Some teachers have already analysed how the giant educational games and play mats could help them teach. For each subject, you will find below what mat can be used and what the educational outcomes are…

• Arts (Aboriginal themed mats)

Arts analysis and response:

The children demonstrate an understanding of the different messages and meanings communicated through the paintings on the mat, and use specific arts terminology to communicate interpretations of their own arts works and those of others.

Arts in context :

The children consider the different styles of forms of Aboriginal arts works, and identify the purposes for which these arts works were made.

Children from Ascot Park Primary School discussing what the panel is about

• Society and Environment (Aboriginal themed mats)

Societies and Cultures:

The children listen to and retell local Aboriginal stories, and explain their relevance for Australians.

They can discuss where each picture is set geographically.

They describe the diversity amongst Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their cultures, practices, customs and traditions, past and present.

They consider factors which contribute to personal and group identity and social cohesion, and valuing cultural diversity within and outside Australia.

• Design and technology ( Any mats as it is about the use of materials and sustainability)

Making:

The children identify the characteristics of the mat, and investigate the characteristics of materials and equipment used in design and production, in order to meet principles of function, aesthetics and sustainability. They can handle the tiles, discuss feel, smell and try to guess what they are made of.

They identify the reasons for managing resources effectively and for working impersonally and socially safe and responsible ways.

• English (Alphabet + Aboriginal themed mats)

Language:

The children listen to the stories to identify feelings, main ideas and events, and they communicate these ideas with the others.

They identify and interpret features of written language and visual image when reading and viewing a range of texts about less familiar topics.

Teachers can also make up a story using students’ ideas and student act along.

• Languages - Australian Indigenous (Aboriginal themed mats)

Understanding Culture:

The children identify how cultural practices and values are expressed, and recognise patterns across cultures in relation to own experience.

• Mathematics (Numbers, Shapes, Math Master, Target)

Spatial Sense and Geometric Reasoning:

The children use everyday and positional language and make informal maps to represent their location and familiar places. They look at the legend for each of the story maps and find the features in each picture.

Measurement:

The children compare and order the measurable attributes of distance, surface, space, mass, turn / angle and time to describe the size of a wide range of familiar figures, objects and events.

They choose and use a variety of strategies to measure the size of a variety of figures, objects and events drawn from the world around them.

They can use some mats to learn the numbers and others to count the number of each symbols on the picture (graph of frequency in the picture).

• Science (Aboriginal themed mats + Animals Alphabets)

Life Systems:

The children explore relationships between living things by posing investigable questions about features and functions. The children try to find where each character lives and what sound they make.

They explain the interrelationships between systems within living things, and between things in ecological systems. They relate these ideas to the health of individuals and to threats to the sustainability of ecological systems.