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 - What's My Pet?
A script which can be used during readers' theatre or Drama sessions, aimed at students 6 years and over.
- Plus Plan
Narrative Writing Checklist (Simplified Version)
A checklist for students to use when proofreading and editing their narrative writing.
- Plus Plan
Exploring Procedural Writing Teaching Slides
Teach your students how to write a procedure using this detailed slideshow targeted at lower primary school students.
- Plus Plan
Alphabet Handwriting Sheets - Including Non-Examples
Handwriting sheets with opportunities for students to trace, identify and write the letters of the alphabet.
- 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.
- Plus Plan
Procedural Writing Checklists
Use these procedural writing checklists when teaching your students how to editing their procedure texts.
- Plus Plan
Facts and Opinions - Caterpillars
A fun activity for students to use when identifying facts and opinions about caterpillars.
- Plus Plan
Writing A Recount Poster
Display this poster in your room as a visual reminder of the structure of a recount.
- Plus Plan
Story Elements Poster Set
Display these cute sloth-themed story elements posters when learning about narrative texts.
- Plus Plan
Making Inferences – Birthday Activity
Teach your students how to make inferences with this birthday invitation activity.
- Plus Plan
Amazing Ants! – Comprehension Worksheet Year 1-2
Review reading skills with comprehension worksheet for an article about ants from the Year 1 magazine (Issue 3).
- 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
Sequence a Procedure Text – Cut and Paste Worksheets
Use these procedural writing examples to teach your students about sequencing instructions in a logical order.
- 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
Personal Recounts Worksheet - My Wonderful Weekend
A simple text and worksheet to use when exploring personal recounts.
- Plus Plan
Narrative Writing Visual Prompts Presentation
A 19 slide teaching presentation containing visual narrative writing prompts.
- Plus Plan
Year 1 Spelling Words - Weekly Lists
Create successful spellers with printable weekly spelling word lists for Year 1.
- Plus Plan
Adjectives and Adverbs Worksheets (Silly Stories)
Have fun with your students creating silly stories together while teaching and learning about parts of speech (adverbs and adjectives)!
- Free Plan
Narrative Writing Checklist (Intermediate Version)
A checklist for students to use when proofreading and editing their narrative writing.
- Plus Plan
Level 2 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 2 decodable readers.
- Plus Plan
Sentence Starter Strips
A set of sentence starter prompts for students to practise writing short sentences.
- Plus Plan
Decodable Text Worksheets - Single Graphemes (Set 1)
A set of 10 decodable text worksheets for early readers.
- Plus Plan
'Facts About...' - Informative Texts Worksheet
A fact finding scaffold to use when introducing informative writing in the classroom.
- Plus Plan
Little Red Riding Hood – Comprehension Worksheet
Develop your students' reading comprehension skills with a well-known fairy tale.
- Plus Plan
How to Make a Pizza Interactive Activity
Use this “How to Make a Pizza” procedural writing interactive activity to model the purpose, structural elements and language features of procedure texts.
- Free Plan
Add It In Listening Activity Bundle
Practise following directions to colour and draw pictures with a free printable listening activity worksheet pack.
- Plus Plan
Digraph Handwriting - Worksheets
24 digraph worksheets that focus on handwriting and vocabulary activities.
- 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
Procedural Writing Templates – "How to" Prompts
Get your students to write procedural texts with this set of differentiated procedure writing prompt templates.
- Plus Plan
Level 4 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 4 decodable readers.
- Plus Plan
Level 3 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 3 decodable readers
- Plus Plan
CVC Word Building Activity
Practise building CVC words with this 25 slide interactive activity.