Year 1
The English curriculum is built around the three interrelated strands of language, literature and literacy. Teaching and learning programs should balance and integrate all three strands. Together, the strands focus on developing students' knowledge, understanding and skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating. Learning in English builds on concepts, skills and processes developed in earlier years, and teachers will revisit and strengthen these as needed.
In Year 1, students communicate with peers, teachers, known adults and students from other classes.
Students engage with a variety of texts for enjoyment. They listen to, read, view and interpret spoken, written and multimodal texts designed to entertain and inform. These encompass traditional oral texts including Aboriginal stories, picture books, various types of stories, rhyming verse, poetry, non-fiction, film, dramatic performances and texts used by students as models for constructing their own texts.
The range of literary texts for Foundation to Year 10 comprises Australian literature, including the oral narrative traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, as well as the contemporary literature of these two cultural groups, and classic and contemporary world literature, including texts from and about Asia. Literary texts that support and extend Year 1 students as independent readers involve straightforward sequences of events and everyday happenings with recognisably realistic or imaginary characters. Informative texts present a small amount of new content about familiar topics of interest and topics being studied in other areas of the curriculum. These include decodable and predictable texts which present a small range of language features, including simple and compound sentences, some unfamiliar vocabulary, a small number of high-frequency words and words that need to be decoded phonically, as well as illustrations and diagrams that support the printed text.
Students create a variety of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts including recounts, procedures, performances, literary retellings and poetry.
(source: www.australiancurriculum.edu.au)
Achievement Standard
Receptive modes (listening, reading and viewing)
By the end of Year 1, students understand the different purposes of texts. They make connections to personal experience when explaining characters and main events in short texts. They identify that texts serve different purposes and that this affects how they are organised. They describe characters, settings and events in different types of literature.
Students read aloud, with developing fluency. They read short texts with some unfamiliar vocabulary, simple and compound sentences and supportive images. When reading, they use knowledge of the relationship between sounds and letters, high-frequency words, sentence boundary punctuation and directionality to make meaning. They recall key ideas and recognise literal and implied meaning in texts. They listen to others when taking part in conversations, using appropriate language features and interaction skills.
Productive modes (speaking, writing and creating)
Students understand how characters in texts are developed and give reasons for personal preferences. They create texts that show understanding of the connection between writing, speech and images.
They create short texts for a small range of purposes. They interact in pair, group and class discussions, taking turns when responding. They make short presentations on familiar topics. When writing, students provide details about ideas or events, and details about the participants in those events. They accurately spell high-frequency words and words with regular spelling patterns. They use capital letters and full stops and form all upper- and lower-case letters correctly.
(source: www.australiancurriculum.edu.au)
- Free Plan
Readers' Theatre Script - Three Billy Goats Gruff
A script which can be used during readers' theatre or Drama sessions, aimed at students 6 years and over.
- Free Plan
Recognising Feelings Flashcards
Improve your students' emotional literacy with this set of feelings flashcards.
- Plus Plan
A to Z Handwriting Sheets with Upper and Lower Case Letters and Examples
A set of 26 A to Z handwriting sheets with upper and lower case letters and examples.
- Plus Plan
Fiction vs Non-Fiction Teaching Slides
Teach your students the difference between fiction and non-fiction books with this age-appropriate teaching presentation for early years literacy lessons.
- Plus Plan
Decodable Text Worksheets - Single Graphemes (Set 1)
A set of 10 decodable text worksheets for early readers.
- Free Plan
Personal Recount Planning Template
A template for students to use when planning a personal recount.
- Plus Plan
Readers' Theatre Script - Trouble at the Park
A script which can be used during readers' theatre or Drama sessions, aimed at students 6 years and over.
- Plus Plan
Procedure Writing – Printable Recipe Book Template
Download this printable recipe book template to use when teaching procedural writing to your early years students.
- Plus Plan
Handwriting Posters - Dirt, Grass and Sky Background With Arrows
Handwriting posters using a dirt, grass and sky background with arrows.
- Plus Plan
Making Inferences Worksheet Pack
Guide your students to read between the lines with this making inferences worksheet pack.
- Plus Plan
Perfect Punctuation Volume 1 – Worksheet Book
A workbook packed with 50 punctuation activities for use in the classroom.
- Plus Plan
Successful Sentences – Sentence Construction Cards
Word cards for constructing complex sentences.
- Plus Plan
Everyday Grammar Sentence Structure Warm Ups - Lower Years Interactive PowerPoint
An engaging 44 slide interactive PowerPoint to use in the lower years classroom when learning about grammar and sentence structure.
- Plus Plan
Simple Procedure Texts Writing Scaffold
A one page scaffolding sheet to assist younger students in writing a simple procedure text.
- Free Plan
Finding the Main Idea - Graphic Organiser Templates
A worksheet to use when teaching students how to find the main idea of a text.
- Plus Plan
Level 5 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 5 decodable readers.
- Plus Plan
Phoneme Spotter Story – Long 'e' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the long 'e' sound.
- Plus Plan
Narrative Setting Prompts Posters
A set of 2 posters giving ideas for the setting of a narrative.
- Plus Plan
Personal Recounts Worksheet - My Wonderful Weekend
A simple text and worksheet to use when exploring personal recounts.
- Free Plan
Readers' Theatre Script - Grandpa's Birthday Surprise
A script which can be used during readers' theatre or Drama sessions, aimed at students 6 years and over.
- Plus Plan
The Three Little Pigs – Comprehension Worksheet
Develop your students' reading comprehension skills with a well-known fairy tale.
- Plus Plan
Making Inferences – Birthday Activity
Teach your students how to make inferences with this birthday invitation activity.
- Free Plan
Feelings and Emotions Match-Up Activity
Help students to recognise and identify their feelings and emotions with this interactive match-up activity.
- Plus Plan
First 100 Fry Sight Words – Practice Mat
A hands-on resource to enable your students to practise reading and writing a range of high-frequency words.
- Free Plan
Readers' Theatre Script - Lion and the Mouse
A script which can be used during readers' theatre or Drama sessions, aimed at students 6 years and over.
- Plus Plan
Developing Characters Poster Pack - Show, Don't Tell Feelings
A set of 16 posters about developing and describing characters when writing stories.
- Plus Plan
Procedural Writing Graphic Organisers
Get your students to write procedural texts with this set of 10 differentiated graphic organisers.
- Plus Plan
Jack and the Beanstalk Retelling Activity Cards
Teach your students about retelling with this set of sequencing cards for Jack and the Beanstalk.
- Plus Plan
Year 1 Magazine - What's Buzzing? (Issue 1)
A beautifully designed, 24-page reading magazine specifically written for Year 1 students.
- Plus Plan
Phoneme Spotter Story – 'oy' Sound
A decodable text featuring various graphemes that make the ‘oy’ sound.
- Plus Plan
Procedure Worksheet – How to Make a Paper Aeroplane
A comprehension worksheet for a magazine procedure article about making a paper aeroplane.
- Free Plan
Readers' Theatre Script - Why Bears Have Stumpy Tails
A script which can be used during readers' theatre or Drama sessions, aimed at students 6 years and over.