Yearlevel: 3 4

Welcome to the Civics and Citizenship Curated Clip Collection. While this resource is still in development, we are excited to offer a pilot version to support teachers during the election period. Each module includes a short video from an Australian television series, along with accompanying activities designed to help students explore the importance of leadership, democracy and being an active citizen. As we continue to build and refine this resource, more videos and materials will be added to enhance the learning experience. We welcome your feedback and appreciate your support as we continue to develop this resource for classrooms.

This clip collection is designed to help students understand and practice respectful communication, focusing on concepts of consent, bodily autonomy and personal boundaries. Using clips from Australian children’s television content, students work through activities that build their awareness of how to ask for, give, and deny permission.

This learning resource was developed to support primary teachers and students intending to view the film. Developed for Years 3 to 6, the resource provides sequenced learning tasks suitable for a whole-class film study. These English tasks build students’ knowledge of viewing processes, including planning, monitoring, reflecting and reviewing. Behind-the-scenes materials and promotional materials are incorporated to enhance student engagement and understanding.

This resource provides a series of curated, age-appropriate screen stories, with a discussion point and creative response for students in Foundation to Year 10. Invite culture leaders and knowledge holders featured in these screen texts into the classroom for NAIDOC and beyond – to celebrate the resilience, generosity, creativity, and enduring strength of the oldest living culture in the world.  

The Kangaroo Beach Series 2 learning resource is a classroom-based water safety education tool for Foundation – Year 2 students and teachers. The resource contains eight lesson plans to use alongside school swimming lessons, as part of class inquiries into health and safety, or to address Health and Physical Education curriculum content in an engaging way. Lesson plans correspond to key learning areas in the National Swimming and Water Safety Framework, and each lesson:

• Identifies a relevant Kangaroo Beach episode and water safety message.
• Links to the relevant Framework skills.
• Lists conceptual vocabulary for teachers to clarify with children as needed, depending on the English language skills of their student cohort.
• Provides comprehension questions with corresponding time stamps.
• Includes a choice of three different follow-up activities, related to the themes and target skills.

This learning resource supports students and teachers in Years 3 to 6 to explore the documentary television series Built to Survive in the classroom and beyond.

NAIDOC week is an opportunity to highlight First Nations perspectives in the classroom. In 2023, the NAIDOC Week theme is For Our Elders. We acknowledge the continued achievements, contributions, and knowledges of Elders in our communities.

We are proud to present these engaging learning tasks for students in F-10. The leading knowledge holders who feature on our screens are to be shared for NAIDOC and beyond – to celebrate our Elders.

In Space Nova, the Nova family embark on an action-packed quest for extra-terrestrial intelligence that will bring them face-to-face with epic life-forms, physics-defying phenomena and out-of-this-world planets beyond their wildest dreams.

The Space Nova Resource provides different classroom activities for years 3-6, with clips from the animated children’s series used as provocations for year level appropriate and rich science learning sequences, such as Living Things, Forces, Science and Human Lives and Energy. The sequences address Science Understanding content descriptors in the Australian Curriculum.

Through curated Space Nova clips, tangible experiences and thought-provoking discussion starters, these learning sequences will give students opportunities to critically analyse their observations and challenge their pe-conceptions. This approach lends itself to differentiation, as all students bring varying prior knowledge and experiences to the classroom.

The PM’s Daughter is a 10-part live action series set in Canberra, the heartland of Australian politics, produced by Fremantle for the ABC. It tells the story of Catalina Parkes Pérez, a teenager who’s like any other, but with one difference: her mother is the new Prime Minister of Australia.
The primary and lower secondary school resource aligns with Civics and Citizenship for students in Years 5-6 and Years 7-8. The secondary school teaching toolkit is designed for Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS), Civics and Citizenship, English and/or Media Arts students in Years 7-10.
The resource can be used flexibly in the classroom, with activities and opportunities for discussion giving students the opportunity to engage with content under the themes of effective campaigning, issues that matter, and the influence of media on audiences. The learning prompts developed for each episode directly link to students’ real-world context on both a local and global scale and champions student voice, agency, and youth leadership – citizenship in action.
The resources consist of activities which utilise content from the series coupled with active student participation, building knowledge of our democratic processes and civic responsibilities with a strong focus on developing media literacy and critical thinking skills. This resource can be used as standalone modules or presented as a unit of work. The lessons are outlined in this resource as well as in the PDF screen sequences; multi-modal slideshows with clips, images, and prompts designed to be a student facing teaching aid in the classroom.

Suitable for Years 3-8, this co-created learning resource introduces students to digital music production as a contemporary mode of composition. The music making process for Red Dirt Riders is explored with reference to the elements of music, planning tools to meet a creative brief, and the importance of listening to our creative instincts to make the best beats.

The student-facing resource can be either set as an independent task or delivered as a sequence of class activities. The videos are designed for students to gain knowledge in music theory and process, with video tutorials, a guided digital drawing workshop and access to downloadable audio and video files, students are empowered to create their own digital music productions. 

This resource covers all four of the interrelated strands as outlined in the Music structure in the Australian Curriculum:

• Exploring and responding 
• Developing practices and skills 
• Creating and making 
• Presenting and performing

This resource was co-created with NEO-Learning and the Big hART Digital Lab.

Created by the ACTF in collaboration with the Australian National Maritime Museum, this learning resource supports students and teachers in Years 3 to 6 to explore the award-winning animated television series The Deep in the classroom and beyond. 

Set across the backdrop of colourful Western Sydney, Hardball traverses the highs and lows of pre-teen life. Themes of family, multiculturalism, and resilience – along with ethical dilemmas, Jerry’s healthy respect for mathematics, and the problematic use of ICT by almost everyone – makes Hardball the perfect children’s series to explore the General Capabilities through.

The Hardball Resource outlines three learning tasks for each of the Australian Curriculum’s General Capabilities, all aimed at Years 3-6 students. All tasks also align with English content. While not an exhaustive list, these learning tasks serve to illustrate the many ways that this engaging series can be used in the primary classroom.

Presented by ACTF and ACMI, this free virtual workshop explores storytelling in the My Place picture book and children’s TV series.

Novel and Film Comparison
Through this unit of work, students will examine the visual and printed texts of Paper Planes. The book is based on the motion picture screenplay Paper Planes. The major themes include relationships, loss, connectedness, friendship, independence and competition. Suitable for grades 5-8, teachers are advised to select from the following activities those that are best suited to cater for the age group they are teaching and to provide appropriate activities for group work that will support and extend students.

Fold’n’Fly: The Circling Clive
"The Circling Clive" is a paper plane design that makes its on-screen debut as one of character Dylan's original creations in the Australian feature film Paper Planes.
Originally created by THE PAPER PILOTS, this Fold 'n' Fly PDF provides students with the information they requite to recreate the original Clive design.

Activity Suggestions:
Photocopy the template (to scale) and instruct students to recreate Clive.
Explore with the class how simple changes to the original design may impact on the plane's aerodynamics.
After recreating Clive, ask students to design their own paper plane.
Host a class or school paper plane competition using Clive and/or students' original designs.
Watch the Paper Planes film and explore Dylan's creative and scientific journey.

Join ACTF, ACMI Education, Australian Maritime Museum and Producer, Avrill Stark and Creator and Art Director, James Brouwer to learn all about character and creature design in the award-winning animated television series The Deep. Combining ocean science knowledge with imagination and creativity, this session unpacks the pre-production process of designing and developing the entertaining characters and fantastical creatures from The Deep.

The accompany Character and Creature Design resource with student activities can be found here: https://actf.com.au/character-and-creature-design

Since its publication over 30 years ago, Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins’ picture book My Place has been an unwavering favourite in Australian classrooms and homes. The My Place television series adapts this classic book into 26 episodes of children’s television.

Both on the page and on screen, My Place tells the story of an Australian community through the eyes of the diverse children who lived there over time, highlighting the ways that people and places shape our personal, local and national histories. 

Hosted by the ACTF and ACMI Education, this virtual learning event for 2023 Book Week gives students the chance to learn from award-winning author, Nadia Wheatley. Nadia will discuss the screen adaptation of My Place and share her own approaches to storytelling and writing. Students will complete a short writing task and have a chance to ask Nadia their questions.

Drawing on a range of Australian children’s television programs, this resource builds students’ understanding of the reasons we create and view screen stories– to entertain, to teach, and to communicate ideas, feelings, and culture. Students explore the different ways in which screen stories can be told and reflect on their responses as audience members.

Red Dirt Riders is a 5-part factual program for primary-aged students, showcasing Ngarluma Ngurra in Western Australia’s remote Pilbara region. The series follows the riders as they venture out on their freedom machines to visit sites of significance on Country. The young adventurers embark on rides to learn about the history of place from the people who remember – learning directly from living memory and oral histories.

Developed for students in Years 3-6, this resource aligns with English, History and Social Science (HASS) and Media Arts content in the Australian Curriculum. It also builds knowledge of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures. The resource contains a lesson for each of the five episodes, which can be used as standalone modules or presented as a unit of work. Each lesson is arranged as a student-facing multi-modal slideshow (see ‘Screen Sequences’ below) with clips, sound files, images, prompts and printable worksheets. Slideshow content is elaborated on, and curriculum links provided, in a PDF document for teachers. This resource champions First Nations perspectives, inviting students across the nation to experience the rich and layered histories of the Pilbara.

Screen Sequences:

1. The Marsh 
2. Bajinhurrba
3. Weymul
4. Bogged
5. Harding Dam

Join the ACTF and ACMI as we go behind the scenes with MaveriX creators, Rachel Clements, Sam Meikle and Isaac Elliot to learn about the process of bringing a story to life on screen. Screen stories provide access to innovative ideas, validate our identities and shape our characters. Before these stories make it to our screens, they are created through the art of scriptwriting. Suitable for Years 5 - 8 this virtual workshop supports teachers in narrative units of work as it explores story, setting and character as well as the language structures and features of scriptwriting.

Since its publication over 30 years ago, My Place has been an unwavering favourite in Australian classrooms and homes. In this webinar presented by the ACTF, ACMI Education and ABC Education, teachers and students will have the opportunity to learn directly from My Place author, Nadia Wheatley.

Why is sound so important in television and film? How does sound help bring audiences into a screen world? What is the workflow followed by screen professionals when creating, capturing and editing sound for a production? We answer these questions and more in this video sequence resource.

Australian primary students had the unique opportunity to be part of a live Q&A webinar with Hardball cast members: Semisi Cheekam (Mikey); Reannah Hamdan (Salwa); Logan Reberger (Jerry) and Erin Choy (Tiffany). 

In And Then Something Changed, eight-year old Louis wakes up to what he thinks is going to be just another normal school day, but something has changed. Gone are the motorised backpacks, electric stairs, self-dressing clothes and elevating floors that Louis relies on. In this film we discover what it’s like to be a child with Achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism, and what it’s like to navigate a world that isn’t built for you. This resource will support Year 3 - 6 teachers and students to explore themes from the short film, with learning tasks related to disability, inclusion, accessibility and media representation.

In The Legend of Burnout Barry, teenage friends Wheely, Brent and Shay are tightly bound by their shared and insatiable appetite for adventure. But when Wheely's obsession with being the town record holder becomes more important than his friends, he risks losing more than just the title.

The discussion starters and learning tasks outlined in The Legend of Burnout Barry Resource provide ideas for Years 5 - 8 students to engage with this entertaining short film. Tasks will develop students’ storytelling understandings and skills, with relevant Australian Curriculum links noted for English.

While not the focus of this resource, teachers could also link the film’s themes of friendship and teamwork to Health and Physical Education and Personal and Social Capability curriculum content.

Primary students from around Australia ask Are You Tougher Than Your Ancestors? creator Vanna Morosini, host Ghenoa Gela, and cast members Jeffrin and Harry (from the ‘Milk Run’ episode) about the ideas behind this engaging series, and the work that goes into bringing a TV series to life.

In The Funny Ones, four girls with a passion for making people laugh are introduced to four of Australia’s funniest women. Together they turn ideas from their own lives into material for a show that has everyone in stitches.

The discussion starters and learning tasks suggested in The Funny Ones Resource provide additional ideas for Years 3 – 6 students to engage with the film. Tasks relate to collaboration, audiences, performance and feedback, with relevant curriculum links noted for Drama, English, Critical and Creative Thinking, and Personal and Social Capability.

Are You Tougher Than Your Ancestors? explores familiar historic periods and events through the eyes of children who lived through them. Each episode reveals an incredible true story of a resilient and courageous child from the past, and challenges modern-day children to emulate their experiences. Through these participants’ firsthand experiences, students see what their lives would have been like in a different era. The Are You Tougher than Your Ancestors? resource is a History resource for Foundation to Year 6 teachers and students. Episodes and suggested learning tasks relate to the key understandings and inquiry skills outlined in the History sub-strand of the F-6/7 Humanities and Social Sciences curriculum.

Since its publication 33 years ago, My Place has been an unwavering favourite in Australian classrooms and homes. Teachers and students had the unique opportunity to hear author Nadia Wheatley discuss her classic picture book, the importance of writing about our own communities,

To celebrate the ACTF’s 40th birthday and the Elvis: Direct from Graceland exhibition at Bendigo Art Gallery, we looked back at one of Australia’s much loved children’s television programs, Li’l Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers.

How do creators use inspiration from popular culture to build stories and characters in animation? Learn this and much more as we speak to Li’l Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers creator Peter Viska. 

Ahead of its time in exploring environmental sustainability and featuring First Nations characters, Li’l Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers (originally broadcast on the ABC in 1997) follows the story of Li’l Elvis and his friends Lionel and Janet, who together create a sound that is uniquely their own called, “Didgibilli Rock.” Join us to hear how Elvis inspired this children’s television show with a Q & A with Li’l Elvis Jones and the Truckstoppers creator and animator, Peter Viska.

In an ACTF Education webinar, inquisitive primary students from all over Australia had the chance to interview Anna Cooke, Abby Bergman, Aston Droomer, and Jamil Smyth-Secka – cast members from the popular children’s series The Inbestigators.

Hosted by ACMI Education and the ACTF, our student webinar explores creation of Hardball Series 2 with the creators, Matt Zeremes and Guy Edmonds, and cast members Semisi Cheekam (Mikey) and Erin Choy (Tiffany). Students will learn how the series communicates meaning and viewpoints to gain insight into the media production process.

The mystery genre is so engaging partly because it positions readers as active participants in solving a crime. They put themselves in the detectives' shoes and collect clues alongside them, paying close attention to what the detective thinks, sees, does, and says. 

Learning tasks in this resource will help Year 3-6 students to better comprehend the mystery genre, teaching them to read and think like a detective. Tasks also build the knowledge and skills necessary for students to craft their own engaging mystery stories.

Lessons can be approached individually or incorporated into a longer unit on the mystery genre. Learning tasks in The Inbestigators Teaching Toolkit are aligned to the Australian Curriculum, with links made to English, Critical and Creative Thinking, and Personal and Social Capability.

Designed to complement the award-winning Little Lunch television series, the Little Lunch English Resource is mapped to the Australian Curriculum, and aims to support teachers working with Year 3-6 students. It contains suggested learning tasks for reading, writing, and speaking and listening - for all 26 episodes. 

Dance Academy film Producer Joanna Werner and Cast member Alicia Banit are quizzed by Australian students on the challenges in taking the successful TV series to the big screen.

Director Robert Connolly and actors Ed Oxenbould and Peter Rowsthorn share their experience of making Paper Planes during this virtual excursion. The Q&A format provided students with an opportunity to ask their own questions about filmmaking - from the initial idea, to hiring of the cast and crew.

Author of the Little Lunch books Danny Katz and Illustrator Mitch Vane shared their experiences of creating the world of Little Lunch, and how they turned their books into the popular TV series that followed. 

The My Place for Teachers Resource provides rich educational material for primary and lower-secondary teachers using the My Place TV series in the classroom for Australian History and English.

The website features teaching materials from both series 1 and 2 and includes:
- 2 Decade Timelines, 2000s-1880s and 1870s-Before Time, each highlighting events of Australian History and politics, Society and culture and Science & technology, that underpin the stories of the children and the development of Australia. Each decade cites selected Indigenous and non-Indigenous histories.
- 78 clips, each with associated Teaching Activities and student activity sheets for Years 3-6 and beyond. The activities have rich curriculum content that relate directly to the Australian curriculum for the studies of History and English.
- 3 main Themes and 22 sub-themes, where teachers can search for relevant resources to support their individual programs.
- Behind the Scenes information including interviews with Nadia Wheatley (writer) and Penny Chapman (producer), stills gallery, clips bank, and production materials including scripts, press kits and a poster.
- Our Place, an interactive online teacher forum where teachers can share their strategies for using My Place in the classroom and upload stories of their own students.
The My Place for Teachers website is a partnership project between Education Services Australia (ESA) and the Australian Children’s Television Foundation (ACTF)

Awards

eLearning Industry Excellence Awards 2010
Winner - eLearning K-12

Australian Education Publishers Award 2010
Winner – Best Primary Education Website

Interactive Media Awards (U.S.) 2010
Winner - Outstanding Achievement Award for Education

Australian Teachers of Media Awards (ATOM) 2010
Finalist – Best Primary Education Website

Australian Teachers of Media Awards (ATOM) 2010
Finalist – Best Instructional/Training Resource

Access this resource

www.myplace.edu.au

This resource provides opportunities for discussion and activities for primary age students related to the key learning areas of Science, Humanities, English, Health and The Arts.

Teachers may choose to screen the Dogstar series sequentially or they may select particular episodes and use those activities from this guide that meet the needs of their students or that relate to topics being investigated in their classroom. Discussion questions and activities are provided in this guide to support a number of the central themes explored throughout the series including families, relationships and feelings; humans, pets and other animals; heroes and villains; technology and inventions; responsibility for the natural environment and the future.

Information about the development, production and technology behind the series has been included to assist teachers of older students to develop learning experiences in relation to animation and to the creation of this series.

In each episode of Bushwhacked! Series 2, an important message about ecosystems is explored. The Bushwhacked! Series 2 Resource harnesses those messages to inspire a greater awareness in students of Australia’s unique Indigenous people, their culture and their relationship with the land.

This resource highlights discussion topics and provides activities for teachers to use in their middle-primary to middle-secondary classroom.

The discussion topics and activities included in this resource are aligned with content, knowledge and skills in the Australian Curriculum areas of English, Science, The Arts (Media), Humanities (Geography) and the Cross-Curriculum Priorities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures and Sustainability.

Bushwhacked! can be enjoyed by a wide range of age groups, from middle-primary to middle-secondary, and is a valuable resource for a large range of curriculum areas, including English, Science, The Arts (Media), Humanities (Geography) and the cross-curriculum priorities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures and Sustainability.

Included in the Bushwhacked! Series 1 Resource are brief synopses of each episode, so that teachers can view them either in order or in groups that support their classroom program.

This resource provides some ideas for discussions and activities relating to the series as a whole, including examples from episodes, which can be used before and after each episode is viewed.

The Bushwhacked! Australian Flora and Fauna Resource was developed by Samantha Doggett (Teacher, Serpell Primary School)

“I have been working this term on the new program Bushwhacked! This has been a wonderful series that Grade 1 children have thoroughly enjoyed. This series would easily attract all primary school years from Foundation to Grade 6. They have gained extensive knowledge about Australian animals, landscape and Indigenous traditions.”

Bushwhacked! is a unique nature television program now in its third series. This highly acclaimed documentary series appeals to children and teenagers from 5 to 14 years old. Highly dramatic and exciting, it is an example of how well-researched locations, excellent scripts, very high production values, and fascinating Australian animals and issues can create not just entertainment, but a valuable and enjoyable learning experience.

The Bushwhacked! Series 3 Resource is written and organised for educators who wish to use episodes from the series as part of their teaching and learning sequence. The study guide provides discussion topics and activities with a focus on specific learning areas or general themes.

The content included in this study guide is aligned with, knowledge and skills in the Australian Curriculum areas of English, Science, The Arts (Media), Humanities (Geography) and the Cross-Curriculum Priorities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures and Sustainability.

In this webinar for Western Australian primary schools, students asked questions to Little Lunch cast members. Questions included: How they got into acting, what was involved in making Little Lunch, their favourite episodes, how the young cast balanced school work and acting, how they deal with fame, and what tips they would give to aspiring young actors.

Mrs Gonsha (Heidi Arena), Debra-Jo (Faith Seci), Rory (Flynn Curry) and Tamara (Olivia Deeble) thrilled primary students from around Australia by participating in a live online webinar on March 24.

Students got to quiz the cast on how they got into acting, what was involved in making Little Lunch, their favourite episodes, how the young cast balanced school work and acting, how they deal with fame and what tips they would give to aspiring young actors.

Access behind-the-scenes materials to support and extend your viewing of Barrumbi Kids. 

This Thalu resource centres on character-led storytelling, with a strong connection to Country. It includes learning intentions, discussion starters and hands-on learning tasks that support Year 3-Year 6 students to build skills in English and Media Arts. 

Since 2018, the ACTF has delivered an annual student writing competition based on the themes in My Place, encouraging thousands of students across Australia to reflect on and write about place, community and history.

This year, we encourage schools to run their own My Place Competition.