Australasia

In preparation for Science week we have been learning about Australasia. It is a part of the world that includes the countries

Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and the Pacific Islands.

We have learning about their culture, traditions and landmarks. The Aboriginal (Indigenous people) lived in these countries for thousands of

years before Europeans settled in them.

A popular tourist destination and important place for Aboriginal people in Australia is Uluru. It is a monolith. That means a really big rock!We made chalk pastel pictures and blended the colours together to

imitate the multitude of textures of Uluru.

We discussed some of the traditions of the Aboriginal people and how they are different to ours. Unlike us they did not write their stories down in books. They used “Word of Mouth” and Art (called “Song Lines”) to pass on their stories. One of their Art techniques is Dot Painting. For them the turtle was a major source of food and they

respected their food supplies.

Primary 4 February 2020

We have been discovering some of the different landmarks of these countries. We learned that a landmark is an interesting or important

place. An important landmark in Sydney, Australia, is the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is the bridge that you see on the news when

the fireworks are being set off at New Years.

We compared the bridge to our own famous bridge, the Forth Rail Bridge. The people of Sydney

need this bridge to save themselves a long journey. This is the same reason we

need the Rail Bridge.

Using art straws we became architects and made our own version of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

How does it compare to the

real thing?