Getting Started
Learning for life
- The living world is a large and beautiful thing with diverse climates and habitats, flora and fauna.
- Every living thing has a right to have its needs respected and protected.
- All living things depend on the environment around them for survival.
- All living things are interconnected and interdependent, and the balance can be delicate.
- Humans are ultimately responsible for the state of the environment and its protection for the future.
- Environments change over time and these changes can be caused by nature or humans.
- Changes, whether natural or artificial, can affect whole systems and the environment both for better and for worse.
- The environment can affect how we live and the things we do.
- Many spaces and species are threatened because of human impact on the environment.
- We all need to respect and take responsibility for the places in our community.
- We have a responsibility to care for and protect our environment for the future.
- Our beliefs and actions are intertwined with the society and culture in which we live.
- Different groups may have differing beliefs and values about the environment, which may cause conflict between these groups.
- Our natural resources, like water and clean air, are precious.
- There are international agencies that promote environmental protection.
- I can have both a positive and negative impact on the environment.
- Through knowledge and understanding, I can make responsible choices to meet my needs and still promote the protection of the environment.
- The beliefs I have and the actions I take can influence others.
- I may only be one child but I can make a difference.
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Overview
Uno arrives in the forest on a beautiful day at the very beginning of spring and is greeted by a myriad of beautiful, lush plants and the most fantastic creatures he has ever seen. He likes it so much that he decides to stay there.
But Uno's decision spells doom for the plants and the creatures of the forest, including the only completely ordinary Snortlepig.
The animals go one by one
A hundred plants, then there were none
And all the while the buildings double...
This numbers game adds up to trouble.
But Uno is wise and sees the future of his children and their children if someone does not act to stem the consequences of civilisation. So he starts a special garden that does not have the vegetables and flowers of other gardens, but allows his children and grandchildren to have hope for their future.
But if you count with utmost care
(And trust me that they are all there)
You'll go from ten to nothing, then
The whole way back to ten again!
Uno's Garden is a rich story that delivers a powerful message through both its words and pictures. On a simple level, it is a counting book that shows how when one thing increases another decreases. However, the diversity and detail of the illustrations tells a more complex story that provides an excellent starting point for children to start considering their impact on their environment and how this can be positive.
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Author profile
Graeme Base moved to Australia from England when he was eight. Ever since he was a child, Graeme wanted to be an artist because he figured that would allow him to get paid for drawing pictures (which he loved to do). After university and some jobs in advertising which he hated, he began to show his illustrations to publishers. In 1983 My Grandma Lives in Gooligulch was published and this was followed by Animalia. These have been followed by a number of other titles, all of which involve an intriguing puzzle or search in the illustrations.
Graeme believes that the three key elements to fulfilling your dream are passion, persistence and providence.
You can find out more about Graeme at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A741098 or
www.abc.net.au/rollercoaster/therap/interviews/graemebase.htm
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Useful websites 
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Focus questions
Before reading the book
- Why did Graeme Base call his character Uno?
- What do you think this story might be about? How does the cover help you make these predictions?
- How does the rhyme on the title page prepare you for the theme of the story?
During reading the book
- Was Uno afraid when he first arrived in the forest? Why? What tells you this?
- Was it inevitable that the forest would change once Uno decided to live there? Do you think he knew this? How?
- How did his little cottage affect the forest?
- Why were there now only 81 plants?
- What could the Lumpybums see from the treetops? Were they concerned about Uno's coming?
- What did Uno plant in his garden? Why?
- How did the other people find Uno's cottage?
- Why did the other people decide to settle there, rather than just visit? What is the likely impact of their boats?
- Why would Uno begin a garden when there was already such lush vegetation available?
- Why were the fisherman's children able to play with the Playful Puddlebuts?
- Why did the hunters want to capture the Sneaky Snagglebites? How were they planning to do this?
- Why did the tourists come to the forest? What did they expect to see that they couldn't see in the city?
- Why did the tourists only see five Timid Tumbletops? Where had the other creatures gone?
- What eventually happened to Uno's forest? How do you think he felt about that?
- What happened to the Snortlepig? How was it able to survive when the other animals appear to have disappeared?
- On the grey morning that the people of the city woke up and decided to leave, where might they have gone?
- Do you think the people of the city might have learned any lessons about taking care of the environment?
- What do you think they might do differently this time?
- How did Uno feel when he opened his door and saw the dark and abandoned city?
- What was it that Uno had done that gave him hope, even though both he and the Snortlepig died?
- What did Uno's children do that was different to the original inhabitants of the town?
- Why did the creatures return only after the plants started to return?
- How did the new generation finally strike a balance between the plants, the creatures and the people?
- Do you think the Snortlepig ever returned? Why?
After reading the book
- Why did Graeme Base call this story Uno's Garden instead of Uno's Forest?
- What was the significance of Uno's garden?
- What is the purpose of the 'completely ordinary Snortlepig' in the story?
- How does the story of Uno's Garden reflect the story of the European settlement of Australia, or the story of the settlement of your neighbourhood?
- Can people live in harmony and balance with plants and other creatures?
- What are the lessons you have learned from reading this story?
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Activities
Responding to text
Fill your senses
Individuals
'Uno arrived in the forest on a beautiful day at the very beginning of spring.' What was the forest like for Uno?
Brainstorm all the words that describe the forest from Uno's perspective. Construct an x chart using a large piece of brown card to represent a tree trunk, and sort the words into the various categories.
Class
Construct a class poem that is a modified version of a cinquain following this format:
- One word for the subject (forest).
- Two words that describe what the forest looks like.
- Three words which describe what the forest smells, sounds and feels like.
- Four words which express how Uno feels.
- One word which describes what Uno thinks about his future here.
Write each line (1 to 5) on a large leaf shape and attach the leaves to the tree trunk to construct the poem.
Individuals
Have the students use this poem as a model to construct personal poems using the words from the class chart to make individual trees to construct a class mural.
Lumpybums and Tumbletops
Class Individuals 
Small groups
Why did Graeme Base choose to use fantasy creatures like lumpybums and tumbletops instead of real creatures like meerkats and orangutans?
Individuals
Select one of the creatures in the story and examine it closely. Imagine you are the scientist who first discovered it and you are describing it to the world. Unfortunately, you lost your camera on your journey out of the forest so you can only use words. Include the answers to these questions in your report:
- What is the name of the creature?
- What does the creature look like?
- What unique features does the creature have? What does it use these for?
- How big is it?
- Where in the forest does it live?
- What does it eat?
- How does it move?
- What enemies does it have?
- How does it protect itself?
- Is it dependent on other creatures in the forest?
- Do any other creatures depend on it?
- How does the forest environment provide for its needs?
- What is likely to happen to the environment if this creature disappears from the forest?
Individuals
Use playdough or plasticine to build your own creature of the forest. Write a report for a scientific journal which describes it and its characteristics. Use the above questions as a guide and include a clearly labelled diagram that illustrates its critical features. Add your diagrams and descriptions to your forest mural.
Individuals Small groups
Ask your teacher librarian to help you find copies of the poem The Hipporhinostricow by Spike Milligan. Read it and draw the creature you imagine. Compare your drawings to those of your friends. Why are they all so different even though you all started with the same words?
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Themes for Education for Sustainability
The disappearing forest
Individuals Small groups Class
- Each time a new family came or a new building was built, the number of plants decreased until there was only one dead tree left. Why?
- What was the impact of this on the wildlife? Why?
- How are the creatures and the plants of the forest interdependent?
Individuals
Select an endangered forest-dwelling creature from the IUCN Red List
http://www.iucnredlist.org/ and investigate how it is dependent on its habitat. Construct a poster based on the structure of this concept map.
- In the central box draw or paste a picture of the creature and insert its name in the space.
- In the four adjacent boxes show how the creature is dependent on its environment.
- In the star boxes show the major threats to that environment.
- In the heart shapes show how the creature contributes to its environment.
- What have you learned from constructing this poster?
The forest and the people
Individuals Small groups
As well as being a home for all the different creatures in the story, the forest is also critical for the survival of humans. Investigate the answers to these questions:
- What role do trees and forests play in supporting and sustaining human life?
- How does the carbon cycle work?
View one of these sites to help you understand this phenomenon. Then use what you have learned to create a poster or a slideshow to explain it and why trees are critical to our survival. Perhaps you might even organise a Plant a Tree Day for your school.
Pick a pet
Individuals Small groups Class
'The fisherman's children played games amongst the trees. They counted seven Playful Puddlebuts, plus one Snortlepig.'
- Why did the children find the Puddlebuts so appealing?
- If they decided to keep one as a pet, how would they look after it?
- What changes would there be to a Puddlebut's life if it were kept as a pet?
Individuals
Investigate the most popular pets that are kept by the students in your class. Construct a pictograph of the information you gather and then convert this to a bar graph. Write five things that you can learn from the graph.
Individuals Small groups Class
Some people keep unusual pets including reptiles and insects. Discuss why people choose to keep wild creatures in captivity. List the reasons for and against.
Select one of the pets kept by the students in your class and investigate its needs and how these are catered for. Then compare how it met these needs in the wild. Which parts of its life are better because it is kept as a pet? Which are worse?
Debate the topic: 'Animals should not be kept as pets.' Use the for and against chart to help you sort out your ideas and decide which side of the debate you will support.
Hide and seek
Individuals Small groups Class
'Some hunters went into the forest looking for the Sneaky Snagglebites. There were six, but the hunters didn't catch them – or the Snortlepig.'
- Why would hunters want to capture a Sneaky Snagglebite?
- What would they need to know about the Sneaky Snagglebites if they wanted to capture one?
- What advice would you give them to ensure they were successful?
- Why could the hunters not find the Sneaky Snagglebites?
- Why is it necessary for creatures to have camouflage or other methods of protection?
Investigate the ways that Mother Nature protects creatures from their predators.
As a class, brainstorm all the ways that you think of and use these words as headings to construct a chart that shows examples of creatures that use the various types of protection.
The price of freedom
Individuals
The hunters could not capture a Sneaky Snagglebite and it was many years before they were seen again. Would it have been better for them if they had been captured and placed in a zoo?
Investigate the role that zoos play in preserving endangered species.
The value of value
Individuals Small groups Class
'Tourists came. They saw five timid Tumbletops, but that was all.'
- What is a tourist?
- If they are only visiting, what impact do they have on the environment?
Brainstorm all the ways that tourists can affect an environment and then sort these ideas using the chain reaction template.
- Can tourists have a positive impact on the environment? How?
- What does it mean to 'leave only footprints, take only photographs'?
- Use the chain reaction template to create a different set of circumstances that show the positive effects of tourism.
- Should tourists be charged an admission fee to popular places that feature natural attractions?
Discuss: 'We only value those things we have to pay for.'
Debate: 'People have the right to visit natural attractions regardless of the cost to the environment.'
Use the for and against chart to help organise your ideas and decide which side you will take.
The purpose of parks
Individuals Small groups
- How might the people of Uno's village have protected the remaining plants and animals of the forest yet still allowed the tourists to visit?
- How might Uno's children and grandchildren protect those creatures and plants that slowly return?
- What is a national park?
- Why are they established?
- Where is your nearest national or state park?
- Why was it established?
- Do tourists have to pay a fee to visit it? Why?
Individuals Small groups
Mark in all the state and national parks located in your state or territory on a large map. Classify them according to the sort of environment that they encompass – alpine, desert, forest, grassland, marine and so forth – and identify any specific features or wildlife that have been protected by their creation.
Individuals Small groups
Imagine that the people of the new town decide to protect their regenerated environment by declaring it a national park, and you have the job of developing a tourist brochure or webpage for it. Examine samples of this media to identify their key elements. Identify and include:
- the key things that a tourist would want and need to know about the park
- photos and maps of its attractions
- information about how to get there
- information about when to go and what to do
- information about the things the tourists are not allowed to do
- information about how they can protect it for future generations.
Travel and transport
Individuals Small groups
Examine the picture that shows the train bringing the tourists on sightseeing tours to see the animals.
- What impact has the railway had on the environment?
- Would it have been better to have had roads? Why?
Construct a chart that compares the effects of public and private transport. Is there a way that tourists could visit the area or residents could travel without having such an impact on the environment?
Small groups
As a group, design a transport system of the future that has the most minimum impact on the environment.
Fill your senses again
Individuals
Look at the picture of the city when there was just one Snortlepig, one tree and 256 buildings.
Brainstorm all the words that describe the city from the Snortlepig's perspective. Construct an x chart on a large piece of brown card to represent a building, and sort the words into their various categories.
Class
Use the words to construct a class poem that is a modified version of a cinquain following this format:
- one word for the subject (city)
- two words that describe what the city looks like
- three words which describe what the city smells, sounds and feels like
- four words which express how the Snortlepig feels
- one word which describes what the Snortlepig thinks about his future here
Write each line (1 to 5) on a large dark window shape and attach it to the building to construct the poem.
Individuals
Have the students use this as a model to construct personal poems using the words from the class x chart and make individual buildings to construct a mural.
Small groups
Compare the language of the city poems to the language of the forest poems.
Before, after and in-between
Individuals Small groups
Construct a mural or a model that shows:
- the forest before Uno arrived
- the city when it died
- the town that Uno's children and grandchildren helped to build.
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Research themes
Starting over
Individuals Small groups
- What are the key differences between the buildings that the new inhabitants of the forest built and those built by Uno's generation?
Small groups
As a group, construct a model enviro-habitation pod.
- What would it be made from?
- What features would it have that ensured it lived up to its name?
Consider lighting, heating, water use, garbage disposal and any other issues that you think are important. Draw architectural plans (front, back and side views and floor plans) to show your ideas.
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Assessment
Assessment tasks are dependent on the teacher's identified outcomes of the unit, the tasks selected and the evidence that teachers determine to be acceptable for the age group.
Values and attitudes evolve over time as our expertise and experience grows and so cannot be measured. However, by exposing students to activities such as these we start them on their journey of awareness of the wider world, particularly if we give them the opportunity and time to reflect on their learning.
Telling the tale
You are a journalist with a particular interest in local history and have been assigned the task of telling the tale of the rise and fall of the town. Develop a presentation (print or digital) that not only tells others of the town's history but also includes warnings that might prevent the existing town from following the same path.
Our town
Collect photos and maps of the development of your town and create a display that shows its growth.
- Why did people first settle in that area?
- Does that reason still exist?
- What attracts settlers to the area now?
- What have been the major effects on the environment because of its growth?
Discuss what your town will look like in 2020 and 2050.
- Is it likely to become like Uno's town?
- What could your class do now to change its future?
Identify an issue in your school or neighbourhood that needs attention and discuss ways that it could be addressed. Construct an action plan to focus your plans and activities.
Habits and behaviours
- What did Uno teach his children that enabled them to regenerate the forest and its creatures after he had gone?
The habits we develop today become the behaviours we demonstrate tomorrow.
Make a list of five things that you:
- have learned about caring for the environment from reading this story
- have learned about caring for the environment from your parents
- will teach your children about caring for the environment.
Planning for the 22nd century
- Each person in the class is one of Uno's grandchildren and, as a group, you are determined that the town you live in will have a better future than the one that Uno lived in.
- Consider the main issues that will face the town planners of the future and design a town that remains in harmony and balance with the environment, yet still meets the needs of the people who live in it.
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