Dragonology Course – Homeschool/ Home Education Curriculum Package (4 – 8 years)

Curriculum Package

Each week, for five weeks, you will receive a new, comprehensive set of the Dragonology homeschool Education curriculum materials. Once you have the full set of materials, you will continue to have access to them for a further 90 days.

Each weekly package includes:

➡ Teacher-led session (pre-recorded video + PDF) introducing the weekly theme and overview of activity choices.

PLUS

Weekly Concept Learning Materials

➡ Interactive, high-quality story-time read aloud (pre-recorded video), introducing core concepts and vocabulary.

➡ A ‘read-aloud’ guide for parents (PDF format). This guide supports (optional) extension of vocabulary, literacy and concept (math, STEM, art) skills introduced in the weekly story.

➡ Vocabulary prompt/ guide. This contains key vocabulary for each week, and strategies for supporting vocabulary development through play-based and interest-led learning.

Weekly Open-Ended Activity/ Inquiry

➡ Comprehensive materials & supplies list (PDF).

➡ Activity instructions – teacher-led version. This consists of follow-along instructions (pre-recorded video).

➡ Activity instructions – family-led version. This consists of downloadable activity instructions format with pictures (PDF) so that the activity can be led by the parent in your own home education context.

➡ Parent guidance and tips (video + PDF format) to support learning during, and following, the play-based weekly activity.

➡ Reflection guide (video + PDF format) to support the child’s (optional) learning-through-reflection on the learning activity.

Individualised feedback (optional)

➡ Children can (optionally) share their creations, learning discoveries and/ or reflections in a secure learning platform, and receive individualised feedback from the teacher (via video).

Support and Extension Curriculum + Guideance Materials

➡ Six additional open-ended, play-based and child-led extension activities (PDF format) per week. These build on weekly themes and to prompt continued interest-led learning in the homeschool setting.

➡ Additional book recommendations to extend and link learning to other interests (PDF).

➡ Weekly parent notes. These provide additional prompts and guidance for parents/ home educators to support learning in this class.

This Dragonology course is structured to provide children with high levels of learning autonomy. In other words, this course does not use “pre-selected” topics or themes. Instead, each week we introduce a ‘big idea’. Our story-telling provides an opportunity for young children to both develop some vocabulary to engage with that idea, and to begin exploring what that idea means to them – and to others.

Following each session, addition extension activities are provided to continue learning and exploring between each weekly session.

Week 1: Not All Dragons Are The Same.

➡ Big idea: Diversity.

➡ Exploration: Multimedia art.

Week 2: The Chemistry and Colour of Dragon Eggs.

➡ Big idea: What makes something beautiful or special?

➡ Exploration: Making dragon eggs.

Week 3: Fire Breathing.

➡ Big idea: Caring for others through problem-solving.

➡ Exploration: Fire-breathing art.

Week 4: Flight of the Dragon.

➡ Big idea: Courage

➡ Exploration: Creating dragons that fly.

Week 5: Dragon Homes.

➡ Big idea: Facts or fantasy?

➡ Exploration: Dragon home sculptures and constructions.

The total fee for the full curriculum package is US-$51. This fee does not include materials, which will need to be purchased individually.

Learning Outcomes

The intended learning outcomes for this course are from the ACECQA-approved Early Years Learning Framework. These learning outcomes explicitly reflect the needs of young children (0 – 8 years old) with diverse learning styles and cognitive needs at various stages of their development.

This class provides opportunities for children to:

• Use skills in exploring, inferring, predicting and hypothesising in order to develop their understanding of the environment, and their relationship to it.
• Combine fine-motor skills, cognitive skills, and thinking strategies in order to achieve increasingly complex patterns of activity to create, communication, solve problems and adapt.
• Manipulate objects and resources in order to investigate, take apart, assemble, invent, construct and experiment with cause-effect relationships.
• Make predictions and generalisations about different concepts, also communicating these using language, gestures, numbers, marks, text and/ or symbols.
• Use language, gestures or visual symbols in order to communicate and convey meaning about social and personal experiences, mathematical ideas, and scientific concepts .

The supplies required for each session will vary (not every item will be needed for every week).

The following supplies will be needed for the full curriculum:

• sheets of paper (A4 or larger size).
• thick paper (e.g. watercolour paper or cardstock).
• colourful paper scraps (e.g. candy wrappers, foil, brochures, wrapping paper, crepe paper, old cards, etc).
• loose items from around your house (e.g. fabric scraps, bits of old wool or yarn, ribbon, buttons, sparkkles, sequins).
• black sharpie, marker or texta.
• colour markers or crayons.
• white pvc/ pva/ school or Elmers glue.
• child-safe scissors.
• egg shells (a vegan option can be provided on request).
• vegetable oil.
• paper straws.
• a kitchen sponge.
• a roll of aluminium foil.
• either some air dry clay OR a batch of salt dough (a recipe will be provided).
• some acrylic paints.
• paint brushes.
• any items collected from your nature walks (e.g. sticks, leaves, moss, acorns/ pods, pinecones, pebbles, bark, feathers, etc).