Care for a shared placeFoundation · T2 · Week 18 Care For A Shared Place

Five 35-minute integrated blocks · development draft · educator, accessibility, cultural and local-syllabus review pending
Use beside English Days 86–90 and mathematics Days 86–90. English practises a request with a reason; mathematics teaches position and paths. This block asks children to observe a familiar shared outdoor place, choose a permitted care action, try it and say what actually happened. Its simple route sketch supports the action; it does not replace the separate maths position check.

Question: What can we notice about a shared place, and what small action can we take with permission?
National links: AC9HSFK03 (features of familiar places, why some are special and how they can be looked after) and AC9HPFM03 (participate in outdoor/natural activity and explore benefits of moving). AC9HSFK04, the importance of Country/Place to First Nations Australians and the Country/Place on which the school is located, is an open local authority and content hold. This generic place-care week does not teach or assess that description. A school must work with the relevant local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander knowledge holders and its protocols before adding any specific Country/Place teaching. Confirm all local syllabus and safety requirements.

Set up a real, safe choice

• Ask the school's outdoor/safety contact which familiar, accessible place may be visited, when, and which actions are permitted. A sheltered path edge, garden view or courtyard can work. Check weather, heat, air quality, supervision, mobility access, allergies and individual plans. If outside is unsafe, use an approved indoor observation of a familiar place and mark outdoor participation evidence not observed; do not pretend a picture was an outdoor visit.
• Children look and describe. Do not direct them to pick up litter, touch plants, move habitat material, handle tools or alter signage. An adult addresses hazards through school procedure. Examples of a low-impact permitted action are returning a teacher-provided portable item to its agreed place, making a temporary paper reminder for a class user, or practising a path that leaves a planted area undisturbed. If permission is not obtained, planning and asking are valid outcomes; record that no action was tried.
• Offer walking, rolling, supported movement, a seated outdoor observation and a quiet return route. Ask what movement or fresh air felt like for this child today, without promising a health effect or making an outdoor activity a test of fitness. A child can opt for a private conversation, AAC, sign, pointing, tactile marker or child-directed adult note.
• Use a simple invented plan of three zones if a real map or child location would expose privacy: DOOR → PATH → VIEWING SPOT. The real class route is checked against the school's plan before use. Do not publish a child's route, photograph or location. Ask permission before displaying any child work.

Day 1 — Observe before proposing a change

1. Prepare, 5 min: name the agreed place, boundary and stop signal. Ask who will help if a child notices something unsafe; an adult handles it. Invite children to choose how they will observe and move.
2. Visit or use the safe alternative, 15 min: notice two features actually present: for example a path surface, shade, a seat or a plant behind a boundary. Do not supply a plant name or history unless verified. Children show an observation through drawing, tactile shape, spoken words or an adult record of their pointing.
3. Talk, 10 min: ask, “Who uses this space? What makes it useful or special to us?” A child may say “I don't know” or choose privacy. Distinguish a visible feature from a person's reason; do not infer that everyone values the place in the same way.
4. Close, 5 min: keep a dated I noticed ____ record and one child question. Record whether the observation was truly outdoors.

Next move: if an observation is only a guess, return to the place or say “we have not checked.” An exact, modest observation is stronger than a polished invented description.

Day 2 — Ask before we act

1. Retrieve, 5 min: show the Day 1 observations without names or photos. Ask which feature a care idea would help and whose permission is needed.
2. Compare ideas, 10 min: use two original fictional proposals: “Put a paper reminder near the agreed class door” and “Pull plants that look messy.” Ask which can be considered under school permission and which could harm a living place. Do not teach that all paper reminders are permitted; they are an idea for the school contact to decide.
3. Plan, 15 min: children choose a permitted low-impact action or choose to ask for more information. Model a request with a reason: “Could we _? We noticed _.” An adult checks the plan with the right school contact. A child may dictate, sign or direct an adult to ask.
4. Close, 5 min: write permission: yes / no / waiting and one reason. Do not proceed on an assumed yes.

Evidence: a child's observation-linked proposal and accurate permission status, not a compliance score. If the only safe result is “not today,” keep that result.

Day 3 — Make a route and action another person can understand

1. Recall, 5 min: show the permitted action and boundary. If approval is pending, children make a dry fictional plan and do not perform it.
2. Model, 8 min: use large blocks for door, path and viewing spot. Show the safe route on a table; ask a child which symbol needs a word, shape or tactile key for their chosen user. The mathematics path work assesses location words separately.
3. Make and test, 17 min: each child draws, builds or directs an adult to make a small route/action card. A teacher or peer user follows the card without extra directions and reports where they pause. Revise one cue if needed. A paper route is not permission to enter a restricted place.
4. Close, 5 min: record the user's actual response and the child's change or reason for keeping the first route.

Access: avoid colour-only paths and tiny symbols. A raised string path, large blocks, spoken directions, AAC or a guided movement route can serve the same communication purpose. Do not mark independent drawing as the condition for place care.

Day 4 — Try only what the school approved

1. Safety and choice, 5 min: adult confirms the permission status, conditions and stop signal in front of the group. If conditions changed, stop and use the table plan instead.
2. Move and observe, 10 min: take the approved accessible route or safely observe from the agreed spot. Invite children to notice how they moved and whether they want rest or support. Do not require a child to state that outdoor movement felt good.
3. Act and notice, 15 min: perform the specific approved action with adult supervision, or practise asking/pointing if no action is authorised. Record only what happened: a portable item was returned, a class user understood a reminder, or no action occurred. Ask, “Did this help the user or place in the way we hoped? What did we actually see?” A teacher, not children, handles hazards.
4. Close, 5 min: keep an action/status record. If the result is unclear, write “unclear” and decide how to check later.

Assessment boundary: outdoor movement supports AC9HPFM03 only when the child actually participated in an appropriate natural/outdoor setting. A seated outdoor observation is a valid access route; a wholly indoor fallback remains useful learning but not outdoor participation evidence.

Day 5 — Revisit and tell a truthful care story

1. Retrieve, 5 min: compare the first observation, permission record and Day 4 result. Do not fill a missing action with a made-up success.
2. Revisit, 12 min: if safe and allowed, return to the same agreed spot. Notice what is the same, different or still unknown. A classroom replay of the record is appropriate when another visit is not safe, labelled as a replay.
3. Share, 13 min: child makes a two-part account for a chosen audience: “I noticed _; we asked/tried _; what happened was ____.” They may add a reason a shared place matters to them. Ask a viewer what remains unclear. Private sharing is allowed.
4. Close, 5 min: teacher notes two exact features, the child's care idea, permission, actual action, access and movement route, feedback and next step. If a child asks about local Country/Place, welcome the question, record it, and seek an authorised local teaching opportunity; do not improvise a cultural answer.

Copy-ready observation, permission and action card

AGREED PLACE / SAFE VIEWING AREA (school record only): __________
DATE AND ACTUAL SETTING: outdoors / approved indoor fallback _____
I NOTICED (feature 1): __________  (feature 2): ________________
MY QUESTION OR REASON THIS PLACE MATTERS TO ME: ________________
MY CARE IDEA: __________  SCHOOL CONTACT / PERMISSION: _________
ROUTE / USER FEEDBACK: _________________________________________
WHAT WE ACTUALLY DID (or did not do): __________________________
WHAT I SAW AFTERWARDS / WHAT IS STILL UNKNOWN: _________________
TEACHER — exact child response, prompt, access and next move: ___

For a child who wants a smaller task, use one observed feature and one permission question. For a child ready for more, invite comparison across two dated visits without assuming a change or cause. Give every child accessible choices; do not assign permanent “learning styles.” The school keeps all real place and child records private under its rules.

Source and reuse: Codes were checked against Australian Curriculum v9 downloads, official workbook retrieved 29 September 2026, SHA-256 db446882d2c00cf7c085a03e250e2442fda6c44011fc114680c46c1dc7a822c3. ACARA terms apply and do not imply endorsement. This original guide is unpiloted; local cultural authority, syllabus, safety and accessibility checks remain open.

© NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd 2026, “SubjectNest Care for a Shared Place”, v0.1.0-draft. Original prompts, fictional examples, route and record are CC BY 4.0: credit NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd, link the source and licence, and note changes. No third-party worksheet, photograph or community-held knowledge is included.