Help the Honey Possum

Learning Outcome:

Students will produce a multimodal persuasive text.

Learning Areas:

English

Prompt Text:

A Tale of Two Honey Possums by Felicity Bradshaw, illustrated by Patricia Negus.

Resources:

Individual whiteboards and textas, blank A4 paper and coloured pencils or similar

Noongar Vocabulary:

Djet: Flower

Nqwir: Possum

Kabi/Kep: Water

Noolbenger: Honey Possum

Learning Sequence:

• Begin the activity in the yarning circle or on the mat. Introduce the book: this is a story about a very special marsupial from this area who only eats nectar and pollen.

• Read the story to the class and enjoy the beautiful illustrations. See if students can name some of the species depicted.

• Draw on understandings from Science and have students recall what we need to do to make sure the honey possum can survive, such as planting a variety of native flowering species for them to eat.

• Introduce the activity: Students will now make a poster to display in the community to help people understand how they can help preserve our honey possums. They need to include:

1. A drawing of a honey possum eating nectar from a flower.

2. A catchy heading like: Help out the Honey Possum!

3. An instruction to help people understand what to do to help.

• Give students time to write down a practice headline on their whiteboards. Collate a few examples on the board and discuss which ones are effective. Allow students to choose and copy one of the examples if needed.

• Once students have their headline, they can return to their desks and begin creating the poster.

• Share the posters with the class. If possible, display them in the classroom or around the school. You may like to choose one to go into the school newsletter.

EXTENSION IDEAS

Students could digitise their posters during a Digital Technologies lesson.

For EAL/D Students

Poster Activity

Avoid the use of phrasal verbs, eg. ‘help out’. This can be confusing for EAL/D learners as they meet other phrasal verbs with help (help up, help down, help through etc). At this age, sticking to the plain verb leaves less room for confusion.