Throughout Term 1, Year 6 have been enthusiastically learning about the Living World. They started the term looking at living animals in their different environments and finished the term with a mini-unit called Living Off The Land. 

As part of the unit, we looked at how people sustainably live off the land and focused particularly on our local district - exploring what food, fibre and energy we produce in this area and why. This created great cross-curriculum conversations among the students where we discussed local weather patterns, temperatures, rainfall, altitude and more. We realised that in Crookwell, we are not very well suited to growing Mangoes and Pineapples!

What we did learn was that the fibre of wool is produced in huge quantities in the Crookwell region and is actually one of the biggest wool-producing districts in Australia. We were very fortunate to have Kristen Frost, the NSW Industry Relations Officer for Australian Wool Innovation come in to educate the students about wool properties and wool production. Krisi guided the students through a range of information and came well prepared with pieces of fleece for students to touch and smell, different woollen fabrics with detailed information to demonstrate the range of production uses, as well as a range of everyday woollen items such as bedroom decorations, blankets, hats and clothes for students to wear and touch. 

Students learnt much about the superior qualities of wool as a fibre produced off the land and the range of products it can be turned in to. 

We are extremely grateful to Kristen Frost for giving up her time to provide the students with such a hands-on learning experience here at school.