Ohio Social Studies Strands Australia 3 rd Grade Christen Canter and Rochelle Grome

Table of Contents 1.American Heritage 2. World Interactions 3.People in Societies 4.Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities 5.Democratic Processes 6.Decision Making and Resources 7.Websites

American Heritage 1.Create a timeline of important events throughout Australian History. 2.Dress up and report on a famous Australian (actors/actresses, presidents/leaders) 3.Given a map of Australia, students will locate and label different items, and places.

American Heritage (cont.) 4. Students will view a videotape on the history of Australia. Through class discussion they will explore new facts that they learned from the video. 5. Have the students write a paragraph about what interests them about Australia.(past/present)

World Interactions 1.Research the Wilderness Society of Australia, and choose an issue and either defend or opose the issue. 2.Pick a state/territory in Australia and research and draw the flag.

World Interactions (cont.) 3.Given a map of Australia students will divide it into territories and states and name and locate each capital. 4.Have the students brainstorm and list some ways that The United States and Australia are the same and some ways they are different.

World Interactions (cont.) 5. Divide the students into groups, and have them create a travel brochure trying to sell a vacation to Australia to an American family.

People in Societies 1.Students will research and develop a report on the Aboriginal culture. 2.Students will research Aboriginal art, and create a unique piece of tribal jewelry.

People in Societies (cont.) 3.Research the Australian Outback and the lives of the people who live and work their and create an informative poster/sign about what life is like in the outback. 4.Look up and define some original “aussie” vocabulary words.

People in Societies (cont.) 5. Research and perform an Aboriginal tribe dance.

Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities 1.Students will create a territory/state’s government. Tell what the type of government is called and what the laws of this territory are. 2.Have students pretend to be citizens of an Australian territory, each student must create a law to be presented in the next activity. 3.Using the laws from the previous activity have the students present their laws and have the rest of the class decide wether or not each law should be passed.

Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities (cont.) 4. In a class discussion have the students talk about what they think being a good citizen is all about. 5. Discuss with the students what the difference between facts and opinions are. Give them and activity sheet for practicing the identification of facts and opinions.

Democratic Processes 1.Introduce the different types of government and some general background information about each. Ask the students to research, via internet what form of government is present in Australia. 2.Introduce the different branches of government, who is in charge of each branch and what each branchs’ major roles are.

Democratic Processes (cont.) 3. Have the students find a group or organization that interests them, and write a letter to them telling them why their efforts are appreciated. 4.Have the students research a crime that was comitted in Australia, then with the whole class conduct a mock trial.

Democratic Processes (cont.) 5.Using the Australian laws, have the students choose a leader by holding an election.

Decision Making and Resources 1.Student groups are given a randomly chosen amount of money. Each group has a different amount of money.(Australian Money) Each group must choose the most efficient way to live in Australia on the budget they have been given. Each group will write a report about where they have the funds to live and what they can afford to buy, etc...

Decision Making and Resources 2. Select two students from the class to run for office of the territory of Victoria. The rest of the class will be divided up into groups as the campaign managers and helpers. Students will campaign and debate about why they think they should be elected as the president of the territory.

Decision Making and Resources 3. Have the students research and report on the major imports and exports of Australia. 4. Have the students hold a trading simulation, where each group of students is a country trying to trade their goods. 5. Have the students map the world, routing each route that the major imports come from.

Websites on Australia All websites can be used for each Social Studies Strand.