Science · ten optional 12-minute investigationsYear 1 Subjects · T1 W1–2 · Teacher

Status: draft awaiting local educator review and classroom trial. These short blocks add living-things needs and daily/longer-term environmental change to the existing Year 1 movement guide. They are standalone options, not a full Science program or ten real experiments. Use learner cards, the original A4 needs-and-change aid or its text route, and the separate assessment key. Each day is 2 + 7 + 3 = 12 minutes. A card can be done indoors with pencil and paper. No child handles wildlife, looks at the Sun, tastes a plant or reports a home situation.

Week 1 real-life examples: a school garden herb, a kitchen or balcony pot, and a bird seen from a safe window; a pet is an optional fictional alternative. Week 2 examples: morning/afternoon shade, wet-day clothing and a school plant observed across dates. These are examples to think with; the teacher labels any invented picture or observation as invented. Check the actual local climate and never assume four European seasons fit every Australian place. Codes are partial Australian Curriculum v9 Year 1 links; the crosswalk gives exact wording.

Access and set-up: Read the exact prompt or provide large text, tactile object shapes and word/picture choices; accept pointing, gesture, sign, AAC, speech, drawing, typed or child-directed adult marks. Keep the child's prediction separate from an observation. Any outdoor view requires school approval, supervision, accessible position and safe weather; an indoor teacher-made model works. Photographing children or places is unnecessary. Record day | exact observation/reason | independent/prompted/not yet observed | mode | next move locally.

Day 1 — What does a living thing need?

Codes: AC9S1U01, AC9S1I01. Prepare: learner Card 1, herb and bird symbols on the aid.

1. Notice · 2 min. Say: “A plant and a bird are different living things. What is one thing each needs?” Accept a prediction, then keep it visible.
2. Try · 7 min. Place air, water, food and shelter/place labels beside a school-garden herb and a bird-at-a-tree drawing. Ask which needs apply to both and where each could meet them. Model: “The drawing shows a place; it cannot prove the bird found water.”
3. Show · 3 min. Each child selects one living thing, one need and a place feature that could help. Teacher notes whether need and evidence were distinguished.

Home/low-material: Draw a made-up plant and bird on scrap paper; a child can point while an adult writes exactly their words. No home plant or animal is required.

Day 2 — A pot is a place, not a meal

Codes: AC9S1U01, AC9S1I03. Prepare: two teacher-drawn pots, one with room/light/water noted and one with missing information.

1. Notice · 2 min. Ask: “If we see a herb in a pot, can we tell everything it has received?” No observation is assumed.
2. Try · 7 min. Children mark which features a balcony or kitchen pot might provide: a place for roots, air around leaves, available water and light. Say simply that plants make their own food using light; do not say soil is plant food. Where a picture gives no evidence, mark unknown.
3. Show · 3 min. Ask for one visible feature and one need they would check. Teacher distinguishes an observation from a guess.

Home/low-material: Use a pencil pot sketch. Do not ask families to buy or grow anything.

Day 3 — What could a bird find near a tree?

Codes: AC9S1U01, AC9S1I02, AC9S1I03. Prepare: original bird/tree card; no live feeding.

1. Notice · 2 min. Say: “We can see a tree from a safe place. Which bird need might it help meet? What can't we see?”
2. Try · 7 min. From an approved window or the drawing, children look for shelter/perching space, then ask where air, water and food evidence would come from. If a real bird is absent, do not invent an observation. No child goes near a nest or feeds wildlife.
3. Show · 3 min. Child completes “The source shows . A bird also needs , but I would need __ to know if it found it.”

Home/low-material: Use the supplied drawing; no wildlife contact or outside trip.

Day 4 — Same need, different place

Codes: AC9S1U01, AC9S1I04. Prepare: herb pot and bird/tree cards.

1. Notice · 2 min. Ask: “Do the herb and bird both need water? Would they find it in exactly the same way?”
2. Try · 7 min. Learners sort shared need and different place feature: a cared-for pot could receive water; a bird may find water elsewhere. Source cards do not tell us that either actually drank. Invite another appropriate living thing without needing a child's pet story.
3. Show · 3 min. Each child explains one shared need and one difference using the words could or observed accurately.

Home/low-material: Two circles and four paper labels are enough; an adult can move labels under child direction.

Day 5 — Need, place, evidence

Codes: AC9S1U01, AC9S1I05, AC9S1I06. Prepare: learner Card 5; teacher check.

1. Notice · 2 min. Show a new fictional pet-rabbit enclosure card. Ask children to predict which needs its pictured place may help meet.
2. Try · 7 min. Individually choose two needs, point to the drawing for one possible support, and mark one thing the drawing cannot confirm (such as actual water). An adult reads but does not suggest answers.
3. Show · 3 min. Child reports “I think __ because I can see ; I cannot tell .” Collect the card for later feedback rather than interviewing everyone in three minutes.

Home/low-material: The fictional card is enough; no real pet is required or judged.

Day 6 — Morning and later light

Codes: AC9S1U02, AC9S1I01, AC9S1I03. Prepare: teacher-made morning/later shade drawings or two approved observations on one day.

1. Notice · 2 min. “This drawing labels an earlier and a later time. What might change? What would you actually look for?” Never ask a child to look at the Sun.
2. Try · 7 min. Compare shade positions in two labelled fictional drawings or supervised real observations. Put earlier and later in order. If the drawings differ, say what changed in the drawings; do not claim every day or place looks the same.
3. Show · 3 min. Child states one observed/depicted change and one sensible question for another day.

Home/low-material: Compare two supplied sketches indoors; no outside observation needed.

Day 7 — What does a wet-day plan use?

Codes: AC9S1U02, AC9S1H01, AC9S1I05. Prepare: dry/wet teacher-made scene cards and two clothing/tool symbols.

1. Notice · 2 min. “A weather report can help us plan. What does each scene actually show?” Do not ask for a child's clothing or home resources.
2. Try · 7 min. Choose between a dry-path and rain-on-path fictional scene for an outdoor drawing activity. Learners select a school-approved adjustment such as moving indoors or using a rain cover, then explain which visible clue guided them. Actual weather and school policy decide real plans.
3. Show · 3 min. Child pairs one clue with one conditional choice: “If this were our weather, we could __.”

Home/low-material: Point to two paper weather sketches; no special clothing purchase.

Day 8 — What can change across many days?

Codes: AC9S1U02, AC9S1I04. Prepare: fictional dated school-plant sketches: small bud, open flower, then later seed head.

1. Notice · 2 min. Say: “Three sketches of one imagined school plant are labelled with different dates. Put them in date order.”
2. Try · 7 min. Children order the sketches and describe a longer-term change. Explain that this is a made-up sequence for ordering; a real local plant may change differently. Do not call a fixed month “spring” everywhere in Australia.
3. Show · 3 min. Child names two dated changes and what real observation would be needed to know if they happen nearby.

Home/low-material: Three pencil sketches or words bud → flower → seed head; no garden access.

Day 9 — A prediction is not today's observation

Codes: AC9S1H01, AC9S1I01, AC9S1I05. Prepare: earlier/later and wet/dry cards.

1. Notice · 2 min. Model: “I think the yard may be wet tomorrow” is a prediction, not a sighting.
2. Try · 7 min. Learners sort four statements into observed in this source, prediction or unknown. Ask how a caretaker or gardener could use repeated local patterns, while reminding children that a pattern can have exceptions.
3. Show · 3 min. Each child changes an over-certain “always” sentence into a careful “may” sentence with source.

Home/low-material: Speak statements aloud; child chooses among three labelled paper spaces.

Day 10 — A small change story with a limit

Codes: AC9S1U02, AC9S1I03, AC9S1I05, AC9S1I06. Prepare: learner Card 10; teacher check.

1. Notice · 2 min. Display two new fictional dated garden sketches; ask what can be seen in both, not what a real season must be.
2. Try · 7 min. Independently order, describe one change, make one conditional next prediction, and name what the drawings cannot show. Child may point/sequence and dictate exact words.
3. Show · 3 min. Collect before discussing the key. Note independent evidence and schedule an unfamiliar local or fictional recheck if needed.

Home/low-material: Use the same paper cards; a family member may read the exact prompt but should not supply the pattern.

Reuse: Original SubjectNest lesson prose and invented scenes © NeuroForgeIO Pty Ltd 2026, CC BY 4.0. Credit source/licence and mark changes. ACARA wording retains separate terms.