Animal Adventures: Exploring Habitats and Needs

Program Overview

Discover how animals live, grow and stay safe in their environments.
Through lifelike holograms and hands-on activities, students explore the external features of animals and how those features help meet their basic needs.

This playful, inquiry-driven experience builds science skills through observation, discussion and imagination. Students rotate through three engaging experiences that encourage curiosity, build vocabulary, and spark their connection to living things.

Students will explore one themed environment—choose from Australia, Arctic, Asia, Africa, or Dinosaurs—as they observe animals, mimic their movements, and reflect creatively on what they’ve discovered.

Students will rotate through:

  • Hologram Zoo Exploration (guided)

  • Creative/Observation Activity (led by teachers)

  • Green Screen Photo Fun

  • Reflect with drawings or short descriptions

  • Extension ideas include building model habitats or animal comparison charts

What to Expect

Year Level

Grade 1 / Grade 2

 

Duration

75–90 minutes

 

Content

One selected experience (Australia, Arctic, Asia, Africa, or Dinosaurs)

Sample Itinerary

Morning

9:30 AM – Arrival and Introduction
9:45 AM – 11:15 AM – Rotating Group Activities:
   Students rotate through 3 sessions in smaller groups:

  • Guided Hologram Zoo Exploration  (35 minutes. Max groups of 14 students in 9 minute starting blocks)

  • Creative / Observation Activity (led by school staff)

  • Green Screen Photo Session

   Each group spends approximately 25–30 minutes in each activity. Groups rotate every 10 minutes in staggered pairs to maintain flow.

11:15 AM – Wrap-Up and Departure

 

Afternoon

12:30 PM – Arrival and Introduction
12:45 PM – 2:15 PM – Rotating Group Activities:
    Students rotate through 3 sessions in smaller groups:

  • Guided Hologram Zoo Exploration (35 minutes. Max groups of 14 students in 9 minute starting blocks)

  • Creative / Observation Activity (led by school staff)

  • Green Screen Photo Session

    Each group spends approximately 25–30 minutes in each activity. Groups rotate every 10 minutes in staggered pairs to maintain flow.

2:15 PM – Wrap-Up and Departure

Curriculum Links (Victorian Curriculum)

Science – Biological Sciences

  • VCSSU042 – Living things have a variety of external features and live in different places where their basic needs, including food, water and shelter, are met.

  • VCSSU043 – Living things grow, change and have offspring similar to themselves.

Science Inquiry Skills

  • VCSIS050 – Respond to and pose questions, and make predictions about familiar objects and events.

  • VCSIS051 – Participate in guided investigations, including making observations using the senses, to explore and answer questions.

Personal and Social Capability

  • VCPSCSE008 – Extend their vocabulary through which to recognise and describe emotions and when, how and with whom it is appropriate to share emotions.

  • VCPSCSE009 – Identify personal strengths and describe how these strengths are useful in school or family life.

Teaching Guide