Lesson

Sequence/Allocated
Time
Overview Resources
Lesson 1
1.5 hours

Introduce the book and ask the children what
they think it might be about and explain the
learning outcomes that can be achieved with the
success planner. Read the book and discuss the
explorers who found the animals. Ask questions
when reading like Why were the explorers
there? Who were they? what were they
doing in Australia etc. Relate the dates within
the book back to a timeline of the early
exploration and first fleet. Record each of the
dates found and what was discovered by who.
Success planner
Lesson 2
1 hour
With the information about the dates and
important explorers found from the book as well
as the first fleet exploration timeline, ask the
children to create a timeline on TimeToast. It is to
include dates, what animals were found, which
explorers found them and the important
exploration dates. This will help the students
understand the sequence of events and link the
exploration dates back to something still relevant
today with the animals.
TimeToast
Lesson 3
1 hour
Reading to learn. Read through the text, create a
word wall and look at the words that they might
not know. Ask them to then re-write the words
and understand the meanings. Deconstruct the
type of text that it is and the language features
involved
Word Wall
Lesson 4
1 hour
Examine the fast facts in the book with
comparison to the National Geographic one.
Show them the blank fast facts sheet and assign
them to heterogeneous groups to fill out the fast
facts sheet in pairs for the animals from the
book. Look through the text and examine the
Fast Facts sheets. Look at the information that
is used to create these and make special mention
towards the indigenous words.

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/
animals/mammals/tasmanian-devil/

Blank Fact sheet
Lesson 5
1.5 hours
The children are to work again in pairs from the
previous lesson. Give them each a visual planner
to collate their ideas. They are to create a speech
telling the class about the animal and also an
animal fact sheet is to be presented with the
appropriate data.
Visual Planner
Lesson 6
1 hour
The students in their pairs are to look at their
visual planner and find something beyond the
text to investigate and explore. They are to
research and explore interesting facts about the
animal. The children are expected to create a 5

minute speech about their animal and the
interesting facts to be presented in the next
lesson.
Lesson 7
1.5 hours
The pairs are to present their speeches through
the use of oral and visual presentation. When
each child has finished the peers are to write
down 1 interesting fact they learnt about the
animal and provide feedback for their
classmates.


Lesson 8
1 hour
Discuss the topics- Why the Tasmanian tiger was
wiped out but the Tasmanian devil survived; Why
in the long term Australian animals did not
replace cattle, pigs and sheep as the staple meat
diet for Europeans in Australia; What the early
settlers could have done to stop the pig-footed
bandicoot from

Lesson 9
1 hour
Get the children to look at the information they
gained from the previous lesson and get them to
discuss ways to stop further extinction of
Australian animals. As a class create a mind map
using bubbl.us/mindmap. From this mind map
look at different persuasive texts and show
examples of them on the projector.

http://www.wwf.org.au/our_work
/saving_the_natural_world/wildlife
_and_habitats/australian_priority_
species/
https://bubbl.us/mindmap
Lesson 10
1.5 hours
From the childrens ideas about preventing
extinction of native animals allow the children to
create a persuasive text in the format of their
choice. Work through the different formats with
them and discuss the language expected in each.
They are to include scientific facts and data.
Encourage the use of environmental factors and
the reason as to why native animals are depleting
in numbers

http://www.wildlifewarriors.org.au/
conservation-projects/tasmanian-devils/
Lesson 11
1.5 hours
Allow the students to work on their persuasive
text. Encourage them to use good language
techniques to get the best possible point across.
Allow them to use the data from the book and
research for themselves. Spend the last part of
the lesson discussing the different texts created
and how they persuaded the readers through the
different techniques.


Lesson 12
1 hour
From the experiences that the children have
learnt about fact sheets, the ways that the
European explorers viewed the animals and the
language within the text the students are to
create their own animals. They are to draw it,

create interesting facts and write a short journal
entry as to what happened when they stumbled
upon the creature like the early explorers did.
Show them the example of the Kangaroo.
Lesson 13
1 hour
The children are to share their animals with their
peers through group sharing. The children can
examine the various creative texts and languages
used to develop their animal.