Dogstar - Teaching Kit: Strand Two Teaching Resource - Download

About this Resource

Dogstar Teaching Kit
The Dogstar Teaching Kit aims to introduce the Dogstar series and its central characters; the concept of genre, in particular, news reports, science fiction, TV advertisements and TV comedy; along with the related Dogstar website.

These free lesson plans and classroom worksheets provide ideas for teaching genre, advertising, humour and satire, stereotypes, living things, sustainability, ecology, animals, responsibility for the natural environment and the Earth's future, robots, design and have particular relevance to English, Arts (film media studies, visual arts, drama), science, environment, and technology.

For older students it is suggested that teachers contextualise activities by suggesting to students that they are to conduct a focused evaluation and review of a series made for young children. This will involve students completing activities in order to consider whether the genre, storyline, characters and messages are appropriate and engaging for young children. Students might also design surveys in order to elicit responses from younger students.

Strand Two
The sequence of learning experiences in Strand Twodraw upon Dogstar, episodes 1, 2, 7, 10, 25 and 26 and the Dogstar website. It introduces and explores ideas related to the natural environment, wellbeing of living things, sustainability and human responsibility for the future.

These lesson plans comprises the following sections:
1.1 Thinking about humans and other living things
1.2 Thinking about Dogstar and planet Earth
1.3 Comparing our lifestyles with lifestyles in Dogstar
1.4 Dogstar’s environmental messages
1.5 Environmental awareness
1.6 Advertising the environment
1.7 Caring for our environment
1.8 Responsibility for the natural environment and Earth’s future

Teaching and Learning framework
The activities are organised into sections with two main components:

• the ‘discussing’ component: students engage in individual and group talk to come to understandings about the issues and characters and to explore the significance of those understandings (for example, for their own lives).
• the ‘doing’ component: students explore their understandings and explorations in order to do something – for example, perform or tell a story, create a product, transform some aspect of the series.

The complete Dogstar Teaching Kit comprises of:
Dogstar - Strand One
Dogstar - Strand Two