Class: Year four Lesson Duration: 90 minutes

Lesson: First Fleet Significance

Learning Goals:
The entirety of this lesson will enable students to understand the significance of colonial
settlement. Students will focus on the key inquiry question of why did the Europeans
settle in Australia?. Through this, students will become aware of Australias history in
order to develop their understanding of its role in influencing the current Australian
society and identity.

Curriculum Links:
Record, sort and represent data and the location of places and their characteristics
in different formats, including simple graphs, tables and maps, using discipline-
appropriate conventions(ACHASSI075)
Sequence information about peoples lives and events (ACHASSI076)
Draw simple conclusions based on analysis of information and data (ACHASSI079)
Pose questions to investigate people, events, places and issues (ACHASSI073)
Present ideas, findings and conclusions in texts and modes that incorporate digital
and non-digital representations and discipline-specific terms (ACHASSI082)

Historical Curriculum Links:

Stories of the First Fleet, including reasons for the journey, who travelled to
Australia, and their experiences following arrival (ACHASSK085)
Prior Knowledge:
Before undertaking this lesson, students are to have an informed previous knowledge on
the topic. Previous knowledge required includes a basic understanding about the British
settlement in Australia. However, great detail of this concepts is not vital, as it will explore
largely in our lesson. This specific prior knowledge will give teachers a better opportunity
to extend on student abilities and work effectively in collaboration with our lesson plan.

Exploring the concepts and significance of colonial settlement is very relevant to the lives
of all the students. As they will grasp a deeper understanding of what has formed the
country they live in today. All the grade 4 initial understanding of these concepts is
amateur. Approaching this lesson, students will have completed reading Eliza Bird; Child
Convict in class. However, with this lesson plan, students will be able to share personal
family histories or develop an insight into their unknown histories.
Resources and Materials:
Students workbooks
Butchers paper and markers
Resource: World Map
Resource: Behind the News video The First Fleet
Pencils and colour pencils
Lesson Outline:
Introduction:
Through this lesson students will understand the significance of colonial settlement. The
motives of the First Fleet to settle in Australia and exploring perspective of migrants will
be explored. An understanding of the First Fleet voyage will also be developed. Content
investigated by the students will be recorded in their history journals.

Body:
1. Approaching the first activity, the teacher will play the video Behind the News
The First Fleet. Students will reflect on ideas presented in Eliza Bird: Child Convict
and Behind the News to form a class discussion about why Britain settled in
Australia. The ideas contributed by the students will be presented in a mind map
which is created on butchers paper so it can be later displayed around the
classroom.
- Questions posed by the teacher to prompt this discussion may include;
What was Britain experiencing at the time? Who travelled with the First
Fleet? What did Australia have that Britain wanted (resources and land)?
2. Following on from the first activity, students will now critically explore the life in
Britain at the time to understand what influenced the migration to Australia. From
the mind map, students will discuss in groups why it was important for Britain to
expand to Australia (over-population). Coming back as a class, the teacher will
read a convicts profile. The students will understand how the convicts lived a
normal life and are now being exiled to unknown land. Students will now create
their own convict profile and act as a convict to better understand their
experiences.
3. In the final activity, students will use their knowledge gained throughout the
lesson and extended resources to map the voyage of the First Fleet. Students will
be given a timeline of events, and they are to work in groups to map the First
Fleets voyage. This activity involved numeracy listed under general capabilities
(ACARA, 2017 ).

Conclusion:
In their history journal, students will reflect on their gained knowledge through questions
presented on the whiteboard by the teacher. After, students may write down any
questions they are still unsure of or want to explore further. The teacher collects these
books to understand student ability.

Assessment:
Students will be assessed on their knowledge gained from resources which they
contribute to class and group discussions.
Reference List
ACARA. (2017 ). HASS. Retrieved from Australian Curriculum :
https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-
sciences/hass/

Behind the News. (2014). First Fleet - Behind the News. Retrieved from YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnUNEkMsjfY

Lane, K. (2007). Eliza Bird Child Convict. Australia : Pearson Education Australia.