Digital Classroom | National Library of Australia (NLA)

Digital Classroom

Explore Australia's history at the National Library's Digital Classroom, aligned with the Australian Curriculum. With over 10 million items, we support diverse learning styles, fostering inquiry-based learning for students to analyse sources and draw conclusions about the Australian story.
Showing 1 - 12 of 29 results
A collage of green and purple plant matter, aluminium and perspex, lit from above by a warm, yellow internal light.

Jeannie Baker, Hidden Forest, Endpapers, 2000, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-971313378

Australian children’s literature

Module

This resource is aligned with the Australian Curriculum: English for Year 4 students. It has been developed to use National Library collection material as the basis for an exploration of children’s literature as part of the literature strand of the English learning area.

English
Year 4
Literature and writing
Cover of book Us Three Outback

Ruth Hawker and Nora Young, Us three outback, 1932, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-3589536

Family, friends and identity

Topic

Children develop their sense of self through relationships with friends and families. Many early Australian children’s novels depict families on the move from Britain to Australia. Some struggled to establish a life in the harsh outback.

English
Year 4
Literature and writing
Poster for movie Storm Boy

Every year has its special film - this year it's... [picture] : Storm Boy, 1976 nla.gov.au/nla.obj-133752089

Environment and animals

Topic

Authors have used the beauty, harshness and problems of our land to tell their stories, often basing their stories in familiar locations and using their reaction to a particular environment as the central theme.

English
Year 4
Literature and writing
Cover of book All Among the Fairies

Ethel Jackson Morris, All among the fairies, 1909, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-22387121

Imagination and fantasy

Topic

Authors and illustrators of children’s books bring imaginary and distorted worlds to life, creating works inhabited by curious creatures and magical beings. These works include fairy tales and fantasy books.

English
Year 4
Literature and writing
Front cover of 'The school magazine' with a drawing of a man in a hat riding a galloping horse through a gate at night.

New South Wales. Department of Education, The Warrumbungle Mare. (1 September 1949). In The School Magazine of Literature for Our Boys and Girls, Vol. 34, no. 7 (Part 4, Class 6), nla.gov.au/nla.obj-827990456

Adventure

Topic

The 19th century was the age of the English language boys’ adventure story.

English
Year 4
Literature and writing
A collage of green and purple plant matter, aluminium and perspex, lit from above by a warm, yellow internal light.

Jeannie Baker, Hidden Forest, Endpapers, 2000, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-971313378

The creative process

Topic

Writing and illustrating a children’s book involves many steps. Sometimes one person takes on both tasks, while at other times an author and an illustrator work together to bring a story to life.

English
Year 4
Literature and writing
A pile of children's books
Creative storytelling

Module

This resource aligns to the Australian Curriculum for Year 3 English - Language, Literature and Literacy.

English
Year 3
Literature and writing
Santa Claus presenting gift to family entering the room

Jane Jolly and Robert Ingpen, Tea and Sugar Christmas, 2014, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn6420587

Picture books

Topic

Reading picture books is important in speech development, building literacy skills, helping children to use their imagination.

English
Year 3
Five figures depicted on postcard with captioned rhyme.

May Gibbs, We are the Gumnut Corps, we're going to war, 1916, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-153093166

Early children's fiction in Australia

Topic

The Library has an extensive collection of Australian children’s literature ranging from the first children’s book published in Australia to the latest releases.

English
Year 3
Book cover of WeirDo

Anh Do and Jules Faber, WeirDo, 2017, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn7289358

Chapter books

Topic

A chapter book is any book where the story is broken into different parts, called chapters.

English
Year 3
Drawing of a boy throwing a book out of a window

Emma Allen and Lisa Coutts, The Great Book-Swapping Machine, 2021, nla.gov.au/nla.cat-vn8630184

Narratives and story telling

Topic

The word narrative means story. As we write or tell stories, we are creating a narrative by describing a series of events that are connected.

English
Year 3
A black and white portrait photo of an elderly woman with short white, wavy hair wearing a black roll neck jumper and a small floral brooch just below the collar, with her interlaced fingers resting in the foreground.

Jacqueline Mitelman, Portrait of Judith Wright, nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136372491

Poetry by Judith Wright – 'Bora Ring'

Topic

These activities introduce students to the poem Bora Ring, as well as to the poem’s background and author. They also develop students’ understanding of how an author’s perspective can change and enhance the meaning of a text.

English
Year 7
Literature and writing

Need help?

Our librarians are here to guide you.

Ask a librarian