Foundation Year
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 three 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 develop and strengthen these as needed.
In the Foundation year, 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 and view spoken, written and multimodal texts in which the primary purpose is to entertain, as well as some texts designed to inform. These include traditional oral texts, picture books, various types of stories, rhyming verse, poetry, non-fiction, film, multimodal texts and dramatic performances. They participate in shared reading, viewing and storytelling using a range of literary texts, and recognise the entertaining nature of literature.
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 Foundation students as beginner readers include decodable and predictable texts that range from caption books to books with one or more sentences per page. These texts involve straightforward sequences of events and everyday happenings with recognisable, realistic or imaginary characters. Informative texts present a small amount of new content about familiar topics of interest; a small range of language features, including simple and compound sentences; mostly familiar vocabulary, known, high-frequency words and single-syllable words that can be decoded phonically, and illustrations that strongly support the printed text.
Students create a range of imaginative, informative and persuasive texts including pictorial representations, short statements, performances, recounts and poetry.
(source: www.australiancurriculum.edu.au)
Achievement Standard
Receptive modes (listening, reading and viewing)
By the end of the Foundation year, students use predicting and questioning strategies to make meaning from texts. They recall one or two events from texts with familiar topics. They understand that there are different types of texts and that these can have similar characteristics. They identify connections between texts and their personal experience.
They read short, decodable and predictable texts with familiar vocabulary and supportive images, drawing on their developing knowledge of concepts of print, sounds and letters and decoding and self-monitoring strategies. They recognise the letters of the English alphabet, in upper and lower case and know and use the most common sounds represented by most letters. They read high-frequency words and blend sounds orally to read consonant-vowel-consonant words. They use appropriate interaction skills to listen and respond to others in a familiar environment. They listen for rhyme, letter patterns and sounds in words.
Productive modes (speaking, writing and creating)
Students understand that their texts can reflect their own experiences. They identify and describe likes and dislikes about familiar texts, objects, characters and events.
In informal group and whole class settings, students communicate clearly. They retell events and experiences with peers and known adults. They identify and use rhyme, and orally blend and segment sounds in words. When writing, students use familiar words and phrases and images to convey ideas. Their writing shows evidence of letter and sound knowledge, beginning writing behaviours and experimentation with capital letters and full stops. They correctly form known upper- and lower-case letters.
(source: www.australiancurriculum.edu.au)
- Plus Plan
Three Little Pigs Retelling Activity Cards
Teach your students about retelling with this set of sequencing cards for The Three Little Pigs.
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Spelling CCVC Words - Worksheets
Develop students’ ability to segment and blend the sounds in CCVC words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
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CVC Phoneme Manipulation Worksheets - Short U
Manipulate the individual phonemes in ‘short u’ CVC words to create new words with this set of differentiated worksheets.
- Free Plan
Phonological Awareness Diagnostic Tool
Basic diagnostic tool to test your students' phonological awareness.
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Simple Recounts - Writing Scaffold
A simple scaffolding worksheet to use when writing a recount.
- Free Plan
Fiction or Non-Fiction? Cut and Paste Worksheet
Use this fiction and non-fiction worksheet when teaching your students about the differences between fiction and non-fiction texts.
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Pre-Handwriting Worksheets
A collection of 18 pre-handwriting skill sheets with a range of different techniques and themes.
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Roll and Read – Sight Word Game Pack
Practise reading sight words with this set of 5 Roll to Read Sight Word Game boards.
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Create a Silly Story – Sorting Activity
Explore story characters, settings, problems and solutions by creating a silly story!
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Narrative Features Worksheets - Humpty Dumpty
Identify characters, settings and parts of a story with early years reading worksheets featuring the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme.
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Fairy Tales Settings Posters
A set of 6 fairytale story settings background posters.
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Level 1 Decodable Readers - Worksheet Pack
A set of one-pager worksheet versions of the texts from our Level 1 decodable readers.
- Plus Plan
I Am Stan - Decodable Reader (Level 1)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
- Free Plan
Initial Sound Peg Cards (Version 1)
An initial sound and fine motor activity for the early years classroom.
- 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.
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Oxford Wordlist Mats - Words 1 to 354
A set of five Oxford Wordlist Mats to assist students with their reading and spelling.
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Missing Letter Alphabet Cards
A resource to help students identify the first letter of each word.
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Types of Characters - Poster
Remind students about the types of characters that can be found in stories with this colourful classroom poster.
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CVC Spell and Write Task Cards
Practise spelling CVC words and manipulating their phonemes to create word chains with this set of hands-on work mats.
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CVC Word Chain Ladders - Worksheets
Build word chains with CVC words using this set of printable phonics worksheets.
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My Dog Don - Decodable Reader (Level 2)
Develop confident, successful readers with this phonics-based, printable decodable book.
- Plus Plan
CVC Word Chain Task Cards
Manipulate the individual phonemes in CVC words to create new ones with this set of differentiated task cards.
- Free Plan
Alphabet Display Poster
A bright and colourful poster to display when introducing the letters of the alphabet.
- Plus Plan
Rhyming Match – Worksheets
Identify rhyming words through images with this set of 5 worksheets.
- Plus Plan
6 x Punctuation Posters
A set of 6 simple posters showing punctuation marks.
- Plus Plan
Frog-themed Editable Desk Name Plates
Create individualised desk name plates using this editable Frog-themed desk name plate template.
- Plus Plan
Word Study List - CCVC Words
Introduce and explore words containing the consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant pattern with this extensive list of CCVC words.
- Free Plan
Onset and Rime Match-Up Activity
Practise building words by matching the onset and the rime using this match up activity.
- Free Plan
Aiming For Inference Posters
Six mini posters showing different scenarios that can be used when encouraging students to use inference.
- Plus Plan
Fry Sight Words Flash Cards
A set of flash cards for the first 100 Fry Sight Words.
- Free Plan
Decodable Text to Picture Match-Up
Four sets of decodable sentences with matching pictures.
- Free Plan
Recognising Uppercase and Lowercase Letters on a Keyboard Worksheet
A 26 page collection of worksheets (1 for each letter of the alphabet) to help students recognise uppercase and lowercase letters on a keyboard.