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Video

How to Build Stories, Ch 1: What is a story?

Stories are all around us and they're happening all the time. But what exactly is a story? Stories teach and explain things, create emotion and entertain us. Watch this wonderful video and find out more.

Video

Creating character 'trade marks'

Leigh Hobbs says that his character Old Tom's black eye, fish bone and comb are visual devices - Tom's trade marks. What do you think he means by this? Can you think of other fictional characters with trade marks or something that encapsulates who they are?

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Hannie Rayson on becoming a writer

Hannie Rayson is a playwright and screenwriter whose plays have been performed around Australia and internationally. Watch as she tells the story of how her writing career began. Try retelling the story from the point of view of her university teacher. How might he have remembered it?

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ABC Open: Australian Children's Laureate, Jackie French

Jackie French is the Australian Children's Laureate for 2014-2015, and the author of the famous Wombat series of books. Watch this video to find out how a wombat inspired and conspired against her literary ambitions! What are your inspirations when you write?

Video

Say hello in Dharug

Watch this video to learn how to greet someone in the Dharug language, spoken by the Indigenous people of the Sydney Basin area. How do you say 'hello, how are you?' in Dharug? And what are the words for good and bad? Practise these phrases with Jacinta Tobin and then teach them to a friend or family member.

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What inspires you to write

If you love to write, have you wondered why? Reflect on some reasons why you (or anyone else) might love writing, then watch Lili Wilkinson describe why she loves to write. How important is curiosity to her? How is that curiosity linked to empathy and why is that important to being a good writer?

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How to make a story interesting

To make a good story, author Tony Wilson says you need your characters to either make difficult decisions or do something difficult. Can you think of any good stories you've read where neither of these things happen? It's very difficult! Think about a tricky decision you've had to make or perhaps it's a tricky thing you've ...

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ABC Open: Learn to count in Kaurna!

Presenter Taylor Power-Smith helps us learn to count to ten in Kaurna, the Indigenous language of the Kaurna people of Adelaide and the Adelaide Plains. 

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Andy Griffiths' advice for becoming a brave writer

Are you sometimes a bit scared to share your writing with other people? Find out what Andy Griffiths recommends. If you don't have a journal or a diary, why not get your hands on an exercise book and start writing a little bit every day to practise. As Andy says, you can write about any crazy thing you like! It's only for ...

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Young authors' creative writing advice

When you write, is there a particular piece of writing advice you keep in the back of your mind - something that helps you to write a better story? Watch these two students talk about the advice given to them that helps them to write better stories.

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Making a Mini-documentary, Ep 6: The shots tell the story in a video interview

You don't want your video interview to be just a 'talking head'. What shots can you take to make your story more interesting? Benj Binks from ABC Open has some ideas on what you might do and how to do it. This clip is one of eight on making a mini-documentary.

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Build your vocabulary!

What is the importance of having a good vocabulary? A good vocabulary helps us to be better communicators. Imagine living in a world where people only know a handful of words - communicating with each other would be much more difficult! See if you can build your own vocabulary with the use of a vocabulary notebook.

Interactive

Big battles!

Students explore music and dance through body percussion and singing as they learn the story of the unicorn and lion's big battle. They create a collage artwork using images of lions and unicorns that they can find.

Interactive

Through the gate

This resource embeds the use of online collaboration tools and 21st century learning skills to support students across Stage 2 English and creative arts (visual arts). It presents students with a real-world challenge to create a class picture book and organise a launch event for the book. Students work collaboratively to ...

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Discover the diversity of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages

Marrin Gamu is a special video created by First Languages Australia to show the diversity and beauty of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. There are five languages featured in this clip: Kalaw Kawaw Ya, Warrgamay, Nywaygi, Yugambeh and Wiradjuri. Across Australia there are hundreds of traditional ...

Online

Cats, Dogs and Us: Lesson Plans (years 3-4)

This teacher resource is an International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) resource designed to encourage students to examine the physical characteristics and natural behaviours of cats and dogs, and discuss the various ways we live with and care for cats and dogs around the world. It consists of nine lesson plans, two worksheets, ...

Video

The journey to Injinoo

This animation of a contemporary story created by primary school children from the Northern Peninsula Area State College in Far North Queensland. The story is told in English language, a glossary of Aboriginal words and a transcript of the story is provided.

Online

Secret messages and codes

This is a unit for Year 3 from the Scope and sequence resources from the DT Hub. The topic of data representation is organised into four key elements. Use this flow of activities to plan and assess students against the relevant achievement standards. Explore ways to represent data using the context of secret messages.

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Through a child's eye: an especially joyous exhibition of mandalas

This is a presentation of seven slides displaying a small exhibition of children's stories, related drawings and background information about mandalas. The stories and drawings illustrate selected fables as an expression of Buddhist teachings. The presentation was created as a result of an art project to commemorate the ...

Online

Message sticks: rich ways of weaving Aboriginal cultures into the Australian Curriculum

This is a resource about Aboriginal message sticks. Written by Narinda Sandry and intended for teachers, it describes how message sticks were inscribed with symbols and signs to allow messages to be understood by different Aboriginal groups and language speakers. It outlines the cultural contexts within which message sticks ...