HASS · Year 1

Active learning ideas

Seasons and Their Impact

Active learning turns abstract ideas about seasons into lived experiences. When students feel the warmth of summer sun, see autumn leaves fall, and role-play animal adaptations, they connect Earth’s tilt to real local changes. This hands-on approach builds lasting memory and builds confidence in sharing observations.

• ACARA Content Descriptions
• AC9HASS1K06

• 20–35 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 4 activities

Activity 01

• Stations Rotation
• 30 min · Whole Class

Outdoor Sensory Walk: Seasonal Changes

Lead students on a schoolyard walk to observe weather, plants, and animals. Provide clipboards for drawing or noting signs like falling leaves or bird nests. Follow with a class share-out to categorize observations by season.

What does each season feel like? What happens to plants and animals in each season?

Facilitation Tip

During the Outdoor Sensory Walk, cue students to pause and record one sound, one smell, and one texture linked to the season in their journals before moving on.

What to look for

Provide students with a worksheet showing four boxes, one for each season. Ask them to draw one thing they see, feel, or do in each season. For example, 'Draw what you wear in summer' or 'Draw what happens to trees in autumn'.

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

Activity 02

• Stations Rotation
• 20 min · Individual

Seasonal Observation Journals: Track It

Give each student a journal with four season pages. Over weeks, students add dated drawings or notes of daily weather and nature changes. Review journals to discuss patterns at unit end.

Did you know that many Aboriginal peoples have their own seasonal calendars based on what they see in nature? What things in nature do you notice that tell you a season is changing?

Facilitation Tip

For Seasonal Observation Journals, model how to use symbols or quick sketches so students with developing literacy can participate independently.

What to look for

Ask students: 'Imagine you are going on a picnic in summer and then again in winter. What three things would you pack differently for each picnic, and why?' Encourage them to think about clothing, food, and activities.

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

Activity 03

• Stations Rotation
• 35 min · Small Groups

Aboriginal Calendar Match: Nature Signs

Print simple Aboriginal seasonal calendar images showing natural indicators. In groups, students match photos of local plants, animals, or weather to calendar months and discuss cultural observations.

How do people change what they do and wear in different seasons?

Facilitation Tip

Use the Aboriginal Calendar Match cards outdoors so students can match nature signs to the seasons they observe right in front of them.

What to look for

Show students pictures of different animals (e.g., a bird building a nest, a frog in water, a kangaroo with a joey, a possum sleeping). Ask them to point to the picture that shows an animal doing something related to a specific season and explain their choice.

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

Activity 04

• Stations Rotation
• 25 min · Pairs

What We Wear Wheel: Adaptations

Create a class wheel divided into seasons. Pairs add drawings of clothing and activities for each, then rotate to explain choices. Compile into a shared display.

What does each season feel like? What happens to plants and animals in each season?

Facilitation Tip

When building the What We Wear Wheel, have students repeat the seasons aloud as they add each clothing piece to reinforce vocabulary and sequence.

What to look for

Provide students with a worksheet showing four boxes, one for each season. Ask them to draw one thing they see, feel, or do in each season. For example, 'Draw what you wear in summer' or 'Draw what happens to trees in autumn'.

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

A few notes on teaching this unit

Teachers approach seasons through concrete, local evidence first. Start with what students already feel and see, then introduce the tilted Earth model as a way to explain patterns they’ve noticed. Avoid over-relying on textbook diagrams; instead, use flashlights and globes in small groups so students test ideas and revise their own understanding. Keep language simple and repetitive to build secure vocabulary.

Successful learning shows when students describe patterns in temperature, daylight, and weather using their own words and drawings. They should explain how plants and animals respond to seasonal shifts with evidence from their journals and walks. Group talk should reflect accurate language and shared observations.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• During Outdoor Sensory Walk, watch for students who claim all seasons feel the same everywhere in Australia.

  During Outdoor Sensory Walk, bring printed images of another region’s season and have students compare local observations to the image, prompting them to notice differences in temperature, plants, and activities before concluding that seasons vary by place.

• During Seasonal Observation Journals, watch for students who describe animals as sleeping through the entire winter.

  During Seasonal Observation Journals, ask students to add a column for animal behaviors and prompt them to record active winter animals like birds or insects they see, then discuss how these behaviors help survival.

• During What We Wear Wheel, watch for students who attribute seasons to Earth’s changing distance from the Sun.

  During What We Wear Wheel, use a tilted globe and flashlight in small groups to demonstrate how the tilt changes sunlight angles and daylight hours, then have students re-label their wheel with ‘more light’ or ‘less light’ instead of distance.

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Methods used in this brief

• Stations Rotation