Pre-Primary Science – Term 4 (WA Curriculum): How Things Move and Change

What this unit covers

In Term 4, Pre-Primary Science in the WA Curriculum centres on the unit “How Things Move and Change”.

Students explore how objects move through hands-on investigations, making predictions, observing patterns, and sharing their discoveries about the physical world around them.

Lesson sequence (8 lessons)

The unit breaks down into the following lesson-by-lesson sequence — each title below is a teachable lesson, in order:

1. Exploring How Different Objects Roll and Slide
2. Predicting Which Shapes Move Fastest Down Our Ramp
3. Safely Testing How Size Affects Movement
4. Drawing and Talking About Our Movement Observations
5. Counting and Graphing Fast and Slow Moving Objects
6. Comparing Our Predictions to What Really Happened
7. Sharing Our Movement Discoveries with Friends
8. Using Our Senses to Explore How Materials Behave

Curriculum codes in this unit

Content codes:

Reading the codes: WA codes (the ones starting with WA) pack the year level, learning area, strand and content number into one string, while the national Australian Curriculum v9 uses a different anatomy that starts with AC9 — same content family, different labels. Our complete WA Curriculum guide decodes both, character by character.

Planning notes for Term 4

WA terms run roughly 9–11 weeks, and in 2026 Term 4 runs from Monday 12 October to Thursday 17 December — 10 weeks for WA public schools. With 8 lessons in this unit, that leaves breathing room for assessment, moderation and the weeks that disappear to carnivals, camps and public holidays — plan the assessable work to land two to three weeks before the end of term rather than in the final week.