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Wild Explorers F-2 Teaching Guide

Quick SummaryStudents will become Wild Explorers, learning about how to care for and respect animals and the natural world. They will engage all their senses and exercise their enquiring minds to learn about what makes animals special and uncover animals' features, habitats, life cycles and what they need to survive.

Connect-Understand-ActThis teaching guide uses a framework called ‘Connect-Understand-Act’ (CUA). This real-world learning framework is based on research into best practice pedagogy. CUA can be used to teach constructivist approaches like inquiry-based learning, project-based learning and problem-based learning. Zoos Victoria uses CUA to educate its visitors and the community. Here is how it works:

Connect – powerful experiences that engage and inspire learners to want to know more about their world

Understand – repeated practice that transforms new skills and knowledge from working memory to long-term memory

Act – mastering what has been learnt by applying skills and knowledge in real-world contexts

What Students Will Learn How to respect and care for animals The unique features and needs of various animal species How living things grow and change

Victorian Curriculum Links Science – Living things have a variety of external features and live in different places where

their basic needs, including food, water and shelter, are met Science – Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves Science – Participate in guided investigations, including making observations using the senses,

to explore and answer questions

Webinar WorkshopsAs part of this Virtual Excursion package, you and your students will participate in a free 30-minute webinar, taught by a Zoo Teacher. The content of this online workshop supports the activities in this teaching guide. Your students will gain new knowledge and can ask lots of questions.

Webinars are offered throughout the week so you can choose one that fits your timetable.Register at www.zoo.org.au/education/zoo-education-online/virtual-excursions/

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Wild Explorers F-2 Teaching Guide

Learning Sequence

Connect‘Connect’ learning experiences engage and inspire people to want to know more about their world. They can be confirming (verifying a learner’s previous experience or knowledge) or disrupting (surprising/challenging a learner’s previous experience or knowledge).

1. Wild Explorer Guide This activity will: introduce students to the concept of being a Wild Explorer. 

Preparation: you will need to give your students access to the Wild Explorers Guide, which can be found the Wild Explorers Virtual Excursions webpage – www.zoo.org.au/education/zoo-education-online/virtual-excursions/

Instructions:1. Read the Wild Explorers Guide to your students or have students find a quiet space to read it

themselves. 2. After reading the story, ask students, “What is a wild explorer?”3. Have students create an image that represents themselves being a Wild Explorer. They may

also like to design a special Wild Explorer hat that incorporates their favourite animal(s)e.g. a special hat that has the ears of a Giraffe and the tail of a Wombat at the back 

4. Finish off the activity by asking students, “What do you love about animals and wildlife?”

Teaching Tip: You may like to extend this activity by asking students to create a short writing piece that explains their image and talks about what they love about animals and wildlife.

Connect 1. Wild Explorer Guide (p. 2)2. Tune in to the 5 Senses(p. 3)3. Scavenger Hunt (p. 3)4. Move Like an Animal (p. 4)

Understand1. Student Webinar (p. 5)2. Build a Habitat (p. 6)3. Animal Features (p. 6)4. Plant Life Cycle (p. 7)

Act1. Action Rubric (p. 8)2. Share the Learning (p.9)

Extra Support (p. 10)

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Wild Explorers F-2 Teaching Guide

2. Tune in to the 5 SensesThis activity will: tune students into using their senses by exploring different elements of nature. 

Preparation: ask students (with the help of an adult) to choose an outdoor space that they can explore. 

Instructions:1. Support students in identifying what their 5 senses are and how they might use these senses

when exploring nature (remind students not to taste anything unknown in nature!).2. Have students go to their chosen outdoor space and find a quiet place to sit. This could be

sitting on a log, leaning on a tree trunk, a nice shady spot on the grass, or a bench in the park. 3. Ask students to sit quietly in their chosen space with their eyes closed. Encourage students to

use their senses to observe what is around them. They might listen, smell or touch things.4. After a few minutes, have students find a natural item (that has fallen or is no longer living) that

represents the colour of how sitting in nature made them feel. e.g. a fallen yellow leaf that represents the happiness they feel when sitting outside. 

5. Now have students continue to explore their chosen outdoor space, tuning into their sense of touch, smell, see and hear. e.g. feel the soil and different textures of trees and plants, see the colours of the plants, patterns on leaves and bark, hear the sounds of birds or leaves in the wind, and smell the scents of flowers. 

6. Ask students to collect a natural item (that has fallen or is no longer living) that symbolises their experience e.g. a feather that can be found on the ground.

7. Once students have returned back to their place of learning, have them create an image, including the two items that they collected, to represent their overall experience in their chosen outdoor space. 

3. Scavenger Hunt This activity will: support students to locate and determine the difference between living and non-living materials in their environments.

Preparation: print or download the Student Worksheet, which can be found the Wild Explorers Virtual Excursions webpage – www.zoo.org.au/education/zoo-education-online/virtual-excursions/

Instructions:1. The student worksheet is a Scavenger Hunt template. Students will need to find an outdoor

environment. This may be students’ backyard, schoolyard or during a walk outside.2. Ask students to think about which sense they will need to use to locate each natural item

(sight).3. Cross off each item as it is found. Students may not find all of these items in their outdoor

space and that is okay. Perhaps students will find something else special that's living or non-living and isn’t on the list!

4. After students have sighted all or most of the items, prompt a discussion about which of the items found in nature are living and non-living. Have students categorise the items.

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5. Ask students why they have categorised items into each of these two groups. What makes something living or non-living? Was it because some are animals and some are not? If so, prompt further discussion about whether plants are also living things.

Teaching Tip: You might like to encourage students to develop their own nature scavenger hunt template that they can share with their friends or family.

4. Move Like an Animal This activity will: help your students connect with the topic by watching Zoos Victoria videos.

Preparation: open the following videos in YouTube or embed into your learning platform: Melbourne Zoo’s koala joey Waru has officially stolen our hearts – www.youtube.com/watch?

v=mBRePPV-f_I Penguins playing on a jumping castle – www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJUoIYy6d_s Reptile swim gym at Melbourne Zoo – www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGBRrncsSBM 

Instructions:1. Share the Zoos Victoria videos with your students.2. Watch ‘Melbourne Zoo’s koala joey Waru has officially stolen our hearts’3. Ask students the follow questions:

How does Waru, the koala joey, hold onto the branches, or her mum? How does she grasp and eat her food? With your favourite soft toy, pretend to be Waru’s mum. Can you carry a joey like Waru? Wrap yourself in blanket and pretend it is your koala fur. How does it feel?

4. Discuss with students – I wonder why koalas have all these features?5. Watch ‘Penguins playing on a jumping castle’6. Ask students to act out the following movements:

Walk and jump like a penguin Pretend your hand is a beak and pick up things around your room with it Move you head like a penguin does when they look around Put on your raincoat and pretend it’s your waterproof feathers

7. Discuss with students – I wonder why penguins have all these features?8. Watch ‘Reptiles swim gym at Melbourne Zoo’9. Ask students to:

Slither along the ground without using your hands like a snake. Find something around the house that could be the rattle at the end of your tail Crawl like a lizard using your arms and your legs Find a pattern. You might suggest looking for tiles on the floor. Ask – do they remind you of

scales? Look for solar panels on a roof. Ask – how are these like snake or lizard scales?

Discuss with students – I wonder why reptiles have all these features?

Teaching Tip: You may like to use this opportunity to ask students further questionse.g. “What do you want to find out about living things?”“What makes animals special?”“What are you most looking forward to during this unit?”

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Understand‘Understand’ learning experiences involve repeated practice. Here is how you can help your students transform new skills and knowledge from short-term memory to long-term memory.

1. Student WebinarThis activity will: help students understand what makes animals special and why we should care for them and their homes. Students will also ask a Zoo teacher (their Wild Guide) any questions. 

Preparation: Webinars are offered throughout the week: Register your students for the Wild Explorers webinar by visiting

www.zoo.org.au/education/zoo-education-online/student-webinars/ You will receive instructions to pass on to your students.

Webinar Instructions:1. Register for the webinar using the link above. Provide your students with the instructions.2. Ask your students to think about what questions they have for the Zoo teacher.3. Students will need to be in a space where they can stand up and move around whilst watching

the webinar. 

After the webinar:1. Ask students to choose one of the animals that they learnt about in the webinar.2. Students will create a visual representation of that animal and its habitat, using descriptive

words or sentences. They could create a drawing, painting or model of the animal and include: Name and age of the animal  Some of the animal’s features What sort of habitat the animal lives in  What the animal needs to survive The life cycle of the animal

Teaching Tip: students might like to extend their learning by doing some further research about their chosen animal.

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2. Build a Habitat This activity will: Help students to understand what different animals need in their habitats to survive.

Preparation: Identify resources that are easy to find around your school or home that children would be able to create a habitat with i.e. toy animals, pretend food, cardboard box etc.

Instructions:1. Discuss with your students what we need in our homes to survive i.e. shelter, food, water,

space and air. Ask students what animals might need in their homes to survive. Introduce the term ‘habitat’ and how it holds a similar meaning to the term ‘home’.

2. Prompt students to think of an animal that they would like to build a habitat for e.g. their favourite toy wombat.

3. Ask students what they think this particular animal would need in their habitat to survive:a. Shelter – a burrowb. Food – native grassesc. Water – most of their water intake comes from foodd. Space – mountains, forests and grasslands to move arounde. Air – to breathe 

4. Have students, using items that can be found in their learning space, create a habitat for a toy animal. 

5. Once students have created the habitat for their chosen animal, ask them to talk through the reasoning for each of the features. Is there anything in the habitat that has been forgotten?

6. Photograph the habitat – we’d love if you shared your habitat photos with us! 

3. Animal FeaturesThis activity will: help students to identify different animal features and understand how these features help them to survive.  

Preparation: have students explore an outdoor space or go on a nature walk to collect a variety of fallen natural materials such as leaves, bark, seed pods etc.

Instructions:1. Using the items students have collected, design an animal. This animal can be real or made

up. Stick the design onto some cardboard or paper. Here are some things to consider:a) Legs – how many? How long? How thin?b) Tail – short or long? Thick or thin? Furry or smooth?c) Hands, paws, claws and teeth?

2. On the piece of paper, draw arrows to the different animal features. Label what they are and what your animal uses them for. For example:a) Long thin legs – helps my animal stand in water and not get its body wetb) Long curly tail – helps my animal hold onto trees for balancec) Sharp claws and teeth – helps my animal catch its food which are other smaller animals

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3. Animal Features (continued)Instructions:3. On another piece of paper, draw your animal’s habitat. How does your animal survive in this

habitat?4. If you made up a new animal give it a name.

Teaching Tip: you may like to extend student learning by having them choose two or three real animals and investigating what features these animals have and how these features help them to survive in the wild.

4. Plant Life CycleThis activity will: help students to discover how plants grow and change and develop an understanding about some of the common features of plants.  

Preparation: Students will need: A dried bean such as pinto bean or chickpea, or some seeds if you have some.  A small ziploc bag/ sandwich bag  Paper towel  Water 

Instructions:1. Fold up the paper towel so that it will fit into the ziploc bag and have students soak the paper

towel in water. Slide it into the ziploc bag and smooth it out so that it is flat.2. Position 2-3 seeds/beans about 3cm from the bottom of the bag on the paper towel. 3. Seal the bag part way, leaving an opening so that air can get into the bag. 4. Tape the bag to a window with the beans/seeds facing indoors. Try and choose a window that

gets plenty of sunlight. 5. In a few days, students should start seeing their seeds sprout. Have students make weekly

observations of their seed over 3-4 weeks. Each time they make an observation, have them draw the changes that they notice in their seed. How does the seed change as it grows? 

6. With the help of an adult, have students investigate what the different parts of the adult plant are for. They may like to label a diagram of their adult plant with the correct terminology and a short one sentence description e.g. The roots of the plant are to help get water and food from the soil into the plant. 

Teaching Tip: this activity can be extended to include animal life-cycles.Have students choose a variety of different animals such as a frog, butterflyand wombat and create a representation of how these animals grow andchange throughout their lives. 

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Act‘Act’ learning experiences enable people to master their skills and knowledge. Here are some suggestions for how students can apply what they’ve learnt in real-world contexts.

1. Action RubricHere are four ways that students can apply their learning in a real-world context.

Nature SpotterThis app is a great game that helps you spot animals and plants outside. You can collect data and share it for scientific research.Questagame – www.questagame.com /

Become a bird watcher with this app. Maybe you could even make yourself some binoculars out of paper towel rolls!Birds in Backyards – www.birdsinbackyards.net/

Pass it OnShare what you’ve learnt with others.

Ideas for how to share your learning:• Your own lesson or workshop• Presentation• PowerPoint• Video• Animation• Poem or story• Song• Play or role-play• Make a puppet show

Lend Your VoiceUsing one of our local threatened species as the main character, write a story, letter, or comic that helps people to understand why this animal is important and why it needs our help.

Remember to talk about: The animal’s habitat Its features and why it needs them How we can care for the animal and its

home

Visit the website to find out more – www.zoo.org.au/fighting-extinction/local-threatened-species/

You may like to turn your story into something that can be shared with your family, friends or teachers, such as a short film, animation or even a published book!

Care for Animals in Your BackyardWe can look after the animals that live around us from the birds in the trees to the tiniest bees.

You might like to: Water the plants in your garden. What

animals might need these plants? Add some rocks to an old bowl full of water

and place it outside for animals to drink. The rocks will let bees and other insects have a drink too.

Pick up any rubbish you see when you are going for a walk. How might rubbish, especially plastic, be harmful to animals?

Make a toy for your pet to entertain it inside. There are lots of ideas for cat enrichment here – www.safecat.org.au

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2. Share the LearningIf your students would like to share their learning with Zoos Victoria and people from other schools, or find out what others have created, they can join Zoos Victoria’s Flipgrid.

Flipgrid is a free Microsoft platform specifically designed for learners to share their ideas, stories and work. Students can record their video using: Flipgrid website, using the camera on their laptop or computer Flipgrid’s app (available for Apple and Android), using the camera on their phone or tablet

Instructions:1. Decide on the level of privacy. Students can present their prototype design in front of the camera or narrate from behind the camera. Zoos Victoria’s Flipgrids are available to anyone who has the URL and password. Please refer to your school’s privacy policy. All videos will be approved by a moderator before being visible to others.

2. Here are the details for the STEM Design Challenge Flipgrid to pass on to your students:Website – https://flipgrid.com/zvprimary Flipcode for app – zvprimaryPassword – ZVexcursion

3. Students are welcome to watch the videos already in the grid. If they want to share their learning, here’s what to do (instructions are also on this webpage).

Click the green plus symbol to get started.

Students will need to log in using their Google or Microsoft password. At least one these accounts is probably already linked to their Catholic Education, Department of Education or independent school email address.

Tap the record button on the bottom to start. If students are using a web browser, they made may need to enable Adobe Flash Player. They can add fun stickers, filters, text, and more.Or if they’ve already recorded a video, they need to click on the ‘upload’ icon.

Review the video – trim, rearrange, or add more.

Take a thumbnail photo for the video. This could be a selfie or a photo of the prototype.

Students can edit their name, video title or attach a link. Then submit! They will get a confirmation email with a link to share with your class. They can also download their video.

Zoos Victoria staff will provide feedback on your students’ prototype so they can improve their design. Other people in the Flipgrid might give feedback too. Your student will get an email notification when any feedback is provided.

Teaching Tip: New to Flipgrid? Visit the Help Centre – https://help.flipgrid.com/hc/en-us

Extra Support

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Got a question? Zoos Victoria’s Education Team is here to help you. Here is how to get extra support:

Teacher Tribe Facebook Group Our Teacher Tribe is a community who use real-world learning to enable young people to thrive as learners and conservation change-makers. Use this Facebook group to share your stories, ideas and resources with zoo staff and teachers from other schools and get support for your teaching.

Teacher Membership and Professional DevelopmentBecome a Teacher Member to receive exclusive access to teacher professional development events, unlimited entry to our three great zoos, the education e-newsletter and all the benefits of a Zoos Victoria membership.

Zoo Education OnlineWant to do another real-world learning unit with your students? Check out Zoo Education Online. We're bringing the zoo to you with learning activities, resources, webinars and live stream animals to help with real-world learning.

This program is funded by the Department of Education and Training’s Strategic Partnerships Program.

This program is funded by the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria.