Water safety resources to support F-2 swimming lessons

Kangaroo Beach is a fun-filled series about the adventures of four young animal friends training as junior cadets with their lifeguard heroes. The series is fun, engaging and entertaining while also empowering viewers with an imperative message about water safety in every story.

To enhance and consolidate students’ knowledge of safe behaviours around water, the ACTF has developed two valuable classroom-based water safety education resources for F-2 students and teachers based on the fun and playful Kangaroo Beach.

The most recent release – the Kangaroo Beach Series 2 resource – contains eight lesson plans to use alongside school swimming lessons or as part of class inquiries into personal health and safety. Lessons are linked to Foundation to Year 2 Health and Physical Education, Media Arts and Personal and Social Capability content descriptors in Version 9.0 of the Australian Curriculum. 

Lesson plans correspond to key learning areas in the National Swimming and Water Safety Framework. Each lesson identifies a relevant Kangaroo Beach S2 episode and water safety message, lists comprehension questions for the class or individual students, and includes a vocabulary list and student activity sheet related to the theme – everything that’s needed for a calming lesson after the excitement of F-2 swimming lessons!

The Kangaroo Beach Series 1 resource follows a similar structure. The water safety advice provided in both ACTF resources has been reviewed and endorsed by Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA). 

ACTF National Curriculum Manager Janine Kelly says screen content can be a powerful way to communicate important messages to young children.

“Children’s television series engage and entertain viewers, but they can also share important health and safety messages with the child audience. By explaining and modelling safe behaviours around water, Kangaroo Beach develops and consolidates children’s water safety knowledge. The ACTF’s resources for the series support educators in making these ‘teachable moments’ more explicit for students. The lessons encourage students to make connections between the characters’ experiences and their own, contributing to classroom-based water safety education and paving the way for further conversations at home.”

Kangaroo Beach seasons 1 and 2 are available to stream on ABC iview or purchase as a digital download from the ACTF Shop. Learning resources for both series can be downloaded from the ACTF website.