Literacy and Numeracy Week is really about celebrating the work already happening in classrooms every day.
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| This week’s Squiz Kids Teacher Newsletter is packed with classroom-ready ideas for Indigenous Literacy Day, Father’s Day and Australian National Flag Day. |
| There’s a free 15-minute film, ready-made teacher resources, a Shortcut to Dads to accompany your Father’s Day crafting, and a Fun Finish featuring a young Indiana Jones. |
| All the links, laughs and low-prep learning just waiting for you. |
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You probably don’t need a special week to tell you that words and numbers matter, but it’s a lovely excuse to celebrate what students are learning every day.
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| This week is Literacy and Numeracy Week, running from August 29 to September 4, with the wonderfully simple theme: Every day counts, every word matters. One particularly meaningful day to mark is Indigenous Literacy Day on Wednesday, September 2. |
| This year’s theme is Country Is Our Teacher, and the Indigenous Literacy Foundation is inviting classrooms on an adventure into Central Australia with Niningka and Chris, two children from Mparntwe (Alice Springs) and Nyirripi in the Northern Territory. |
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| In a free, 15-minute film suitable for all ages, they’ll introduce students to their Communities, cultures and connections to Country, while sharing words in Warlpiri and Arrernte. There’s also a one-hour livestream from the Sydney Opera House featuring stories, songs, dancing and First Nations authors. |
| Best of all, the lesson planning has already been done for you. The ILF has created free teacher resources and classroom activities(opens in new tab), including word finds, colouring sheets and Warlpiri and Arrernte word-matching activities. |
| You can watch the trailer here(opens in new tab), then register your class to watch the free film or livestream(opens in new tab). |
| Fifteen minutes, some ready-made resources and an opportunity for students to listen and learn from children and Elders on Country? That sounds like a pretty good use of a Wednesday to us. |
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Tuesday’s Shortcut: Dads, duds and truly terrible jokes…
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| Some dads brave the Antarctic winter without eating for two months to protect a single egg. Some give birth to hundreds of babies at once. Others disappear before their offspring hatch or even eat their babies, and almost all human dads seem convinced their jokes are hilarious. |
| With Father’s Day coming up this Sunday, September 6, this week’s Squiz Kids Shortcut to Dads explores what fatherhood looks like across the animal kingdom, and how the role of dads has changed throughout human history |
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| We look at the origins of the breadwinner stereotype, and get an alarming number of dad jokes from Bryce, but we also make space for an important reminder: families come in all shapes, Father’s Day can bring up complicated feelings, and “dadding” can be done by dads, stepdads, grandads, uncles, coaches, teachers and other important people who show up, care, guide and love. |
| It’s a funny, fascinating and inclusive conversation starter for the classroom, and the perfect thing to pop on while your students are busy creating cards, coupons and slightly wonky Father’s Day craft. |
| Find the Squiz Kids Shortcut to Dads in your favourite podcasting app first thing Tuesday.. |
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Flying in to History
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| Wednesday 3 September is Australian National Flag Day, marking 125 years since the Australian flag was flown for the first time over Melbourne’s Royal Exhibition Building. |
| The flag emerged from a huge public competition held soon after Federation. An extraordinary 32,823 designs were submitted, nearly one entry for every 100 Australians alive at the time. Rather than one outright winner, the judges selected five remarkably similar entries, submitted by people including two teenagers, an architect, an artist and a ship’s officer. They shared the £200 prize. |
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Two classroom resources
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| 1. Explore the current flag |
| The Australian Government’s Australian National Flag resource(opens in new tab) explains its history, symbols, colours and correct use. |
| 2. Design a flag for Australia |
| The government-supported Digital Technologies Hub has a free Design a flag with Pencil Code(opens in new tab) lesson for Years 5–6. Students examine the elements commonly used in flags, plan their design as an algorithm and then create it using block-based coding. You could also use Flag Creator (opens in new tab)for a simpler experience. |
| For younger students, simplify it into an art activity: If Australia held another public competition today, what would you submit? You could limit students to three colours and three symbols if you’re short on time, |
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FUN FINISH: THE WORLD’S YOUNGEST MUSEUM CURATOR
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| At just nine years old, dinosaur-lover Anderson Taylor opened his own natural history museum in Illinois, earning a Guinness World Record as the world’s youngest male museum curator. (Is it just me or does he remind anybody else of the young Indiana Jones?) |
| Now 11, Anderson’s museum has grown from one display case to 13, filled with fossils, minerals, taxidermied animals and even a mastodon leg bone. Take a tour in the Guinness World Records video: |
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| Know a teacher who’d love this? Pass it on. |
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| That’s it from us this week. May all your glue sticks have their lids returned, the Father’s Day gifts make it home in one piece, and nobody reveal what’s inside the lovingly decorated paper bag before Sunday. |
| We love hearing from you! Reply to this email with any feedback, suggestions, or funny teaching stories, or hit us up at [email protected](opens in new tab). |
| Have a wonderful week! |
| – Christie Kijurina, Squiz Kids Educator |
