Indigenous Lesson Plan — Why Platypus Lives Alone (For Introverts)
Why should we normalise Aboriginal Culture within the school environment? Aboriginal students are Aboriginal every day of the year, not just at NAIDOC time. They have to deal with racism, discrimination, and negative stereotype every day, for the rest of their lives…..Unless we do something about it.
Well, what can we do to change things?
Replace ignorance with understanding. We need to normalise Aboriginal Culture and build personal connections to it for all students, their families, and all teachers. Aboriginal Culture is the longest-ongoing culture in the world. We should be proud and curious about it.
How do we do that?
Visually and physically immerse Aboriginal Culture within the school environment every day so that all students develop an understanding and acceptance of different cultures and that diversity enriches Australian culture.
Will this make more work for teachers? No, it won’t.
I have developed four (4) Cultural Classes that are easy to use with beautiful paintings and stories. There is also a different life lesson in each one. These life lessons are skills that each child will benefit from for the rest of their life. They are conflict resolution, personal space, and introverts, anger and jealousy management, environmental awareness. I have created the life lessons into posters for the classroom so there is a visual reminder that can be referred back to when dealing with that issue.
LESSON OUTCOME
Primary Outcome:
Normalising and connecting with Aboriginal Culture for all students.
Secondary Outcomes:
Children develop emotional literacy by learning about personal space and some children need “alone time” for emotional well-being.
Weekly lessons with themes and activities.
- Lesson 1 — Life Lesson — Personal Space and Introverts
- Lesson 2 — Life Lesson — Personal Space and Introverts — Art
- Lesson 3 — About the Platypus — Biology
- Lesson 4 — Music and dance
- Lesson 5 — Sport — Kai