Focus Unit: A Year on our Farm

Early Stage 1 | English

Summary
This unit is based on the text "A Year on our Farm" by Penny Matthew. It is designed to be taught alongside the Science Unit Changes and Weather. It is envisaged that this will be taught in Term 3 of Kindergarten. ! "ear on our #arm shows the $assing of the seasons through the e%es of the children for whom the farm and all its animals is home. &ver% month of the %ear there are 'obs to do on a small !ustralian farm. This $icture boo( won the Children s )oo( Council of !ustralia award for )oo( of the "ear* &arl% Childhood.

Duration
Term 3 + , 3 wee(s -etail* 3 to . lessons $er wee( /30 , .0 mins1

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%utcomes
English &*1+

&ey conce!ts
Students will engage in higher order thin(ing activities /thin(ing imaginativel% and creativel%1 when wor(ing with an imaginative text4 in $articular4 making connections between the text and their own lives. Students will focus on develo$ing reading4 com$rehension4 vocabular% building and writing s(ills.

'ontinuum (in)s
Reading Texts: , 8eads all or most of a more challenging stor% boo(. , 8eads aloud with increasingl% a$$ro$riate $itch4 intonation and fluenc%. Comprehension: , 8es$onds to overall meaning from texts b% tal(ing about the central themes. , Constructs meaning b% ma(ing connections between $rint4 illustrations and diagrams. ocabu!ary "now!ege: , Identifies unfamiliar words and attem$ts to use ex$erience and context to wor( out word meanings. Aspects o# $riting% , Writes one or more sim$le sentences. , Writes to ex$ress one or two ideas.

&2e,3) demonstrates emerging s(ills and

(nowledge of texts to read and view4 and shows develo$ing awareness of $ur$ose4 audience and sub'ect matter

&2e,5) demonstrates develo$ing s(ills

and (nowledge in grammar4 $unctuation and vocabular% when res$onding to and com$osing texts

&2e,60C thin(s imaginativel% and

creativel% about familiar to$ics4 sim$le ideas and the basic features of texts when res$onding to and com$osing texts

&2e,66- res$onds to and com$oses

sim$le texts about familiar as$ects of the world and their own ex$eriences
&2e,6+& demonstrates awareness of how

to reflect on as$ects of their own and others7 learning

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Program Builder contains NSW syllabus content prepared by the Board of Studies NSW for and on behalf of the State of New South Wales which is protected by Crown copyright.

'ontent
Early Stage 1 * /eading and 0ie$ing ,
Students* -evelo$ and a$$l% contextual (nowledge
recognise that there

-eaching. learning and assessment

Focus &* 'ntroduce Text and (ackground 'n#ormation Explicitly explain the purpose of the lesson to students. Introduce the $arts of a boo(4 such as the cover4 title $age and s$ine. Show the children the cover. Show the children the title but don7t read it. Show and name the author and illustrator. !s( the children to $redict from the cover and title,$age illustration what the% thin( the stor% might be about. :ist the $redictions on the board or write them on a large $iece of $a$er. Use 2oteboo( to Introduce text , Title4 !uthor ; Illustrator <icture wal( through the entire text , Introduce new vocabular% such as orchard4 a$ricots4 windbrea(s4 baling4 crutching=%abbies. Share all connections that %ou ma(e with the text /ex$licitl% labeling this >ma(ing connections>1 !s( one child to come and $oint to where %ou will start reading and show which words %ou will read next. The first reading , read through with fluenc% and ex$ression without interu$tion. Focus ): Text structure * (eginning o# the text +,rientation-% .tructure by .eason and month Explicitly explain the purpose of the lesson to students. )egin b% revising Title4 !uthor4 Illustrator and themes. S$ecificall% focus on orientation. &x$lain the im$ortance of the illustrations. 2ote characters are not named in the orientation , we need to extract their names through out the text. >This is our farm. !nd this is who lives on our farm.> -iscuss the text structure through the seasons and months of the %ear. Create a ?isual @utline of this. &x$lain to students that the% will be illustrating what is ha$$ening in the text b% Aonth. 8ead the text with fluenc% and ex$ression without interru$tion.

/esources
! "ear on our #arm b% <enn% Aatthews ; !ndrew Ac:ean ! "ear on our #arm bac(ground 2oteboo( file. 8evisit4 8eflect and 8etell b% :inda Bo%t Teaching Com$rehension Strategies * htt$*99www.curriculumsu$$ ort.education.nsw.gov.au9li terac%9assets9$df9$ac(ages 9comboo(.$df htt$*99artsmmadd.com9w$, content9u$loads9+00590C9! ,"ear,on,@ur,#arm.$df Stor% Aa$ , htt$*99www.eastershow.co m.au9documents9D#BEUnitE +E!E"earE@nE@urE#armESt or%EAa$.$df 8eference ; !c(nowledgment* !ctivities are ada$ted from Unit b% -.8ussell,)owie and D.Thistleton,Aartin4 +003
,ther "/A Acti0ities , Music: Tone Co!our1 .tructure Children can create a song to the tune of Bere we go round the Aulberr% )ush and use the above

are different (inds of imaginative and informative texts for en'o%ment and finding information readers9viewers ma% have varied and individual res$onses to a text and digital texts4 eg front and bac( covers4 title and author4 la%out and navigation

understand that

recognise $arts of $rint

Understand and a$$l% (nowledge of language forms and features

identif% some features

of texts including events and characters and retell events from a text (ACELT1578) 8es$ond to4 read and view texts
engage with shared

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Program Builder contains NSW syllabus content prepared by the Board of Studies NSW for and on behalf of the State of New South Wales which is protected by Crown copyright.

Assessment o0er0ie$
The children will be able to* Doin in reading where the% feel confident Use and ex$lain vocabular% $articular to the text <artici$ate in discussion about the main themes and structure of the text Share connections between the text and their own ex$eriences. 8e$resent res$onses to the text visuall% and9or in $rint

E0aluation
Were the students able to ma(e connections between the text and their own livesF Were the students able to $artici$ate in literar% discussion about the main themes and structure of the textF

Board of Studies NSW rogram Builder !"#"os#ns$#edu#au

Program Builder contains NSW syllabus content prepared by the Board of Studies NSW for and on behalf of the State of New South Wales which is protected by Crown copyright.