The National Treasures from Australia’s Great Libraries and the Our Prized Possessions Exhibits held from 30th June to 27th August 2007 highlighted how cultural treasures help to bring our Australian history to life and to tell different stories and perspectives.

To assist school teachers in using the exhibition resources to get their students to think about our cultural heritage and how we record and remember our past an extensive teacher’s resource was developed.

The teacher’s resource culminated in inviting students to participate in the Your Prized Possession competition, moving students from an understanding of national and state treasures and their historical importance to selecting and presenting their own cultural treasures.

The Your Prized Possession Flickr site is LIVE and the links to National Treasures and Our Prized Possessions exhibitions and the teacher’s resources have been maintained here for teachers who would like to use it in their class work.

The four class room activities supported through the teacher’s resources will provide an opportunity to explore the learning area of ‘Society and Environment – Time, Continuity and Change’ as outlined by the Curriculum Framework and Outcomes and Standards Framework of the Department of Education and Training.

The Activities outlined here are best suited to SOSE TCC Levels 2 to Level 5, being the middle childhood to early adolescence phase. At the end of this document you will find some suggestions for how you might be able to adapt the learning activities for early childhood and late adolescence learning phases.

Here are the related links and teacher resources developed to support you in incorporating these learning activities into your classroom:

Teacher Resource PDF’s*:

• Teachers Guide Outlines the four lesson plans and provides an overview.
• Lesson 1 Student Resource
• Lesson 2 Student Resource
• Local Council – Local History Collections
• Competition Poster

Exhibition Background to Support Teaching:

• You can visit the National Treasures Exhibition online and listen to the ABC podcast.
• A list of items featured in the Our Prized Possessions Exhibition* is available.

* You can download Adobe Acrobat Reader if you do not already have this software.