Education

Information for families

This family activity booklet provides highlights, interesting facts and stories, presented in a family-friendly way so that children and adults can gain further enjoyment as they wander through the exhibition. Each page holds a small activity, topic or focus question for children to discuss with their parents.

This booklet is similar in design to The Australian Women’s Weekly of the time and is a suitable activity for primary aged school groups.

Information for teachers

These PDF files have been created for you to use with your senior students in conjunction with the Australia under attack 1942–1943 exhibition. The personal stories contained in each of the files take the form of a double-sided A4 activity booklet for you to print off prior to visiting and viewing the exhibition. Altogether there are 18 personal profiles of men and women whose stories are illustrated in the exhibition.

Students should work either individually or with a partner to explore the exhibition and investigate the particular person listed in their booklet. Each story is told using a range of primary source documents, which students can find in the exhibition. They can also glean information about the person from the materials and objects. A classroom discussion on the value of using a variety of primary sources to tell a personal story would be a good way to highlight the use of historical literacy skills in research.

The questions and activities within the booklet are designed to link to the Time, Continuity and Change strand of SoSE (Studies of Society and Environment) and HSIE (Human Society and Its Environments) curriculum documents.

We have also provided you with a background document covering the main information about each of the 18 personal stories (see “Personal Stories Information”). This will assist you to facilitate discussions on these stories back in the classroom; you can also use it to provide students with information on the variety of stories and roles that individuals played in Australia at this time.

Students may also like to investigate the two flip-books from The Australian Women’s Weekly within the exhibition. This selection of pages illustrates the social impact of the war on Australian families and, in particular, women. Using these, students will come to better understand both the impact of the war (through a discussion of the types of advertisements and articles in the magazine) and the social messages that were given to families to encourage them support the war effort.

We hope that these personal stories, as well as further research through the website, will enhance your visit to the Australia under attack 1942–1943 exhibition.

Education Team
Australian War memorial