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Feeding the family

Years 1 and 2 historical skills resource

'Feeding the family' is designed to inspire young students to engage in historical inquiry, and to cultivate their historical literacy and skills. It  includes a 10-minute video to introduce teachers to the inquiry learning approach used in the resource.

Video

You can also:

download the 'Feeding the family' video with open captions (MP4 209mb)
download the'Feeding the family' video without captions (MP4 418mb)
read the 'Feeding the family' video transcript with rich visual description

Feeding the family: Kitchens, milk and picnics

Three sets of historical images form the core of this resource. For each set of images there are associated activities that develop students' skills of:

  • observation and sequencing
  • contextualisation and research
  • empathy and speculation

A kitchen from the 1950s. The image of the kitchen is in black and white. In the foreground of the kitchen is a four-legged table, with a thick slab top. The top has a mottled pattern on it. Behind the table is a multi-drawer kitchen cupboard, with glass-panelled sliding doors in the top section. Flowers in a vase, an oil-burning lamp and some books are on top of the cupboard. To the left of the cupboard is a refrigerator with rounded edges. To the right of the table, in the corner of the kitchen is a wood-burning stove built into a recess. There are pots and pans on the stove. A shelf above the recess holds cylindrical containers. At the far right of the image is a wooden chair. Part of a curtain is visible above the chair. Thumbnail image.
Kitchens
Investigate kitchens from 1950, 1980 and the present day

A glass milk bottle sits on a white surface. The bottle is toward the right side of the image. A strong light from beyond the right side of the image causes the bottle to cast a shadow toward the left of the image. The background recedes into darkness. On the bottle can be seen the word ‘milk’ and the letters ‘MBA’. Thumbnail image.
Milk
Consider how milk was (and is) produced and promoted

Detailed view from a coloured wood engraving of a scene titled ‘Christmas in Australia’, from 1865. This portion of the scene depicts two women, three men and two children sitting in in a forest. The men wear shoes, trousers, shirts, vests and jackets. One wears what appears to be a pith helmet. One woman wears a long dress and reads from an open book. The other woman wears a long skirts, shirt and long-sleeved jacket and a blue bonnet tied under the chin. A girl at right wears a blue dress tied at the waist with a white ribbon, and pale coloured stockings and black boots. The small boy wears knee-length shorts, and a long-sleeved shirt. Thumbnail image.
Picnics
Explore family picnics from the turn of the 20th century to now

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