PROJECT TITLE:  Food Safari

(Term 2 and Term 3, 2024)

School Name: Walliston Primary School

Teacher’s Name:  Emma Pedrotti

Year Group: 5 & 6

Number of students: 28

Creative’s Name:  Shona McGregor

Creative Practice: visual art

Curriculum: HASS Geography: a diverse and connected world - Australia’s connections with other countries (Asian neighbours)

Cross-curricular Links:

Literacy: oral presentation, editing, purpose & audience,

Media Arts: codes & conventions of media

Design & Technology: food and fibre

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Context:

Situated in the Perth Hills between Kalamunda and Lesmurdie, Walliston Primary is a well-established school in a peaceful bushland setting. With around 300 students there is a strong community connection between staff and families as they strive to provide an education focused on play, 3C inquiry and explicit teaching.  Emma Pedrotti has been teaching for over 15 years in the metro area and this was her first year at Walliston PS teaching the year 5/6 class where she was enjoying the transition to this new dynamic.

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WHAT WE DID  

Project overview

Emma wanted to tackle HASS with creativity and give her students an in-depth understanding of Australia’s connections with their Asian neighbours. To do this we thought using the topic of food would be a great way of joining the dots for the kids; something easily accessible and clearly linked to history and geography. As our vehicle for learning we used the concept of an SBS TV show from back in the day called Food Safari because of the clear associations they made between the different Asian cuisines available in Australia and the history and cultural connections they made with the migrants that came here. The students were asked to create their own Food Safari videos in small groups which not only told the story of their country’s ties to Australia but addressed an overarching Inquiry question created by the kids in one of our sessions.

How did we make the curriculum come alive?

We focused our learning on very hands-on, interactive activities that gave the kids the skills to eventually work independently as a group and create their own video. Working towards this project they were to share with their peers and families, gave them a refreshing way to learn about a topic they would often expect to be bored by and hold little meaning for them. Research was of course necessary too and did not excite the students initially, but we asked them to accomplish this in different ways to the norm. Through the creation of class quizzes about their countries and other options such as a game, Tiktok or Youtube short (imovie), website page, interview piece or poem/story, they were able to explore different ways of presenting information and making meaning from it.

“In Creative Schools we do more hands-on work than normal lessons. We learn about different things more than we usually do, like learning about Asian neighbours. We wouldn’t usually make a movie. We would usually just write it down. I’d rather do it the Creative Schools way. It’s more fun than general lessons.” (Student)

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How did we make the 5 Habits of Learning come alive?

We always reinforced the habits with our warm-ups and the kids loved anything active that got them out of the classroom. We challenged their problem solving with Lego challenges and reinforced their need to communicate as a group with physical games that had a problem to solve. We also realised quite quickly that collaboration was a major challenge for this group and worked with them to help them understand what kind of roles they might need in a group and how to go about resolving conflict. The final videos showed an amazing development in the students’ imaginations as we encouraged them to work with props and sets that they had on hand at school and be flexible with limited resources. Their persistence also improved as we reinforced the importance of making mistakes and learning from them as an integral part of the learning process in everything we did.

“What is encouraging is bringing the 5 habits into the learning. Creative Schools helps with creative activities and through supporting the teachers.” (Craig Mainard, Principal)

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How did we activate student voice and learner agency?

The kids were given choice throughout the program that allowed them to explore their interests and use the knowledge and experience they already had. We gave the kids several surveys over the two terms using QR codes which gave us an insight into the habits they were using and the activities they were enjoying or were challenged by. We also had a survey to find out about the final countries they were interested in using for their projects, the students they would like to work with and whether they had  cultural connections with the countries we had chosen. Using these responses, we then created the final project groups. We also encouraged the students at all times to ‘just figure it out’ when they were clearly used to being micromanaged and it was a joy to watch most of the group take on the challenge of making decisions for themselves and enjoy freedom in their learning.

“We are all working together a lot more. As a group we are learning a lot. We aren’t with all of our friends. I’m getting to work with people that I haven’t got to work with much before. I’m learning new things from them.” (Student)

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WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?

“There are many strengths. Creative Schools gives a variety of tools in terms of group work. It hooks them into learning. It offers more creative ways of teaching the curriculum.” (Teacher)

“I love seeing the kids move from a place of uncertainty, where they need to ask about every tiny thing in case they get it wrong,  to a feeling of confidence that getting it wrong is what needs to happen to learn and they’ll be ok. Better than ok.” (Creative Practitioner)