Australia Day in Year 1 Evenlode Class

G'day mate! We have had the most fantastic Australia Day in class. There were lots of different Australia themed activities throughout the day and it was great to see the children getting into the spirit of it all. A HUGE thank you to Rebekah for working so hard on this amazing day for us. It really brought the day to life and we very much appreciate everything that went into organising and resourcing all of the activities. Thank you so much. 
Here are some of the activities that we took part in along with some photos from our day. 

“There’s a Sea in My Bedroom” (by Margaret Wild)
We began our day by reading this Australian story. It was great to use our imagination for our journey to Australia and learning about why we can hear the 'sea' when we hold a shell to our ear. 

Language 
We then thought about similarities/ differences between English and Australian words. We learnt some Aussie slang for words such as sausage (snag), wellie boots (gumboots), flip flops (thongs) and duvet (doona). We played a game where we had to choose the correct Aussie word and we showed the action that went with that word. 

Aboriginal Art 
After break, we focused on Aboriginal Art. We learnt all about the storytelling involved with creating the dot paintings and the symbols that could be used.  We thought carefully about the colours that would've been used and how they would have been made from things found within nature e.g. green from grass/ leaves. We then created our own dot art painting where we used dots/ symbols around the outside of the Australia outline and then we painted a landscape scene within the outline. We think that they look absolutely brilliant and they will be on display in our class soon.

Tapping sticks 
After lunch, we took part in our own Aboriginal Corroboree where we learnt a dance with our tapping sticks. We practised the routine to a very famous Australian song-Waltzing Matilda. Here is the link to the song if you would like to create your own tapping stick dance at home: 
​www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOWuIKv-ZLM

Musical Statues-Australian Animal style! 
We played musical statues where we danced along to songs by Kylie Minogue! When the music stopped we had to freeze as a statue in the shape on an Australian animal. Take a look at the photos and see if you can guess which animals we were showing: 

ANZAC Biscuits ​ 
We learnt about ANZAC biscuits which are special to Australians, and enjoyed particularly on ANZAC day (25th April), which is the Australian equivalent of Remembrance Day (11th Nov). We thought about the ingredients that are used to make the biscuits. They were so delicious that we all had a second biscuit to eat! We also learnt about why these biscuits were sent to the soldiers in the war (they lasted for a longer time than other biscuits). 

Evenlode Class and the Epic Australian Voyage 
At the end of the day we gathered to listen to one final story. This was a very exciting story as it was written and created by Rebekah. As we listened we noticed that there were some familiar characters including Miss Leggett and all of the children. How fantastic! We listened to the children going on their Australian adventure and learning all about life in Aus. Not only did Rebekah very kindly gift us a copy of the book to keep in our class but she also created individual copies for each of the children to take home too. We are so very lucky, thank you so much! We hope that you enjoy sharing this wonderful story together at home.