Search by Capability: Critical & Creative Thinking

Create a kindness newsletter
Have fun with poetry – each day, explore a new style (including examples from different cultures)– find poems about family and then write your own
Plan a family day for the class or school
Research cultural differences between families
Learn more about the Elderly – lifespan timeline – major events – respect

What’s good about getting old? What’s not good? How can we address that and offer help to older members of family and community?
What different sorts of families are there?
What are the basic needs of families? Compare with the animal world – address shelter, protection, nourishment, love, child rearing
How can we practise sustainability around our home and community?
What would we put into a family time capsule? Consider items that have meaning to family members and would tell a story to future generations.
Top Ten Tips Conversation starters

Collaborative art: Create a composition using hands only – handprints – fingers- nails
Design an artwork around the Top Ten Tips
Create a digital book (photo or other) on family or community
Rhyme & rhythm – with family theme. Explore songs – download lyrics – mashup – use existing tune or create original composition – perform
Write a review of a book, film, TV show shared with family
Explore artworks from Indigenous and/or other cultures. Use to inspire own works of art.
As a group or solo, perform skits (provided or created) taking on different activities within families or community.
Design a poster for a National Families Week event

Provide a short story about family. Then have sentences typed out that need to be ordered to recreate the story or scene. Extension activities – continue the story – embellish the story – change the mood – change the point of view.
Embellish a simple story (sentence building)– add adjectives, adverbs – one at a time to show the power of language (group or individual activity).
Write a story or script around a family event – using a day in the life of … parent, grandparent, baby, teen as inspiration.
Design word games that family members of different ages can participate in (find a word, crosswords, memory games, snap)
Rhyme & rhythm – Explore songs with family theme– download lyrics – mashup – use existing tune or create original composition – perform
Cupboard or storeroom sorting – to practise classification and nomenclature

Time – create timetable or schedule for family activities/ responsibilities. Extension activities could include digital alarm setting, exploring 24 hours in a day and how we divide a day – twice a day, three times etc.
Design games that family members of different ages can participate in (a deck of cards can provide a range of possibilities matched to ability)
Create a crowd of people collage using geometric shapes – represent family and community. Identify shape names and copy and cut out multiples of circles, semi-circles, squares and polygons, triangles including equilateral, right-angled and isosceles. Can address symmetry and angles.
Create a map from home to school or from school to other significant places. Consider distance, scale, grid properties, spatial awareness.
Conduct a survey of community members. Collate data and express results numerically and by percentage.
Log in to an online shopping site for groceries to explore products, compare prices, use a budget, discuss rounding values for ease of transactions.

Cooking – include measuring, mixing, following procedures, observing change, producing a result
Gardening – use observation, inquiry, identify the elements to sustain life
Chart temperature and rainfall over a period of time, starting with National Families Week. Note observations, find patterns, make predictions
Water play – explore its properties, cause and effect of running water, displacement
Explore water and its role in maintaining life – how do we use it in our everyday lives? Why is it important to protect and keep clean?
Record heart rate at rest and following exercise. Extension activities could include learning about the biology of the heart and how to maintain heart health.
Debate a science topic, including sustainable living, caring for land, responsibilities to the planet.

Create digital schedules and timetables for weekly activities
Create video and audio recordings – including edits – for classroom presentations, school community interviews or National Families Week events
Design a digital artwork around the Top Ten Tips
Create a digital book (photo or other) about family or community
Rhyme & rhythm – with family theme. Explore songs – download lyrics – mashup – use existing tune or create original composition – perform

Gardening – use observation, inquiry, identify the elements to sustain life
Chart temperature and rainfall over a period of time, starting with National Families Week. Note observations, find patterns, make predictions
Debate or conversation starters:
· responsibility to protect other forms of life that share the environment
· roles, rights and responsibilities as participants in your local community

Create a nutritional meal plan for the week (use template)
Create a physical exercise and wellbeing timetable – explore ways to build strength, stretch and be mindful
Plan an orienteering day for families
Take the class on a neighbourhood walk with a list of items to find
Plan a mini Olympics or games day for families and community
Set physical goals for the course of the week, eg skipping rope or ball skills and work towards those goals
Join two classes together – to allow older students to teach younger students new ball games or physical skills

About the Week

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