# Week 1 — Classroom detectives **Foundation / Prep · five school days · development draft** **Big idea:** We can look closely, ask, count, make, move and tell someone what we noticed. **Local check:** ACARA v9 national mapping only. Verify the subject's state or territory syllabus and implementation year before class. **Review:** author draft 29 September 2026; teacher accuracy, cultural, accessibility and local-syllabus reviews pending. This is an integrated guide for the first school week. Use the companion English and mathematics lesson folders for their full daily 20–30 minute sequences. The extra sessions below make a viable day without asking a new teacher to invent all the inquiry, health, arts and design work. Timings are adjustable; protect breaks, child-led play, movement and transition time. Do not demand a full-class performance from a child who is still learning the room. ## Before children arrive - Put out large-print name cards that children can see and touch. Ask families for each child's preferred spoken name and pronunciation; keep the cards private if school policy requires it. Have blank cards and thick markers ready. - Prepare one clean, safe tray with **five identical counters**, one tray with **mixed everyday objects** (large enough not to be a choking hazard), a few paper bags, paper/card, reusable tape, crayons, and simple building pieces. Avoid food-based counting unless family and school policies permit it. - Choose three classroom places children may visit: a book area, a making area, and a calm or quiet area. Decide which places or objects are out of bounds and explain why in ordinary language. - Make a picture schedule with the actual local day's events. Prepare a paper version and a plain-text version. Do not promise exact clock times if the day may change. - Offer a response board with **look / point / say / sign / draw / show with objects / pass for now**. None of these routes is a lower grade of participation. - Set up an evidence sheet for each child under your school's information rules: date, task, what the child actually did/said, whether a cue was used, and one sensible next step. Do not put names or records in a public app. ## Daily shape | Block | Suggested time | What happens | | --- | ---: | --- | | Arrival and settling | 20–30 min | Greet by preferred name; picture schedule; choice of quiet table, making, or familiar play. | | Morning gathering | 10–15 min | Preview the day, model one respectful exchange, allow watching before speaking. | | English | 20–30 min | Use the matching daily English lesson. Include oral language, sound play and meaningful text. | | Movement and break | local timetable | Outdoor or indoor movement with a safety boundary, then rest/food as school policy requires. | | Mathematics | 20–30 min | Use the matching daily mathematics lesson with physical objects and spoken reasoning. | | Inquiry / making | 30–45 min | Use the day-specific lesson below. Keep an exploration station open for a second route. | | Lunch / free play | local timetable | Child-led play, connection and a quieter alternative. Observe without turning every choice into a score. | | Story, art or reflection | 20–30 min | Original prompt below plus a picture, object, gesture or dictated response option. | | Closing | 5–10 min | One thing noticed, one question, or pass; preview tomorrow. | Use a short visual card or spoken preview before each change. A child who needs more processing time can point to the next card or carry one object to the next station. Maintain the same learning question while varying the way to respond. ## Day 1 — Find our places ### Inquiry: a place for each thing (HASS, 35 minutes) **Curriculum links:** AC9HSFK03 (familiar places and care), AC9HSFS01 (questions about familiar places), AC9HSFS02 (pictorial locations); partial introduction. **Goal:** identify a familiar school place, locate it on a simple picture map, and suggest one way to care for it. 1. **Model, 5 min.** Stand at the book area. Say: “This is where we find books. I can put a book back so someone else can find it.” Put one book away. Ask “What do you notice here?” Accept pointing, naming, signing or showing an object. 2. **Guided walk, 10 min.** Visit the book, making and calm areas. At each, ask “What is here? What might we do here? How could we look after it?” Do not ask children to disclose family or personal histories. 3. **Make a map, 15 min.** On one sheet draw the door and the three areas as simple shapes. Place a matching picture or object marker at each. Children make or position a marker. Ask “How did you know where it belongs?” 4. **Close, 5 min.** Offer: “I can care for our ___ by ___.” A child may draw, point, dictate, use an AAC selection, or demonstrate the action. Record the actual response. **Look and listen for:** Does the child recognise one real place and a sensible care action? If a child cannot locate the room from the flat map, try a model made with blocks and revisit from the doorway. Do not treat map interpretation as a measure of belonging. **Real-life variations:** map a home learning corner, a library, a bus-stop waiting area, or a shared garden. Ask about a place only if the child chooses to share. For First Nations Country/Place learning, use approved local knowledge and follow community protocols; this activity does **not** teach AC9HSFK04. ### Health and movement: may I use this space? (HPE, 20 minutes) **Curriculum links:** AC9HPFP02 (respectful interaction), AC9HPFP04 (respectfully seeking, giving or denying permission), AC9HPFM02 (moving safely in space). Model with two adults or puppets: “May I sit here?” “Yes”; then “Not now”; then “Okay, I’ll choose another spot.” Children practise with floor spots or paper hoops. Nobody must allow touch or share a personal object. Swap words for picture choices or signs. **Check:** can the child ask, answer or demonstrate a respectful response to “no”? Reteach by modelling, not by asking a child to justify their boundary. ## Day 2 — What is it made of? ### Science: look, touch safely, describe (40 minutes) **Curriculum links:** AC9SFU03 (observable material properties), AC9SFH01 (observations and questions), AC9SFI01 (questions/predictions), AC9SFI02 (safe investigation with senses), AC9SFI03 (record observations); partial introduction. **Materials:** a wooden block, a paper card, a fabric square, a plastic lid with smooth edges, a metal spoon, and one **composite object** made by slipping a paper label over a smooth plastic cup. Check allergies, cleanliness and local safety first. The purpose is to describe **observable** properties, notice that one object can have more than one material, and avoid claiming one material is always safe or “better.” 1. **Ask:** “Which object might bend? What makes you think so?” Accept a prediction made by pointing to an object. 2. **Model:** show the paper card and say “I can see it is flat. I can gently bend it. I will not taste it.” The teacher names the property without pretending a property can be known from the material name alone. 3. **Explore:** groups choose two objects. Children look and, if comfortable, touch. Offer tongs or an adult demonstration instead of required tactile contact. Ask “What is the same? What is different?” Show the cup and removable label. Ask: “Is this one object made of one kind of material or more than one? Which parts can you see?” 4. **Record and notice a pattern with guidance:** draw or place a picture in two columns: **bends in our test / does not bend in our test**. Children may dictate a note: “The card bent”; “The spoon did not bend when I tried gently.” Once several observations are in the table, point to the recorded objects and ask: “Which results are alike? Is there a pattern in *our* tests?” Accept “the paper card and fabric bent” if observed. Do not generalise the result to all paper, fabric or metal objects. 5. **Check against prediction:** “What did you think? What happened?” A changed idea is useful evidence, not an error to hide. **Look and listen for:** a specific observed feature or action, and a comparison grounded in what happened. If a child says “metal is strong,” ask “What did this spoon do in our gentle test?” Avoid generalising one object to all objects of that material. A teacher handles any sharp/heavy object. **Examples beyond the tray:** a raincoat versus a towel when wet, a cardboard parcel versus a cloth bag when carrying, a wooden toy versus a foam toy when rolling. These are fresh questions for later investigations; do not invent a result before testing. ### Visual art: draw an object two ways (25 minutes) **Curriculum links:** AC9AVAFD01 (discover ideas), AC9AVAFC01 (create work communicating an idea), AC9AVAFP01 (share with an audience). First, draw the object as seen. Then draw one feature large so another person will notice it. A child may use collage, thick crayon, textured paper, an adult scribe, or a model made from loose parts. Ask the audience, “What detail helped you know?” Display only with the child's and school's permission. ## Day 3 — A better place for our things ### Design and technologies: make a counter keeper (45 minutes) **Curriculum links:** AC9TDEFK01 (designed familiar products/environments), AC9TDEFP01 (generate, communicate, evaluate ideas and safely make a solution); partial introduction. **Design brief:** “Our maths counters need a place so we can find five of them and pack them away.” 1. Show two existing containers: a paper bag and a shallow tray. Ask “Who made these? What job does each do?” Do not assume every child uses the same household storage. 2. Let children draw, point to, build or verbally describe a holder. Ask: “How will we know if it works?” Record the child's own test idea (for example, “five counters stay inside when I carry it slowly”). 3. Use folded card, reused clean containers or block pieces to make a prototype. Adult handles scissors or sharp tools. No hot glue. 4. Test with exactly five counters. A peer may observe, not judge the maker. Ask “What happened? What would you change?” 5. Revisit on Day 5 after the child has used the holder. A design that needs revision has done its job as a test. **Look and listen for:** the child connects a feature to the holder's purpose and can show one change or reason to keep it. Record the idea and the test separately. For a low-motor-demand route, select and arrange ready-made components; the design decision is still the child's. **Life-domain variants:** a place to park shoes, a sleeve for library cards, a safe way to carry drawing sheets, a tidy place for garden tools. All need a real user, a purpose and a test. ### Music: our five-counter rhythm (20 minutes) **Curriculum links:** AC9AMUFD01 (discover ideas using music processes), AC9AMUFC01 (create to communicate), AC9AMUFP01 (share). Tap a steady four-beat pattern with hands or an object; then let a child choose **tap / rest** for each beat. Represent the pattern with filled and empty circles. Play it for a partner who points to the matching marks. A silent movement or visual flash route is available; do not demand audible participation or loud sound. This is rhythm work, not a claim that children have fully met the Music standard. ## Day 4 — Can our bodies and objects move differently? ### Science and physical education: gentle roll test (40 minutes) **Curriculum links:** AC9SFU02 (object movement and influence of shape/size/material), AC9SFI01–AC9SFI04 (predict, investigate, record, compare), AC9HPFM01/02/04 (movement, space and fair play); partial introduction. **Safety:** a broad clear floor area; soft balls and a cylinder made of rolled card; no throwing, racing across others' routes, or forced participation. Offer a tabletop ramp with adult help if floor movement is inaccessible. 1. Show a soft ball and a card cylinder. Ask: “Which will roll farther after one gentle push? What might matter?” Choose one starting line. Keep the push as similar as children can manage; tell them this is an exploration, not a controlled laboratory proof. 2. A child predicts by pointing, saying, drawing or moving a picture. Another child marks where each object stops using a paper strip. Swap roles respectfully. 3. Try twice from the **same marked starting line**. Mark each object's stopping place on a paper strip laid beside the route. In each trial circle **ball farther / cylinder farther / about the same distance from the line**. This is a pairwise comparison with a visible reference, not a competition scoreboard. Ask what else changed (push, surface, object). 4. Invite the child to explain or show one difference and one new question. If the results vary, say so. Repeat before making a stronger claim. 5. Movement break: children choose a safe motion (walk, wheel, reach, roll an object, sway) to follow a marked route, then name a way they kept space for others. **Look and listen for:** observation versus prediction, and whether the child can name one possible influence without assuming the test proves it. Follow up by trying the same object on a second surface in a later week. ### Drama: show a question (20 minutes) **Curriculum links:** AC9ADRFD01, AC9ADRFC01, AC9ADRFP01. In pairs or with puppets, make a 15-second scene: “I wonder where this object should go.” One character asks, another shows a possible answer. Children can move a puppet, choose pictures, narrate, sign or remain the designer while an adult voices the scene. Audience says what question they noticed. No child must act in front of the whole class. ## Day 5 — Show what we found ### Our learning trail (40 minutes) **Curriculum links:** revisit AC9HSFS03–05 (perspective, conclusion, narrative/observation), AC9SFI05 (share questions and observations), AC9TDEFP01 (evaluate a design), and the subject codes practised earlier. These are **evidence opportunities**, not one-session certifications. Set up four small stations: **place map**, **material tray**, **counter holder**, **roll record**. Put children in small groups. Everyone visits the place map and chooses one other station; peers can use the object/page prompts while the adult sits with **4–6 focus children** for brief individual evidence conversations. Record the others at arrival or a familiar station in Week 2; write **not yet observed**, never an invented score. At each station, ask “What did you try? What did you notice? What would you try next?” Children may point, use AAC, use a home language with interpreter support where available, show a model, draw or dictate. Give wait time and a quiet station. A family member can see work only under school consent rules. At the **place-map station**, use Monday's map or model **and a retained Day 1 teacher note or child sketch** as sources. Ask: “Which place did our map show? What did we record there on Monday? What do we see now? What might another person think this place is for?” Then ask a specific conclusion question: “Given what we noticed, how can we look after this place so someone else can use it?” A child can point to the source, show the actual place and demonstrate a care action; record their perspective, observation and conclusion separately. Do not treat a science or counter-holder answer as evidence for the HASS inquiry codes. Then let each child choose a way to share one piece of work: put it in a folder, tell a partner, display with permission, make a photo under local policy, or keep it private. Do not use public learner uploads. ### Teacher decision after Day 5 Sort **next teaching moves**, not children: (a) model and practise the idea again with a more concrete object; (b) practise the same idea in a new everyday setting; (c) extend with a new question that changes one feature. Write one actual example from the child beside the chosen move. The next week's plan should respond to that evidence. ## Ready-to-copy learner pages ### Page A — My place map **Prompt to say aloud:** “Show one place in our room. What happens there? How could we care for it?” ```text NAME OR MARK: _____________________ DATE: ______________ Draw, place a picture, or ask someone to write your idea. OUR DOOR: [ ] A PLACE I KNOW: [ ] SOMETHING WE DO THERE: [ ] ONE WAY TO CARE FOR IT: [ ] ``` ### Page B — Material detective **Prompt to say aloud:** “Choose two safe objects. Show what you noticed. We can change our prediction after testing.” ```text I THINK THIS MIGHT BEND: [picture / object / words] I TRIED: [ ] WHAT HAPPENED: [ ] ONE THING I NOTICED: [ ] TWO MATERIAL PARTS I CAN SEE ON THE CUP: [ ] AN OBSERVATION PATTERN IN OUR SORT: [ ] ONE QUESTION I STILL HAVE: [ ] ``` ### Page C — Design and test ```text THE JOB: keep five counters together. MY IDEA: [draw / build / point / dictate] MY TEST: [ ] WHAT HAPPENED: [ ] I WILL KEEP / CHANGE: [ ] BECAUSE: [ ] ``` ### Page D — Roll and wonder ```text OBJECTS: [soft ball] [card cylinder] MY PREDICTION: [ ] STARTING LINE: [mark the same line for both objects] TRY 1 STOP MARKS: BALL [ ] CYLINDER [ ] FROM THE LINE: [ball farther / cylinder farther / about same] TRY 2 STOP MARKS: BALL [ ] CYLINDER [ ] FROM THE LINE: [ball farther / cylinder farther / about same] WHAT I NOTICED: [ ] WHAT I MIGHT CHANGE NEXT TIME: [ ] ``` Every page may be read aloud, enlarged, copied into plain text, completed with objects, or answered through an adult scribe. A spoken response is not a weaker response. If a child cannot yet separate a prediction from an observation, model with your own example and record that as the next teaching step. ## Evidence and source ledger | Content statement or choice | Basis | Scope and review note | | --- | --- | --- | | The listed AC9 codes are Foundation curriculum descriptions | [ACARA v9 workbook download](https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/downloads); local imported snapshot hash in the Foundation README | Mappings are authored interpretations; a teacher must check local fit and achievement-standard evidence. | | Start with concrete objects, conversation, guided practice and checks | [AERO early literacy](https://www.edresearch.edu.au/guides-resources/practice-guides/early-literacy-practice-guide), [early numeracy](https://www.edresearch.edu.au/guides-resources/practice-guides/early-numeracy-practice-guide-full-publication), [explicit teaching](https://www.edresearch.edu.au/guides-resources/practice-guides/teach-explicitly), [monitor progress](https://www.edresearch.edu.au/guides-resources/practice-guides/monitor-progress) | General instructional guidance; this pack has no outcome study or classroom pilot. | | Offer choice of representation and response, then individualise | [ACARA student diversity](https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/student-diversity/students-with-disability), [ACARA EAL/D](https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/student-diversity/eal-d-students), [CAST UDL 3.0](https://www.cast.org/resources/about-universal-design-for-learning/) | Formats support access; they are not fixed learner labels or guaranteed adjustments. | | Country/Place content requires local knowledge and protocols | [ACARA copyright and terms, including ICIP guidance](https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/copyright-and-terms-of-use) | AC9HSFK04 has intentionally not been taught through invented cultural content. | **Reuse this guide:** © NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd 2026, “SubjectNest Classroom Detectives, Foundation Week 1”, version 0.1.0-draft. Original prompts, tables and learner templates are [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/); credit SubjectNest by NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd, link the source and licence, and note changes. ACARA source material retains [its own terms](https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/copyright-and-terms-of-use). Common classroom objects are not supplied assets. No third-party image, song, story or worksheet has been copied into this pack. Teacher review pending.