Features, Life Cycles and the Environment Year 3-4

Connect 

Use the activities in the Teaching Guide (below) to spark students’ curiosity before their Healesville Sanctuary visit.

Connect and Understand 

Students will be immersed among wildlife and habitats as you explore Healesville Sanctuary.

Students will learn valuable observation and classification skills to organise animals into groups based on their features, life cycles and habitats. By understanding what animals need to survive, students will investigate the challenges our local species face in the wild.

With a Sanctuary teacher, students can observe animals up close, hear unique insights and participate in guided discussions and exploration to discover what makes Australian animals so unique. Students are encouraged to reflect upon the effect that humans have on native habitats and wildlife and consider how we can help to care for these animals in the future.

Your Sanctuary visit will include: A Welcome (for arrivals between 9:50am – 10.10am), a Sanctuary Teacher workshop (40 minutes), Spirits of the Sky presentation and keeper talks. Check out your Teaching Guide for other ideas of what to do at Healesville Sanctuary.

Understand  

Use activities in the Teaching Guide to deepen students’ learning back at school.  

Act  

Use the Teaching Guide to enable students to master their knowledge and skills in real-world contexts.  

Living things can be grouped on the basis of observable features and can be distinguished from non-living things (VCSSU057) 

• Students will encounter Australian animals and learn to identify the variations in their features and group them accordingly 

Different living things have different life cycles and depend on each other and the environment to survive (VCSSU058) 

• Students will learn about the life cycles of different Australian animals and how they depend on the environment to survive 

Science knowledge helps people to understand the effects of their actions (VCSSU056)

• Students will discover how science has contributed to understanding and resolving issues related to human impacts on the environment and native wildlife

The many Countries/Places of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples throughout Australia, and the custodial responsibility they have for Country/Place, and how this influences views about sustainability (VCGGK080) 

• Students will discover how the Wurundjeri peoples’ ways of living were adapted to the resources of their Country/Place 

Types of natural vegetation and the significance of vegetation to the environment, the importance of environments to animals and people, and different views on how they can be protected; the use and management of natural resources and waste, and different views on how to do this sustainably (VCGGK082) 

• Students will explore how vegetation provides habitat for animals and the sustainable use of natural resources