Origins of Family Migration

Active learning works for this topic because Year 1 students connect emotionally and spatially to stories they bring from home. By drawing, moving, and talking about their families’ pasts, children make abstract concepts like ‘push’ and ‘pull’ concrete through personal narratives. Movement-based activities also help young learners process complex ideas like belonging and change through kinesthetic engagement.

• Year 1
• HASS
• 4 activities
• 25 min–40 min

Learning Objectives

1. Identify the continent or country of origin for at least two family members.
2. Explain one reason why a family might have moved to Australia or another location.
3. Compare the concept of 'always belonging' to Country for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples with the experience of moving to a new place.
4. Describe one exciting aspect and one challenging aspect of moving to a new country from a personal or imagined perspective.

Stations Rotation

⏱ 25 min·Whole Class

Sharing Circle: Family Origins

Form a circle for students to pass a talking stick and share one fact about where their family came from or why they moved. Model respectful listening first. Follow with a class chart of shared stories.

Prepare & details

Why might a family choose to move to a new place to live?

Facilitation Tip: Before Sharing Circle, invite students to bring one small object that represents their family’s origins to anchor their story in tangible memory.

Setup: Tables/desks arranged in 4-6 distinct stations around room

Materials: Station instruction cards, Different materials per station, Rotation timer

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Stations Rotation

⏱ 40 min·Pairs

Migration Mapping: Draw Journeys

Provide maps of Australia and the world. Students draw or sticker their family's path to current home, labeling reasons. Pairs compare maps and note similarities. Display on a class mural.

Prepare & details

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have lived in Australia for over 60,000 years. What does it mean to have always belonged to a place?

Facilitation Tip: During Migration Mapping, provide colored pencils and a world map large enough for each child to trace their family’s route without crowding.

Setup: Tables/desks arranged in 4-6 distinct stations around room

Materials: Station instruction cards, Different materials per station, Rotation timer

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Role Play

⏱ 30 min·Small Groups

Role Play: New Home Adventure

In small groups, students pack bags with toy items for a move, act out travel challenges and arrivals. Rotate roles. Debrief feelings of excitement and worry.

Prepare & details

How might it feel to move to a new country? What might be exciting and what might be hard?

Facilitation Tip: Before Role Play, model emotional expressions for mixed feelings like excitement and sadness to help students name their own complex emotions.

Setup: Open space or rearranged desks for scenario staging

Materials: Character cards with backstory and goals, Scenario briefing sheet

• Apply
• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Social Awareness
• Self-Awareness

Stations Rotation

⏱ 35 min·Small Groups

Artefact Show-and-Tell: Family Treasures

Students bring or draw a family item linked to origins. Present to small groups, explaining its story. Groups vote on most interesting to share class-wide.

Prepare & details

Why might a family choose to move to a new place to live?

Facilitation Tip: For Artefact Show-and-Tell, give each child a three-minute timer so all voices are heard without rushing or dominating.

Setup: Tables/desks arranged in 4-6 distinct stations around room

Materials: Station instruction cards, Different materials per station, Rotation timer

• Remember
• Understand
• Apply
• Analyze
• Self-Management
• Relationship Skills

Teaching This Topic

Teachers approach this topic by centering student voice and using comparative storytelling to build empathy. Avoid framing migration as a simple sequence of events; instead, focus on feelings and relationships that shape journeys. Research shows young children learn migration concepts best when they connect them to their own lives and see themselves as part of a larger, diverse Australian story. Use Indigenous perspectives not as isolated units but as a continuous backdrop to all discussions.

What to Expect

Successful learning looks like students confidently identifying one reason their family moved and one way they stayed connected to their origins. They should also recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have always belonged to Country, contrasting this with migration stories. Participation in discussions should show empathy and curiosity about diverse family experiences.

Watch Out for These Misconceptions

Common Misconception

During Sharing Circle, watch for students who assume all families recently migrated to Australia.

What to Teach Instead

Use the circle to name and honor Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians. Invite a guest speaker or share a picture book such as ‘Welcome to Country’ by Aunty Joy Murphy to ground the discussion in continuous belonging.

Common Misconception

During Role Play, watch for students who portray only positive emotions about moving.

What to Teach Instead

Direct students to use the role-play cards with mixed feeling words like ‘nervous’ or ‘happy’ to explore the full range of emotions involved in relocation.

Common Misconception

During Migration Mapping, watch for students who draw only straight lines or equal distances between places.

What to Teach Instead

Prompt students to discuss how far and how long their family’s journey took, using scale and direction cues on the map to emphasize varied experiences.

Assessment Ideas

Quick Check

After Artefact Show-and-Tell, ask each student to draw their family’s country of origin on one side of a paper and one reason their family moved on the other. Listen to their verbal explanation to assess understanding of place and motive.

Discussion Prompt

During Sharing Circle, facilitate a closing discussion where each student shares one thing they learned about why families move. Ask prompt questions like ‘What is one thing that might make a family want to leave their home?’ or ‘What is one thing that might make them excited about a new place?’ to assess empathy and recognition of diverse reasons.

Exit Ticket

After Migration Mapping, provide students with a worksheet to write or draw the name of the place their family came from and one word describing how they might feel if they had to move to a new country. Collect these to assess understanding of belonging and emotional responses.

Extensions & Scaffolding

• Challenge: Ask students who finish early to create a short comic strip showing three steps in their family’s journey with speech bubbles expressing different feelings at each step.
• Scaffolding: Provide sentence starters on cards for students who struggle to verbalize their family’s story, such as “My family left ____ because ____.” or “We felt ____ when we arrived.”
• Deeper exploration: Invite students to research one historical push or pull factor from their family’s story and present it to the class with a simple poster.

Key Vocabulary

Origin	The place where a person or their family first came from. It is the starting point of a journey.
Migration	The movement of people from one country or region to another. This can be for many different reasons.
Push factors	Reasons that make people want to leave their home country, such as war, poverty, or lack of jobs.
Pull factors	Reasons that attract people to a new country, such as job opportunities, safety, or family already living there.
Country (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander context)	The land, waters, and all things within it that are sacred and connected to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' identity and spirituality. It means belonging to the land.