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Foundation / Term 2

Development draft · local review needed

People in a storyFoundation · T2 · Week 13 People In A Story

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Five 35-minute integrated blocks · development draft
Use beside the separately sequenced English and mathematics lessons. A fictional family lets children practise reading a source and asking respectful questions. It cannot, by itself, show a child's knowledge of the people in their own family. Personal family evidence is child chosen, private and never required for public sharing. Follow local safeguarding and family communication rules.

Question: What can a story or source tell us about people and their relationships?
National links: AC9HSFS01 (questions), AC9HSFS02 (sort and record information), AC9HSFS03 (share a perspective), AC9HSFS05 (share a source-based narrative), with AC9HSFK01 only if an appropriate, private, real-family opportunity gives evidence about the child's own people, places of birth/raising and relationships. No fictional-only task completes AC9HSFK01. Check the current state or territory syllabus.

Prepare the source cards

Read the following original fiction aloud or print large. Names, locations and relationships are invented for this task. Do not tell children that every family follows this arrangement.

CARD A — A page from a made-up family album
Mika and Sol are siblings. Their carer, Ren, was born in Hobart and
grew up in Launceston. Mika was born in Perth. Mika and Sol are growing
up in the same town. Sol was born in that town. They enjoy making
cardboard boats together. This story does not name the town.

CARD B — Mika's own note in the made-up album
“I like our cardboard boat day. Ren showed us how to fold the front.
Sol made a paper flag. I was born in Perth, but this town is where
we do many things together.”

The cards allow exact answers: Mika and Sol are siblings; Ren is their carer; Ren was born in Hobart and raised in Launceston; Mika was born in Perth; Mika and Sol are growing up in the same unnamed town; Sol was born there. Unknown: the name of the current town, who else is in the family, why anyone moved, and each person's feelings beyond the note. Do not fill those gaps with a guess. A child's own family may include one, many or changing carers, kin and households; none has to match this fiction.

Prepare a four-column mat labelled person · relationship named in source · born in · grew up/is growing up in, a large or tactile map only if your school has an appropriate, current one, and blank question strips. Leave a place cell empty when the source does not say. Place names can be read by the adult; they are not an independent decoding test. A child may use cards, objects, drawing, sign, AAC, home language with suitable support or a child-directed scribe. Leave a private response station available.

Day 1 — What is the source saying?

  1. Set the purpose, 5 min: say the cards are invented. Ask children what an album page might help someone remember and what it might leave out.
  2. Read and notice, 12 min: adult reads Card A once, then again in short parts. Children place Mika, Sol and Ren name cards or objects. Ask “Which relationship does the card name?” Use the exact phrase siblings and carer without assuming a mother/father label.
  3. Sort, 13 min: children place the people on the four-column mat and add only stated places. Do not move a birth place into a “grew up” space. Ask “Where did you find that?”
  4. Close, 5 min: child says, points to or signs one thing the source states and one thing it does not state.

Evidence: accurate source use, not the child's personal family information.

Day 2 — Ask a question a source could answer

  1. Retrieve, 5 min: revisit one relationship and one named place. Show how a source line answers a question.
  2. Model, 7 min: ask “Where was Ren born?” Find Hobart. Then ask “Why did Ren move?” Mark not stated, not “they wanted to.”
  3. Question workshop, 18 min: pairs make two questions: one Card A can answer and one it cannot. Offer starters Who is ? Where was ___ born? Where did ___ grow up? What did ___ do? Why ? Adult writes dictated questions; child chooses the source part or “we need another source.”
  4. Close, 5 min: exchange one question with a chosen partner or puppet. Record the question and actual source evidence. A child may pass on public exchange.

Next move: if a learner infers a missing detail, return to the exact source phrase and ask what further source could help.

Day 3 — Two voices, one event

  1. Read Card B, 7 min: adult reads Mika's note. Ask who is speaking and what the note adds about the boat day.
  2. Compare, 13 min: place Card A and B side by side. Children identify one detail shared by both and one detail only Mika gives. “Mika likes the day” belongs to Card B; Card A lists activities without saying how Mika feels.
  3. Make a source ribbon, 10 min: child chooses three evidence cards: Ren folded the front · Sol made a flag · Mika liked the day. Label A, B or both as the source for each. An adult may read all print.
  4. Close, 5 min: ask “Whose voice would you ask next if you wanted to know how Sol felt?” An answer names another possible source, not an invented feeling.

Access: tactile/source-shape labels A and B, live description, one line at a time, quiet partner, picture-free text, AAC and home-language meaning response. Keep source understanding separate from English print decoding.

Day 4 — A private real-person option

  1. Explain choices, 6 min: “You may choose someone in your world to think about privately, use our made-up cards, or make a new imaginary character. No one has to tell the class family details.” Do not ask about care changes, migration reasons or absent relatives.
  2. Private source choice, 15 min: if a child and family wish, the child may use an approved private photo, object, family note or a short spoken account to name a person and how they are related. With local approval, a child may include where that person was born or raised; leave any field blank by choice. The teacher records the child's exact source and whether a place is known, not known or not shared. Other children continue source practice with Card A or a new fiction.
  3. Represent, 9 min: make a private person/relationship/place strip, or a fictional strip. A birth place is not automatically a place a person grew up. Put private completed work into school custody.
  4. Close, 5 min: each child can share a non-private learning action: “I asked a question,” “I checked a source,” or “I left a gap when the source did not say.” No one must share names or places.

Assessment boundary: only real, appropriate personal evidence can inform AC9HSFK01, and the description includes people in the child's family, their birth/raising places and relationships. If some pieces are absent or withheld, record not observed for those pieces and plan a safe later opportunity. Do not infer them from a fictional strip or score refusal as lack of knowledge.

Day 5 — Tell a careful source story

  1. Choose evidence, 6 min: child selects Card A/B or their private, approved source. If using real family material, the audience is the teacher unless child/family permissions specify otherwise.
  2. Plan, 9 min: put three source-backed ideas in order: who, relation/event, place or another supported detail. Use objects, marks, sign, AAC, drawing or speech. Adult reads labels aloud when needed.
  3. Share, 14 min: child explains the chosen source to a safe audience. Ask “How do you know?” and “What is still a question?” Note exact answer and any adult cue. A child can decline to share private details and still show source reasoning with the fictional cards.
  4. Close, 6 min: teacher marks two separate next steps: source reasoning and, only if appropriate evidence exists, personal family content. A new respectful question is a useful result.

Copy-ready private source note

MY SOURCE WAS: [fiction card] [approved private source] [other: ___]
THE SOURCE SAYS: _______________________________________________
I KNOW THIS BECAUSE: ___________________________________________
THE SOURCE DOES NOT SAY: _______________________________________
MY NEXT QUESTION: ______________________________________________
ADULT NOTE — exact response and access/support: _________________
PRIVATE FAMILY CONTENT, IF VOLUNTARILY SHARED: kept only under
school policy; never copied into a public version of this card.

Source and reuse

Foundation codes were checked against Australian Curriculum v9 official downloads, workbook retrieved 29 September 2026, SHA-256 db446882d2c00cf7c085a03e250e2442fda6c44011fc114680c46c1dc7a822c3. ACARA's terms govern its descriptions and do not imply endorsement. This pack is original, unpiloted and subject to local curriculum, privacy, safety and adjustment review.

© NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd 2026, “SubjectNest People in a Story”, version 0.1.0-draft. Original cards, prompts and lesson sequence are CC BY 4.0: credit SubjectNest by NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd, link the source and licence, and note changes. No third-party family story, image or recording is embedded.

Source: https://neuroforge.io/subjectnest/library/resources/foundation/term-2/week-13-people-in-a-story · 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.