# Year 1 Science · ten optional 12-minute investigations

**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](LEARNER.md), the original [A4 needs-and-change aid](../print/science-aid.pdf) or its [text route](../print/TEXT-ALTERNATIVES.md), and the separate [assessment key](ASSESSMENT.md). 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](../CURRICULUM-CROSSWALK.md) 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](ASSESSMENT.md).

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](ASSESSMENT.md).

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](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Credit source/licence and mark changes. ACARA wording retains [separate terms](https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/copyright-and-terms-of-use).