Support your Year 4 students in their History: Experiences of People in Australia’s Past unit of work with the Life Aboard the First Fleet task.

Created to coincide with Year 4 History Australian Curriculum, this activity will provide students with the opportunity to investigate the experiences of convicts travelling to Australia aboard the First Fleet.

Students can use relevant picture books, factual texts and websites to gain an insight into the experience of a child convict being transported aboard a First Fleet ship. They will use their five senses to imagine the experience before being guided through their notetaking by the headings: see, hear, smell, taste and touch. To conclude the task, students will use their findings to write a short description of what they think a child convict’s experience would have been like.

It is recommended to complete this task following The Journey of the First Fleet mapping task.