Primary School Lesson Plan — Why the Emu Cannot Fly

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.

Life Lesson — Why the Emu Cannot Fly

Emu was proud of himself and Bush Turkey was jealous of him.

What happened that Emu couldn’t fly anymore?

Life Lesson: Managing Pride and jealousy. 

Key Learning Area: Aboriginal Appreciation                        

Year Level: Prep – 6

Outcomes: Understanding of the Dreamtime & a Life Lesson

LESSON OUTCOME

Primary Outcome:

Normalising and connecting with Aboriginal Culture for all students.

Secondary Outcomes:

Children develop emotional literacy by learning about jealousy and pride.

Weekly lessons with themes and activities.

Lesson 1 — Managing Pride and Jealousy 

Lesson 2 — Managing Pride and Jealousy – Art

Lesson 3 — Biology – Learning about the Emu’s Anatomy

Lesson 4 — Environmental — Looking after the environment

Lesson 5 — Sport — Wana