HASS Lesson Plan 

ACHASSK087 The main characteristics of continents of Africa and South America and the location of their major countries in relation to Australia. 

Describe the physical distance between Europe, South America, Africa and Australia 

• Pre-prepare music
• Get Google Earth ready on iPads
• Send note on Seesaw for parents to download Google Earth on their students’ iPads. 

• iPad 
• Student iPads 

• Google Earth
• Explorer music  

• Explorers 
• South America
• Africa
• Continents  

• Explorers 

• Play “Explorers” music on YouTube as students come back into class after sending for a run. 
• Teacher to introduce to the class that today they are all explorers of the New World and we will be off on an expedition to discover all about the New World. 
• Introduce explorer Christopher Columbus and my made-up character Christophina Columbus. Intro that I am taking them on a journey through the world. 

Time

• Open Google Earth on the screen and introduce that back in the days of explorers, most of them would have come from Europe: Ask why students believe this to be the case. 
• Scroll Google Earth to Europe and start from there. Ask: How far away is Europe from Australia? Use measurement tool to demonstrate. 
• Have a student choose a country from South America that we will travel to first. Input coordinates and play the music as we travel into that country. Explore the country using street view. Ask: Do you think this place would have looked like this when the explorers were there?
• Repeat with two more countries. 
• Then state that we are traveling to Africa. Ask a student to choose a country in Africa that we will travel to. Do the same process as South America. 
• Students are given the South America retrieval chart and broken into small groups of three. They will be required to research the key pieces of information for their countries. 

• For the closing activity, students will be required to stand up in class and share some of the key information they found for their retrieval chart with the class. 

• Have students seated on the mat with students that struggle behaviorally seated to the side with a physical fidget to keep them occupied. 
• Set ground rules and expectations prior to the class beginning. 
• Send students on a run around the oval prior to the lesson to help with preparation and to assist with burning excess energy. 
• Early finishers will be given South America Landmarks sheet to work through. 

• What is an explorer?
• What are continents?
• How far away is Europe from Australia?
• Do you think this place would have looked like this when the explorers were there?

• Utilising the music as a tool to establish a fun and supportive learning environment. 
• Allowing students to select their own groups.