Why Place and Community Come First
Young children understand the world from the inside out — their home, their street, their school, then their town and country. HSIE builds on that by helping them describe familiar places and compare them with places they haven't been.
Place-based HSIE learning builds:
- Directional and positional language
- Early map reading and spatial awareness
- Understanding of roles and services in a community
- Comparing features of different places
- Respect for how other people live
Which Mat for Which HSIE Topic
Australia Map Mat — locating places in Australia and where we live
World Map Mat — continents, oceans and countries
People Who Help Us mat and tin — community roles and the services people provide
School Mat and Busy Street Mat — familiar local places and features of a neighbourhood
Seaside mat and tin — coastal places and comparing environments
Countryside and Farmyard mats — rural places and where food comes from
Wildlife Garden Mat — caring for local environments
Marketplace mat and tin — goods, services, buying and selling
Transport Mat and Transport & Industry Tin — how people and goods move from place to place
Using the Mats in an HSIE Lesson
Set a destination — the post office on the Busy Street mat, or Sydney on the Australia map
Plan the route aloud using directional language before programming anything
Program the robot and watch whether it arrives where the group predicted
Discuss the place it reached — who works there, what happens there, how it compares
Repeat with a new destination, or let children set challenges for each other
The same routine works without a robot: children move a counter or small-world figure across the mat instead.
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