- January 26th is Australia's national day.

Dossier spécial

It
commemorates the day when, « On January 26, 1788
Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession of
the colony of New South Wales and became its
first Governor. » to learn more about the history of the day, go to
http://www.australiaday.gov.au/section.asp?sID=36

Information about the country
– the complete profile of Australia from the
World’s Factbook from the CIA (maps, history, geography, figures and politics)
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/as.html
– and another one from the Gold site
http://www.gold-net.com.au/about1.html
– their bank notes:
http://www.rba.gov.au/CurrencyNotes/NotesInCirculation/index.html
– their national holidays:
http://www.oztourism.com.au/ozhols.htm
– the symbols of Australia, including the flag
and the national anthem (with words and song in MP3 to download)
http://www.pm.gov.au/aus_in_focus/nat_symbols/index.html

On the official site
http://www.australiaday.gov.au
you can find:
– The new printed resource, Being Australian:

Australia Day Resources for Upper Primary Students , has been developed for upper primary students. The resources provide teachers with materials to develop students’: understanding and appreciation of the importance and meaning of Australia Day to the Australian community awareness and understanding of ideas and themes that contribute to Australian identity reflection and understanding of the land, the people, diversity, Indigenous perspectives, values, rights and responsibilities of Australian society.
http://www.australiaday.gov.au/pdf/nadc_finalpages.pdf
– a page of trivia and quizzes, plus other resources like coloring pages and a crossword
http://www.australiaday.gov.au/section.asp?sID=44
– the page of links : Australia online, with the sites of the government, museums, maps, sports, music, etc.
http://www.australiaday.gov.au/section.asp?sID=45
– statistics and facts
http://www.pm.gov.au/aus_in_focus/stats/index.html

Sites for young children and beginners
– *** Jean-Pierre Palasse has designed this superb site, with lots of photos and useful information, plus questions for the students as they read and watch:
http://www.dijon.iufm.fr/ressourc/langues/anglais/austral/
– *** an excellent easy webquest by Nathalie Vezon
http://pedagogie.ac-montpellier.fr/disciplines/anglais/ressources/webquests/australia.html
– the selection of sites for beginners and lower intermediates from Michèle Henry
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/civiaus.htm
– selection of easy documents from Zoom and Enchanted Learning
http://www.zoomschool.com/school/Australia/
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/school/Australia/Ausmap.shtml
– word find, crosswords, coloring pages
http://www.australiaday.com.au/funandfree/default.asp#about
– coloring, map collage and boomerang crafts
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/australia_day.htm

Sites for intermediates students
– history, indigenous, quizzes, anthem
http://www.australiaday.com.au/student_centre.html
– several webquests, and activities listed by Michèle Henry
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/civiaus.htm#wq
– Australian animals
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/pid/1439
– a webquest about Australian animals
http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webquests/australia/
– easy webquests about Australia : one or two links and several questions
http://www.geocities.com/ozquest/fulllist.htm

Sites for advanced students
– citizenship (including applications forms, laws and statistics)
http://www.australiaday.com.au/student_centre.html
– Australia’s tourist guide with info about the road, maps, places to visit and accommodations. For example, I discovered Kangaroo Island, an island for sealers and whalers…
http://www.travelmate.com.au
http://www.travelmate.com.au/Places/Featured_Regions.asp?TM_Page=Places&RegionId=40&State=SA
– *** audio : aboriginal stories that you can
read and hear, and even see the story teller in a video
http://www.dreamtime.net.au/dreaming/storylist.htm
– webquest : we are Australian ( designed for Australian students, so should be adapted, but with lots of useful links)
http://www.cap.nsw.edu.au/bb_site_intro/stage3_modules/exchangestudent/we_are_australian.htm
– the legend of Legend of Lasseter’s Reef , on Gold Net
http://www.gold-net.com.au/lasseter1.html
– Gold Net, the site which give the current price of gold and show a map of the gold reserves (maybe you can build a webquest for the students to go and dig for gold?)
http://www.gold-net.com.au/maps1.html
– Sovereign Hill Challenge : discover this part of Australia, surf on their site and answer the questions:
site: http://www.sunnhillss.qld.edu.au/WebQuests/gold/index.htm
questions:
http://www.sovereignhill.com.au/public/DocumentExchange/sitechallenge.doc
– A webquest about Australian explorers, including explorer of Australia and from Australia. A very comprehensive work
http://www.cap.nsw.edu.au/bb_site_intro/stage3_Modules/overland/overland.html
– a webquest about Bushrangers : explore and imagine their life
http://www.cap.nsw.edu.au/bb_site_intro/stage2_Modules/bushrangers/bushrangers.htm