In Level D, the curriculum focuses on developing the knowledge and skills to express reasons, to problem solve and learn more effectively. Students become familiar with simple strategies to structure and improve thinking. Students learn how thinking can be made explicit.
By the end of Level D, students answer simple questions related to their own investigation, their feelings or concept. They identify and describe an event or scientific experiment. They generate ideas based on past experience and make choices based on their personal preferences.
Students can identify some components of a point of view. They draw on previous experience to assist with their ideas, reasoning and when drawing a conclusion.
Students actively participate in structured thinking activities. They practice some learning strategies to assist them to organise and demonstrate their ideas. Students participate in problem solving activities and can articulate some possible solutions and their outcome in structured practical situations.
In Level D, students explore dance. They learn about how dance can represent the world and they make dances to represent their ideas about the world. They share their dance with peers and experience dance as audiences.
Students become aware of their bodies and learn about the body bases, parts and zones used safely in dance. They explore space, time, dynamics and relationships as they make and...
In Level D, students explore dance. They learn about how dance can represent the world and they make dances to represent their ideas about the world. They share their dance with peers and experience dance as audiences.
Students become aware of their bodies and learn about the body bases, parts and zones used safely in dance. They explore space, time, dynamics and relationships as they make and observe dances. They explore locomotor and non-locomotor movements, and use these fundamental movement skills in their own dance. Students experiment with simple technical and expressive skills and begin to learn about choreographic devices through assisting to select and organise movements for small group and in their own dances.
Students experience dances from a range of cultures, times and locations, including dances from cultures in their local community.
By the end of Level D, students make and share a simple dance sequence and demonstrate safe dance practice.
Students provide a simple explanation about the features and purpose of their own dance.
In Level D students explore and investigate technologies, including its purpose and how technologies meet personal and social needs within local settings.
Students explore the characteristics and properties of familiar designed solutions from one of the technologies contexts:
With teacher support, students communicate simple design ideas and begin to evaluate designed solutions based on personal preferences.
Students begin to plan their design idea with teacher support, and follow simple steps and directions to complete their own or group design ideas or projects.
By the end of Level D, students describe the purpose of familiar designed solutions and what needs they meet.
Students use designed solutions in at least two technologies contexts, identifying significant features.
With guidance, students create designed solutions evaluating their ideas based on personal preferences. They select materials based on some understanding of their properties and characteristics. They follow simple sequenced steps to create a designed solution and demonstrate safe use of tools and equipment.
In Level D, students are building their independence and participating cooperatively in group learning activities. They combine and sequence key words and images to communicate personal interest and significant experiences and are beginning to reflect on their own behaviour and learning. They will have opportunities to create a range of digital solutions through guided play and integrated learning...
In Level D, students are building their independence and participating cooperatively in group learning activities. They combine and sequence key words and images to communicate personal interest and significant experiences and are beginning to reflect on their own behaviour and learning. They will have opportunities to create a range of digital solutions through guided play and integrated learning, such as using remote control cars or recording information with software applications.
Students begin to try different ways of carrying out common functions with digital systems and recognise patterns that exist within data they collect. Students explore ways to collate, represent, save and present this data, including numerical, categorical, text, image (still and moving) and audio data.
Students complete significant steps involved in using devices and software. They begin to identify and follow sequence of steps for carrying out instructions, such as listing the steps in wrapping a present.
Through discussion with teachers, students learn to apply safe and ethical practices to protect themselves and others when using digital systems for learning.
By the end of Level D, students use key functions of digital systems and indicate their purpose.
Students collect, sort and recognise, with assistance different types of patterns in data. They use digital systems to display results using pictures, symbols and diagrams.
Students use a sequence of steps and decision making processes to solve a simple problem.
In Level D, students explore drama. They learn about how drama can represent the world and that they can make drama to represent their ideas about the world. They share their drama with peers and experience drama as audiences.
Students become aware of role and situation as they listen and respond as characters. They explore voice and movement to create role. They learn about focus and identifying the main character and location of the drama. As audiences they recognise that the purpose of drama is to share it with others.
As they experience drama, students draw on drama from a range of cultures, times and locations. Students learn about safety in dramatic play and in interaction with other actors.
By the end of Level D, students make and share drama that communicates major elements of stories or experiences.
Students provide a simple explanation about the characteristics of drama they make, perform and view.
In the Level D, students communicate with known adults, teachers and peers. Students are provided with experiences that engage, support and extend their learning, including the use of pictorial representations or other marks to express and record their ideas. Students communicate by using short oral statements or augmentative communication systems. Students listen and follow simple directions...
In the Level D, students communicate with known adults, teachers and peers. Students are provided with experiences that engage, support and extend their learning, including the use of pictorial representations or other marks to express and record their ideas. Students communicate by using short oral statements or augmentative communication systems. Students listen and follow simple directions. They initiate greetings to fellow students, teachers and significant others. Students are learning to use basic social rules of communication including turn taking, and acknowledging and answering questions. They learn effective ways to seek and gain attention and comfort.
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.
Literary texts that engage, support and extend Level D students as beginning readers, to develop early reading behaviours and extend their understanding of written texts, include high-interest, predictable texts with familiar events, recognisable characters, simple sequences of events and clear illustrations that strongly support the text, and informative texts that present ideas about familiar topics using simple sentences, known vocabulary and illustrations to strongly support the text.
Students create texts that record their experience and knowledge using a range of tools including computer, pictures and pencils.
By the end of Level D, students listen to and view a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts from familiar contexts. They identify the main character and event in an imaginative text. They use visual images to identify the key topic or theme within an informative text. They understand familiar text by using images and communicate a short statement about the text. They can follow a simple pictorial timetable. They select their own reading material by looking at the picture on the cover. They model reading by tracking text page by page, from left to right and top to bottom, and follow or point to a line of text as it is being read. They use illustrations to retell a story and answer simple questions about a story. They recognise the connection between print and the spoken word, identifying spaces, letters and/or words in text, and reading familiar words and signs using partial cues and illustrations. They identify some letters of the English alphabet and their associated sound. They retell a picture story they have selected using key words to describe each picture. They respond to questions and sequence key words to describe or predict what is happening...
By the end of Level D, students listen to and view a range of spoken, written and multimodal texts from familiar contexts. They identify the main character and event in an imaginative text. They use visual images to identify the key topic or theme within an informative text. They understand familiar text by using images and communicate a short statement about the text. They can follow a simple pictorial timetable. They select their own reading material by looking at the picture on the cover. They model reading by tracking text page by page, from left to right and top to bottom, and follow or point to a line of text as it is being read. They use illustrations to retell a story and answer simple questions about a story. They recognise the connection between print and the spoken word, identifying spaces, letters and/or words in text, and reading familiar words and signs using partial cues and illustrations. They identify some letters of the English alphabet and their associated sound. They retell a picture story they have selected using key words to describe each picture. They respond to questions and sequence key words to describe or predict what is happening in a picture, movie or book.
When writing, students produce ‘text-like’ writing to convey meaning and label images. They trace letter-like patterns moving left to right across a page. They have a preferred writing hand and hold a pencil to trace over lines, shapes and patterns with some accuracy. They colour within a clearly defined area. They copy or write familiar letters with beginning accuracy and copy/type their first name. They select and sequence pictures and key words to describe a personally significant event or experience. They contribute key words to teacher-constructed texts to describe pictures they have selected. They understand that what is said can be written down, indicate words, and demonstrate knowledge of some rules associated with writing, such as working from left to right, top to bottom and spacing.
Students listen to and use spoken language to acknowledge and answer a person who communicates with them, giving a response of up to three words. Students use some social conventions during social interaction, such as making eye contact, show some understanding of turn taking, use appropriate volume, and articulate clearly. They participate in communication with others by expressing likes, dislikes and ideas; sequence key words, signs or symbols to describe a favourite object or a completed piece of work, or to make a request; and communicate needs and give reasons. They use simple phrases and simple sentences and sequence two key ideas. They listen to and respond to sequence sentences when interacting with others, and ask questions at appropriate intervals to show an interest in what the speaker is saying. Students follow simple, routine instructions that contain up to three key words, and follow simple instructions given by an interactive computer software program.
The Level D curriculum focuses on the features of places where students live focusing on developing student’s awareness, understanding and purpose of a place. Students are encouraged to be curious about a place and explore its local area. They use their senses to explore the tangible characteristics of a place such as the spaces, features and environmental and human characteristics.
Learning...
The Level D curriculum focuses on the features of places where students live focusing on developing student’s awareness, understanding and purpose of a place. Students are encouraged to be curious about a place and explore its local area. They use their senses to explore the tangible characteristics of a place such as the spaces, features and environmental and human characteristics.
Learning about a place and building a connection with it, contributes to the student’s sense of identify and awareness. They continue to develop a connection and understanding of significant places they are in and what it is they like. Students experience and develop their curiosity about different places and their purposes. The idea of a place, its purpose, features and location (a part of the concept of space) are explored through the use of multimodal texts, images, maps, photos and models.
The emphasis in Level D is on the significant places students regularly visit, their major characteristics, purpose and how students connect to each place. They also explore and how a place is affected by natural factors, and the environmental issues associated with the place.
The key questions for Level D are:
By the end Level D, students label familiar routine places and some of their features and the related activities undertaken in these places. They recognise places can have a special purpose or connection for some people. Students reflect on their learning to suggest ways they can care for a familiar place.
Students observe the familiar features of places and represent these features and their location on jointly constructed pictorial maps and models. They can identify how they travel to a place and one or two key features of the journey. They recognise that places can be represented by an image or on a map.
They follow and use simple everyday language to describe direction and location to explain where a place is or to locate a place or object.
The Level D curriculum provides the basis for developing knowledge, understanding and skills for students to lead healthy, safe and active lives. Students learn about their strengths and simple actions they can take to keep themselves and their classmates healthy and safe. They learn about major body parts, their family, healthy eating, feelings and safety.
Students explore the people that are...
The Level D curriculum provides the basis for developing knowledge, understanding and skills for students to lead healthy, safe and active lives. Students learn about their strengths and simple actions they can take to keep themselves and their classmates healthy and safe. They learn about major body parts, their family, healthy eating, feelings and safety.
Students explore the people that are important to them and develop the capacity to initiate and maintain respectful relationships in different contexts. They learn to show some consideration for the needs and feelings of themselves and others, including at school, at home, in the classroom and when participating in physical activities.
Students learn through movement by engaging in a variety of physical activities in a range of environments (indoor, outdoor and aquatic). Students participate in simple games with support, to follow instructions and to remain on task. They develop and practise fundamental movement skills through active play and structured movement activities to improve competence and confidence in their movement abilities.
For Level D, teachers need to select focus areas that are age appropriate and reflect the physical, social and emotional maturation of the student. The focus areas include, but are not limited to:
By the end of Level D, students recognise changes to their body over the year. They identify and describe basic emotions people experience and what makes them feel this way.
They recognise some routine actions they do to help them to be healthy, safe and physically active. They identify different settings where they can be active and ways they move and play safely. They reflect upon how their body responds to movement.
Students make use of personal and social skills in a range of activities to be healthy and work with others. In structured situations they demonstrate practices and protective behaviours to keep themselves safe and healthy in everyday events and different routine activities. They perform fundamental movement skills involving simple gross motor movements and solve basic movement challenges.
Personal Past History
The curriculum at Levels A to D provides a study of personal and family histories. Students learn about their own history and that of their family; this may include stories from different cultures and other parts of the world. As participants in their own history, students build on their knowledge and understanding of how the past is different from the present. At Level D the focus is on present and past history.
Key questions:
By the end of Level D, students identify similarities and differences between families in their class. They identify many important family events and indicate how they were commemorated. Students use images to describe a significant family, personal event, site or person of significance.
Students sequence their key milestones in order. They can sequence key events related to a significant person, building or site. They can sequence routine events. Students answer questions about their past by using a variety of sources provided. Students relate a narrative about their past using objects, images, and perspectives of other (parents and grandparents).
In Level D, students actively use concrete models to represent number in various situations, and use number names when comparing, counting, ordering, adding to or taking away from sets of one to five objects.
They form the initial terms of basic patterns and identify and sequence regular daily events, make simple qualitative measurement comparisons, match objects with their pictorial representations, and name them.
Students follow instructions to place and find objects in various locations and they recognise that similar events or activities may have different outcomes at different times.
Number and Algebra
Students connect number names and numerals with sets of up to 10 elements. They match individual objects with counting sequences up to and back from 10. They recognise and point to numerals in and around the classroom, for example, numbers on a clock face. Students use concrete materials to solve problems that involve comparing, combining and separating sets. They can indicate when groups of less than 10 objects are the same or different in number and that two collections have the ‘same’ quantity by matching items one to one. They can find the first and last object in a sequence and place objects into sets to make ‘more’ and take objects from a group to make ‘less’. Students order the first five elements of a set. They sort objects and shapes based on a given attribute and create simple repeating patterns of two elements or more by copying a pattern.
Measurement and Geometry
Students explore measurement attributes in practical situations and identify and describe the basic characteristics of a range of objects. They can identify regular events within the school week. They can follow a class pictorial schedule and mark off each passing day on a calendar. Students demonstrate an understanding of two- and three-dimensional shapes by matching basic geometric objects to pictures of that object, identifying basic three-dimensional shapes in the classroom and sorting shapes into like groups. Students show an understanding of ‘location’ and spatial concepts by responding to instructions to position items.
Statistics and Probability
Students explore events and follow a simple picture schedule, and use these to answer simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions. They play a variety of chance games such as bingo or snakes and ladders and demonstrate an understanding that they will not always win.
In Level D, students explore media arts. They learn how media artworks can represent the world and that they can make media artworks to represent their ideas about the world. Students become aware of character and settings as they explore ideas and construct stories. They learn about composition, sound and technologies.
Students learn about safety in using technologies and in interaction with others. They experience the role of artist and they respond to feedback in their media arts making. As an audience they learn to focus their attention on the media artwork and to respond at the end of the viewing. They make simple evaluations of media artworks expressing simple statements about what they like and why.
By the end of Level D, students describe the characteristics of media artworks they make and view.
Students make and share media artworks representing a significant idea, event or story.
In Level D, students explore music. They listen to and explore sound and learn about how music can represent the world and that they can make music to represent their ideas about the world. They share their music with peers and experience music as audiences.
Students learn to listen to music and become aware of rhythm, pitch, dynamics and expression, form and structure, timbre and texture as they explore and make music. They learn to copy beat, rhythms and basic music patterns and respond to changes in rhythm and tempo when accompanying music.
While music in the local community should be the initial focus for learning, students are also aware of and interested in music from more distant locations and the curriculum provides opportunities to build on this curiosity.
By the end of Level D, students compose and perform music to communicate ideas.
Students explore sounds through singing. They demonstrate rhythm skills by listening to and imitating simple musical beat and patterns. They describe the music they like and dislike.
In Level D, the curriculum focuses on enabling students to learn how to be socially perceptive. Students learn to guide their behaviour across a range of familiar situations. They learn to adhere to class practice, offer assistance, share, initiate activities and regulate emotional expression.
Students are learning to name emotional responses and becoming aware of how their reactions impact on others. Students are learning about their characteristics, strengths and preferences. The curriculum provides opportunities for students to build their independence to establish and maintain friendships and skills required to work in a small group.
By the end of Level D, students can name emotional responses and identify the cause of emotions. They can identify some characteristics of self. They use cues and prompts to solve simple problems.
Students can identify people associated with particular events and routines. They attend to and implement some basic social rules. They cooperate with others when working or playing in groups, showing an understanding of the impact of their behaviour on others.
In Level D, students are building their independence to observe and share what they discover about the characteristics and properties of everyday objects, materials and living things. They explore change in the world around them, including changes that impact on them, for example the weather, and changes they can effect, for example making things move or change shape. They use their senses to gather information and learn that investigating objects, asking questions, seeking answers to questions and making observations are a core part of science.
By the end of Level D, students can identify and label many familiar objects and indicate some of their properties by using gestures, words, images and objects. They can sort objects based on two properties and can identify key characteristics of familiar plants and animals. Students can identify some ways the weather affects the environment and their clothing choices. Students share and demonstrate their understanding of objects and events through images, pictures, alternative and augmentative communication and simple statements.
In Level D, students explore visual arts. They learn about how to make visual representations of their ideas, experiences, observations and imagination.
Students become aware of how and begin to explore why artists, craftspeople and designers present their ideas through different visual representations, practices and processes. They learn how their ideas or subject matter can be developed. They...
In Level D, students explore visual arts. They learn about how to make visual representations of their ideas, experiences, observations and imagination.
Students become aware of how and begin to explore why artists, craftspeople and designers present their ideas through different visual representations, practices and processes. They learn how their ideas or subject matter can be developed. They enhance their perception skills by learning to notice visual detail as they examine and represent familiar and new objects and events in their lives. They explore how artworks are created and become familiar with using and applying visual conventions, such as line, shape, colour and texture.
As they make and respond to visual artworks, students explore meaning and interpretation, and styles through social and cultural contexts. They provide opinions about artworks expressing what they like in simple sentences. They experience the role of artist and audience and they respond to feedback in their visual arts making.
By the end of Level D, students describe artworks they make and view.
Students make artworks in different forms to express their ideas, observations and imagination, using different materials, techniques and processes.
