial: An animal with a pouch.

Nocturnal: Animal that sleeps during the day and has breakfast at night.

Omnivorous: An animal that eats meat as well as plants

Predator: An animal that hunts another animal.

Prey: An animal that is hunted for food.

Scales: The body covering of lizards, snakes, fish.

Shed: When an animal loses its old body covering for a new one like snakes

Shelter: An area where an animal can stay protected from danger.

Slither: The way a snake or python drags itself on the ground.

Spikes: The hard spines on an echidna.

Venom: What snakes use to kill their food. It’s in their fangs.

Water: What an animal drinks.

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ANSWERS

Page 7

1. Food, water, air, shelter

Page 8

1. Crocodile, Wallaby, penguin and plant.

Page 17

Koala- eucalyptus leaves, Echidna-termites, Tasmanian Devil-potoroo

Page 18 Page 20