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Foundation / Term 1

Development draft · local review needed

Signs and safe choicesFoundation · T1 · Week 07 Signs And Safe Choices

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Teacher copy: This page may include teaching prompts or answer keys. Answer keys in this public library can be viewed by anyone. Give learners a clean prompt, use checks as formative evidence, and change a case locally when prior access matters.

Foundation / Prep · five school days · development draft
Question: How can a sign help us, and what can we do when a screen or situation asks for information?
Status: local educator, child-safety lead, curriculum, accessibility and privacy review pending. Pair these integrated blocks with the separate daily English and mathematics Weeks 7–8 packs. The teacher must use the school's current protective-behaviour, help, image-consent and digital-device procedures.

National ACARA v9 links, partial practice: Health and Physical Education AC9HPFP05 (protective behaviours and help seeking) and AC9HPFP06 (health symbols/messages/strategies); Digital Technologies AC9TDIFK01 (digital systems for a purpose), AC9TDIFK02 (data as objects/pictures/symbols) and AC9TDIFP01 (some data is personal and owned by the child). This week does not teach the full AC9HPFP05 body-parts component or replace a school-approved protective-behaviours program. English sign reading and maths story work continue in their own daily lessons.

Prepare once

Day 1 — What does a real sign help us do? (35 minutes)

Goal: find two locally used health/safety signs, say their purpose and show one action. Links: AC9HPFP06, AC9TDIFK02 as a picture/symbol connection.

  1. Start, 6 min. Show a real, school-approved sign in its actual place. Ask, “What can you see? Where is it? What might it help people do?” Read any text aloud. Do not ask children to infer a safety action from a symbol alone.
  2. Model, 8 min. Point to picture, words and location separately. Say, “This is our school's handwashing reminder near the basin. The picture and words both help us remember a routine.” Demonstrate the locally taught routine without inventing health advice.
  3. Find and compare, 14 min. In supervised pairs, visit the second approved sign or use a photograph taken by the school under its policy. Ask, “What is the same? What is different? Does this sign ask us to do the same thing?” A learner can use a seated route and adult description.
  4. Close, 7 min. Children choose one sign and demonstrate or explain the relevant locally approved action. Record the actual action, support and next teaching step.

Evidence: the child connects a real sign to a locally correct action. Naming a colour alone is a feature observation, not proof that they know what the sign means.

Day 2 — A help route is something we can practise (35 minutes)

Goal: pause and seek help from a school-approved adult in a low-stakes fictional scene. Links: AC9HPFP05, AC9HPFP06.

  1. Model with puppets, 7 min. Puppet Ada cannot find the paper station. Puppet Ben sees a classroom sign but is unsure what it means. Adult says, “Ben can stop and ask [school-approved role] to explain. The adult helps work out the next step.” Do not use a child's actual uncertainty as the demonstration.
  2. Practise, 15 min. Pairs choose a familiar fictional scene: a missing art tool, an unfamiliar sign, or a screen with a surprising message. Children move a puppet through pause → ask → decide with adult. The teacher names only approved adults and routes from the school's policy.
  3. Try another response, 8 min. Let the fictional adult be unavailable. Ask, “Which approved adult or place could the puppet try next?” Avoid telling children that any specific person is always available or always safe.
  4. Close, 5 min. Child points to or says the first move in the route. Record whether the route was modelled, prompted or chosen independently. A pass on public role-play is allowed; offer a private later check.

Evidence boundary: this is rehearsal of help-seeking language, not evidence that a child will be safe in every real situation. Adults and systems remain responsible for safeguarding.

Day 3 — Which information belongs to a person? (35 minutes)

Goal: identify that some information about a person is personal and deserves a careful choice with a responsible adult. Links: AC9TDIFP01, AC9TDIFK02, AC9HPFP05.

  1. Set the boundary, 6 min. Tell children: “We will only use invented names and places. Nobody needs to tell us their address, birthday, password, family details or show a real photo.” Explain that personal information can include a full name, home address, birthday, school name and a picture that identifies a child. Some adults need certain information to care for a child; the adult follows rules about when and how to use it.
  2. Sort fictional cards, 14 min. Use paper messages A and B. Ask, “Which asks for a story choice? Which asks for details about a person? What would the character do before answering?” Let children place a pause/ask marker without entering any data.
  3. Teacher model, 8 min. “This paper game asks an invented character for a street address. I would not fill it in as a class game. I would stop and ask the responsible adult.” Do not teach a child to submit a false address or to solve a real pop-up alone.
  4. Child response, 7 min. Offer two new paper prompts: “Choose a kite colour” and “Type your school and full name.” Child shows which needs adult help. A child may disagree; ask for a reason and teach in context rather than scoring fear.

Evidence: child spots a personal-data request in a fictional card and chooses an adult-supported next move. Avoid a rigid “never tell anyone your name” rule; context and responsible adults matter.

Day 4 — A photo can reveal more than we expected (35 minutes)

Goal: notice that a picture can carry personal information and ask before it is shared. Links: AC9TDIFP01, AC9TDIFK02, AC9HPFP05.

  1. Use a paper drawing, 7 min. Show fictional message C, a teacher-drawn backpack with an imaginary school name, Moonbeam School. Say plainly that Moonbeam School is invented. Ask, “What does this picture tell us, even without a sentence?”
  2. Notice, 10 min. Children point to the made-up school name. Adult says, “A real picture can show places and people. The responsible adult checks consent and the school's rules before sharing a child's photo.” There is no child photo and no actual upload.
  3. Choose a next step, 10 min. Puppet wants to send the drawing to someone. Children arrange pause → ask adult → decide together, then imagine a safer alternative such as sharing a new drawing without identifying details if the adult agrees. Do not say that removing one label makes every real photo safe.
  4. Make a reminder, 8 min. Children invent a small paper ASK BEFORE SHARING reminder for the puppet. It is a classroom cue, not an official sign. They may use words, a symbol, a tactile marker or an adult scribe.

Evidence: child identifies one piece of information in the invented image and takes an adult-supported route. Do not collect a child's real school name, image or home location for assessment.

Day 5 — Choose, explain and change a message (40 minutes)

Goal: use a real sign correctly, respond to a fictional personal-data request and explain a safer next step. Links: AC9HPFP05, AC9HPFP06, AC9TDIFK01, AC9TDIFK02, AC9TDIFP01.

  1. Three stations, 5 min setup + 23 min play. Station 1: teacher-approved real health/safety sign and correct school action. Station 2: paper game-choice versus personal-data cards. Station 3: fictional photo drawing and puppet help route. Children choose two stations. The adult samples 4–6 focus learners and returns to unobserved learners at a later familiar station.
  2. Ask for the reason, 7 min. “What on the sign/card told you? What would you do first? Who at this school helps with that?” Accept pointing, speech, sign, AAC, a puppet move or an adult scribe. Record the support used.
  3. Close, 5 min. Ask, “Would you change our puppet's reminder so another child could understand it?” A child can say yes, no or pass. Avoid asking about actual unsafe experiences.

Next teaching move: if a learner treats every picture as harmless, return to the invented backpack label and point out the information; if they think every information request has the same answer, compare the kite choice with address request and model context; if they know the route, practise it with a new low-stakes classroom message. Escalate a real safety concern through school policy, never through a public class discussion.

Paper-only fictional message set

A · STORY GAME
“Choose a kite for the made-up character: red or blue?”
No name, account or location is needed. A child may also pass.

B · SURPRISE FORM
“Type the character's full name, street address and school to keep playing.”
This is a made-up paper prompt for rehearsal. Pause and ask a responsible adult.

C · PICTURE TO SEND
A drawing of a backpack labelled “Moonbeam School” (invented place).
What could this reveal if it were a real photo? Ask before sharing.

Teacher note: use only the three invented prompts. This pack contains no screenshot, brand, app UI, child image, real address, account form or external story. The class does not have to use a screen to learn about a screen. A local educator can adapt the message wording after child-safety review.

Source and reuse

The Foundation codes above were checked against ACARA Australian Curriculum v9 official downloads, workbook retrieved 29 September 2026, SHA-256 db446882d2c00cf7c085a03e250e2442fda6c44011fc114680c46c1dc7a822c3. ACARA's terms govern curriculum source material and do not imply endorsement. The Australian Government's eSafety Early Years guidance and lower-primary teacher learning support age-appropriate adult-guided online safety and help seeking. These links inform the approach; their text and art are not reproduced. A school child-safety lead must review local scripts before use.

© NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd 2026, “SubjectNest Signs and Safe Choices, Foundation Week 7”, version 0.1.0-draft. Original scenes, teacher script and cards are CC BY 4.0: credit SubjectNest by NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd, link the source and licence, and note changes. ACARA and eSafety material retain their own terms. No restricted third-party worksheet, image, audio, UI or story is embedded.

Source: https://neuroforge.io/subjectnest/library/resources/foundation/term-1/week-07-signs-and-safe-choices · Original material © NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd 2026 · CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ · Credit the source and note changes. External sources keep their own terms.