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)
- Plus Plan
Is It True? Listening Activity
A PowerPoint including 15 images to use as prompts for a listening activity.
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Character Traits, Feelings and Appearance - Posters
A set of 3 posters depicting words and phrases that can be used to describe a character's personality, feelings and appearance.
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Narrative Sentence Starter Cards
Thirty sentence starter cards for narratives.
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Level 2 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 2 decodable readers.
- Free Plan
Personal Recount Planning Template
A template for students to use when planning a personal recount.
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Level 4 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 4 decodable readers.
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Simple Informative Texts - Writing Scaffold
A simple scaffolding worksheet to use when writing informative texts.
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Level 3 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 3 decodable readers
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Sequence a Procedure Text – Cut and Paste Worksheets
Use these procedural writing examples to teach your students about sequencing instructions in a logical order.
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Exploring and Building Narrative Characters PowerPoint
A 14 slide editable PowerPoint template to use when teaching younger students about how to build a character for a narrative text.
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How to Make Fairy Bread Flipbook
Use this “How to Make Fairy Bread” procedural writing activity to help familiarise your students with the structural elements 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.
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Personal Recounts Worksheet - My Wonderful Weekend
A simple text and worksheet to use when exploring personal recounts.
- 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
Editing Passage Task Cards - Year 1
A set of 20 editing passage task cards with answers.
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How to Make Waffles – Procedural Writing Project
Get your students writing high-quality procedure texts with this fun “How to Make Waffles” procedural writing project.
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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.
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Character Profile Template
Explore the personality, appearance, feelings and actions of a character from a narrative with this simple template.
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Very Important Verbs Worksheet
Explore verbs within the context of the well-known story of The Gingerbread Man.
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Dolch Sight Words List – Complete Set
Practise word recognition with our set of 8 Dolch Sight Word Lists.
- Free Plan
Monster Magic - Reading Comprehension Activity
Read and comprehend a set of instructions to create a magical monster!
- 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.
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Handwriting Sheets - Theme Pages 1
Ten themed handwriting sheets with your choice of fonts.
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Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives – Sorting Task
Help students learn the difference between nouns, verbs, and adjectives with this cut-and-paste sorting worksheet.
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Narrative Writing Checklist (Simplified Version)
A checklist for students to use when proofreading and editing their narrative writing.
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Sentence Starter Strips
A set of sentence starter prompts for students to practise writing short sentences.
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'Facts About...' - Informative Texts Worksheet
A fact finding scaffold to use when introducing informative writing in the classroom.
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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
Types of Sentences Posters
A set of 7 posters outlining the structure of various types of sentences.
- Plus Plan
Simple Recounts - Writing Scaffold
A simple scaffolding worksheet to use when writing a recount.
- Free Plan
Speaking and Listening Activities Task Cards
A set of 13 cards with instructions for speaking and listening activities.
- Plus Plan
Parts of Speech Colouring Worksheet (Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs)
Use this colour by part of speech worksheet as a fun Autumn activity with your students.