Animal mayhem hero items
Learning outcomes:
- Students answer questions about location using prepositions.
- Students retell events using the past tense.
Purpose of learning experience
- Students can engage in purposely framed play, imitating scenarios from the Animal mayhem app activity.
- Students can describe where an animal is hiding by using prepositional language.
- Students practise turn-taking in listening and speaking.
- Students select an animal, hide it in their classroom or environment of choice, and other students guess where it might be, building confidence in responding and communicating.
Printable: Animal Mayhem hero items
Making connections
Students may notice animals hiding or moving around their community and use home language or English words to describe where the animals have moved. As students develop confidence, they may record their observations in a notebook or on a worksheet.
This purposeful recording supports the development of scientific thinking and the skill of recounting information.
Opportunities to document, describe and share observations build language and communication skills while fostering curiosity and creativity. Asking students to reflect on what they have seen helps students make connections between new experiences and prior knowledge, organise their ideas and engage in discussions with peers. Through these experiences, students develop confidence as observers, communicators and active participants in their learning.
For some year levels, this is a cross-curriculum unit with English and Mathematics.
The activities include identifying words from First Nations Australians’ languages relevant to a topic. Cross-curriculum priority: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures.
Early Years Learning framework
Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners.
Children develop a range of learning and thinking skills and processes such as problem solving, inquiry, experimentation, hypothesising, researching and investigating
Lesson activity
‘Where is the animal?’
Plan/implement
Before children arrive, place or use tape or adhesive tack to stick the animals to visible locations in the classroom.
The activity can be undertaken as a class, in small groups or with individual children. It can be repeated daily or weekly, as children demonstrate interest.
Ask children, ‘Where is the lizard?’ The children respond with the location where the lizard is placed, e.g. ‘It is on the shelf.’, ‘It is under the clock.’
As children become more proficient, you could start hiding the animals for them to find.
The activity may be used to build interest with an individual child.
Your co-educator could hide the printable animals and ask the child on arrival as part of their settling experiences, ‘Where’s the mouse?’.
Together they could look for the mouse to build connections.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Does the child use full sentences containing a preposition and a location noun?
Resources needed
Printable Animal mayhem hero items (cut out and laminate or glue onto small blocks)
Language focus
apple, banana, pear, papaya, grapes, strawberry, orange, mango, pineapple, chilli, watermelon
I like <fruit>.
I want a <fruit>.
I want some <fruit>.
Community Languages
Pair children with peers who share the same home language to increase confidence.
Give children bowls or plates to put their cards on. Encourage children to talk about the fruits they choose to put on their plates or bowls. Do they like the same fruits?
Foundation Curriculum alignment
English: AC9EFLA06
recognise that sentences are made up of groups of words that work together in particular ways to make meaning
Mathematics: AC9MFSP02
describe the position and location of themselves and objects in relation to other people and objects within a familiar space
Lesson activity
‘Animal hide and seek’
Plan/implement
Students sit in a circle. Place the Animal mayhem pictures and the classroom objects in the middle of the circle.
Ask students to cover their eyes. Hide one of the animal pictures under an object, one animal on top of an object and the third animal beside an object.
Students uncover their eyes. Ask students a location question, e.g. ‘Where is the mouse?’. Students respond in a sentence using a preposition and a noun, e.g. ‘It is on the shoe.’
If the animal you ask about is hidden, encourage students to ask you questions in return, e.g. ‘Is it under the shoe?’. You could call on a number of students in turn until the correct location is guessed, e.g. ‘Is it in the shoe?’, ‘Yes, the lizard is in the shoe.’
Take the hidden animal out of its hiding place and place it beside the object instead. Ask, ‘Where is it now?’
Observations / assessment opportunities
Can the student name the animal and the classroom object?
Can the student describe the location of an animal using a complete sentence?
Can the student ask and answer simple ‘where’ questions?
Can the student use prepositions to compare two positions when an animal is moved?
Resources needed
Printable Animal mayhem hero items (cut out and laminate or glue onto small blocks)
Classroom objects (e.g. a book, a hat, a shoe, a block, a box)
Language focus
Prepositions: on, under, in, beside
Where is the mouse/lizard/dog?
It is <preposition> the <object>.
Yes, the mouse/lizard/dog is <preposition> the <object>.
No, the mouse/lizard/dog is not <preposition> the <object.>
Community Languages
Invite students to give the animal's name and position word in their home language/s, then build the sentence in Standard Australian English.
Make a word wall showing community language and English words.
Year 1 Curriculum alignment
English: AC9E1LA07: understand that words can represent people, places and things (nouns, including pronouns), happenings and states (verbs), qualities (adjectives) and details such as when, where and how (adverbs)
English: AC9E1LA06
understand that a simple sentence consists of a single independent clause representing a single event or idea
Lesson activity
‘Clue detectives: Find the animal’
Plan/implement
Before the lesson, hide one copy of each of the three animal pictures around the classroom.
Model a clear clue using describing words and a location word, e.g. ‘Find the small brown animal beside the bookshelf.’
Students find each animal and explain which words in the clue helped them (the location and the preposition).
Give each student an animal picture and tell them to keep their animal secret. Students work in pairs. One student hides their animal picture and gives their partner two or three clues about the animal and its location and position, without saying the animal’s name.
The partner guesses the animal to look for, e.g. ‘Is it a mouse?’
Support students to improve unclear clues by adding location nouns (e.g. ‘bookshelf’), adjectives (e.g. ‘small’, ‘black’) or prepositions (e.g. ‘on’, ‘inside’).
As a class, students share helpful clues and talk about why they worked.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Can the student listen to and follow a simple spoken clue?
Does the student use describing words such as adjectives of colour, size or shape?
What positional prepositions does the student use?
Can the student explain which clue words helped them find the animal?
Resources needed
Printable Animal mayhem hero items (one animal for each student) (cut out and laminate or glue onto small blocks)
Language focus
Prepositions: on, above, below, between, beside, inside, near
Adjectives for colour, size, shape and features
The mouse/lizard/dog is <proposition> the <location>.
It is a <colour/size/shape adjective> animal with <features>.
Is it …?
Could it be …?
Community languages
Students can use their home language to name, describe and talk about where the animals were hiding.
Make a word wall showing community language words for locations in your classroom (e.g. the bookshelf, the window).
Year 2 Curriculum alignment
English: AC9E2LA06
understand that connections can be made between ideas by using a compound sentence with 2 or more independent clauses usually linked by a coordinating conjunction
Lesson activity
‘The great animal mayhem recount ‘
Plan/implement
Create a short Animal mayhem scene, using photos or drawings of locations in your classroom. Place the animal pictures on the location pictures, showing the animals in unexpected classroom locations.
Model an oral recount of what happened, using a clear beginning, middle and end. E.g. ‘First the mouse went under the shelf, then he went into a book. Next, the lizard sat on my chair and the dog sat under my chair. Finally, I found them and put all the animals in the basket.’
Identify sequencing words in the model recount: ‘first’, ‘next’, ‘then’, ‘and’, ‘after that’, ‘finally’.
Students work in pairs. Give each pair a set of animal pictures and location pictures. Each student moves the animals around the locations to create their own sequence of events.
Students orally rehearse their own recount with their partner, including where each animal was found.
Students orally tell their story to the class or write their version on a mini whiteboard.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Can the student organise events in a logical sequence?
Does the student include a beginning, middle and end?
Can the student use past-tense verbs consistently?
Does the student’s recount explain where the animals hid or moved to?
Resources needed
Printable Animal mayhem hero items (one set for each pair) (cut out and laminate or glue onto small blocks)
Photos or drawings of locations in your classroom, e.g. the bookshelf, the window (print or photocopy one set for each pair)
Mini whiteboards and markers (optional)
Language focus
Prepositions: on, above, below, between, beside, inside, near
Sequencing words: first, next, then, and, after that, finally
Past-tense action verbs, e.g. escaped, hid, climbed, found, returned
Complete sentences with who, what and where information
Community Languages
Have students plan, create and share their Animal mayhem recounts using both English and their home language to name characters and describe actions and events.
Year 3 Curriculum alignment
English: AC9E3LA07
understand how verbs represent different processes for doing, feeling, thinking, saying and relating
English: AC9E3LA08
understand that verbs are anchored in time through tense
Lesson activity
Animal mayhem news report’
Plan/implement
Set up an Animal mayhem classroom scene by placing the three animals in unusual places in the classroom, such as under a desk, beside the bookshelf or on top of the cupboard.
Tell students they are news reporters investigating what happened, where it happened and how the animals were found and returned.
Model looking closely at the scene and saying ‘factual’ sentences about where the animals went and what they did using precise location words, e.g. ‘The lizard climbed up the bookshelf and hid between two books.’
Explain that a news report usually uses the past tense because the events have already happened.
Model a short report on the board with a headline, opening summary, ordered details and closing statement.
Underline the past-tense verbs and highlight the prepositional phrases (.e.g. ‘under the table’, ‘beside the door’).
In small groups, students inspect the scene and record what each animal did and where it was found.
Each group then plans and presents a short spoken or written news report, using factual language, clear sequencing words and consistent tense.
Observations / assessment opportunities
Can the student select and organise relevant facts?
Does the student use consistent tense?
Does the student use precise location language?
Can the student distinguish an observation from an imaginative addition?
Does the student adapt their language to suit the audience for a news report?
Resources needed
Printable Animal mayhem hero items (one set for each pair) (cut out and laminate or glue onto small blocks)
Paper and pencils
Language focus
News report structure: headline, opening summary, ordered details and closing statement
Past tense for events that have already happened
Precise location phrases, e.g. beneath the desk, between two shelves, near the doorway
Reporting verbs, e.g. said, explained, reported
Sequencing of events
Community Languages
Invite students to interview an animal character or present part of the news report in their home language.
Encourage students to compare reporting verbs and location phrases across languages.