Foundation Australian Geography Homeschool Unit

Help your child explore Australia and the places around them with this practical, engaging geography unit designed especially for homeschooling families.

Created for children in their first year of school, this unit includes 10 flexible lessons and a 27-page printable resource pack exploring familiar places, natural and built features, maps, land and water, Australia as their country, special places and ways people care for the places around them.

Children learn by observing, sorting, mapping, drawing, comparing photographs, exploring local places and creating simple models and displays.

The unit also introduces Aboriginal Peoples’ continuing connections to Country and helps children identify the Aboriginal Country or Place on which they live, while recognising that places can be important to different people for many different reasons.

Topics include:

• What geography is and how geographers learn about places

• Land and water on globes, maps and images

• Australia as the country in which we live

• Places children belong to and why some places are special

• Simple maps, symbols and positional language

• Natural and built features of familiar places

• Exploring and recording features in a local place

• People, Country and special places

• Ways people can care for places

• A final special place geography display

Designed for homeschooling

Each lesson is designed to take approximately 30–45 minutes and can be shortened, extended or completed over several sessions to suit your child’s needs, interests and attention span.

Activities include discussing, observing, sorting, drawing, creating maps and models, exploring familiar places, using tally charts and picture graphs, comparing photographs and completing simple hands-on investigations.

Written work can be replaced with verbal explanations, pointing, matching, photographs, drawings or parent-scribed responses, making the unit flexible for different learning needs and abilities.

Printable resource pack included

The unit comes with a colourful 27-page printable resource pack containing ready-to-use materials for all 10 lessons. These resources reduce preparation time and give children visual, practical and age-appropriate ways to explore each geography concept.

The pack includes:

• Place, land and water picture cards

• Australian places photograph cards

• Natural and built feature sorting cards and labels

• Map symbols and real-feature matching cards

• A detailed pictorial map of a park

• Map-drawing and map-making templates

• Geography investigation and special-place worksheets

• Australia collage pictures and template

• Familiar-place observation activities

• Tally chart and picture graph templates

• A place-connection survey

• An Australian place information card

• Environmental problem discussion cards

• A care plan activity

• A final My Special Place display template

The resources feature clear instructions, child-friendly layouts, colourful photographs and illustrations, drawing spaces, sorting activities and simple recording tables. They can be printed as needed and used alongside the lesson plans.

What is included:

• 10 complete lesson plans

• 27-page printable learning resource pack

• Clear learning intentions

• Discussion questions and practical activities

• Support and extension ideas for every lesson

• Simple assessment opportunities

• Final assessment task and assessment criteria

• Suggested books and learning resources

• Mapping, observation, sorting and local exploration activities

Everything is organised to help reduce preparation time and make it easier to teach geography confidently at home.

This unit provides families with a clear and manageable way to teach Australian Geography while encouraging curiosity, observation, conversation and hands-on learning about the places children know and belong to.