Home school learning at the Gardens
Exciting learning adventures await your home schoolers.
Don't miss this chance to enrich your child's education with hands-on experiences in nature.
Give your home schoolers a day to remember with our immersive, nature-based learning program at the Botanic Gardens. With a day each term at one of our three beautiful gardens, you can come to one or the whole series.
Your children will dive into engaging morning and afternoon sessions, designed to spark curiosity and align with the Science & Technology and Geography curriculums. Our activities also emphasise the importance of Sustainability and celebrate Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures. With dedicated First Nations content, your kids will gain a deeper understanding of country, connection, and culture.
We are offering three programs each day for students learning at lower primary, upper primary and high school levels.
While there is flexibility to book students into any of the programs, parents/carers are required to provide supervision for all students at all times. The three groups will be working in different parts of the garden across the day. We strongly recommend arranging supervision for your child/children before the day of the program.
See the full programs below.
Term 4
Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan
Activities on the day include:
Morning: First Nations focus
- Explore how First Nations people read and understand the weather and environments based on Katrina Germein’s book Big Rain Coming.
- Understand time and weather while we wait and watch, just like Old Stephen!
Afternoon: Birds of Dharawal Country
- Investigate the birds who call Dharawal Country home!
- Create your very own bird and test your flying skills while investigating habitats and song through hands-on play.
Morning: Sustainability Superheroes
- Explore and participate in sustainable living and agricultural practices that reduce environmental impact.
- Design a simple rainwater harvesting system within the specified design criteria.
- Explore First Nations' uses of plants to create your very own first aid kit!
Afternoon: Contact: Second Encounters
- Through story and play, learn how European settlement affected the Dharawal people.
- Get a hands-on experience using artefacts and stories to gain insight into First Nations peoples experiences of settlement and compare ways of knowing, being and doing between these two cultures.
Morning: Purposeful Plants
- Learn how features of some Australian plants are adaptations for survival in their environment.
- Investigate five native plants from a Western Science and First Nations science lens
- Discuss and record your observations while discovering the latest scientific conservation and ecosystem research within the Australian Institute of Botanical Science.
Afternoon: Art in the Garden
- How is art reflected in the Garden? What story does it tell?
- Explore our amazing Herbarium and find out more about the Botanical Identification Service.
- Explore ideas about your relationship with the natural world through visual arts!