Year 1 Science – Term 2 (WA Curriculum): Changing Materials Around Us

What this unit covers

In Term 2, Year 1 Science in the WA Curriculum centres on the unit “Changing Materials Around Us”.

Students explore how everyday materials can be physically changed in different ways without changing what they are made of.

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 Different Materials in Our Classroom
2. Scrunching and Squashing - Making Materials Smaller
3. Stretching and Pulling - Making Materials Longer
4. Twisting Materials to Make Them Stronger
5. Breaking Materials Apart - Cutting, Tearing and Crushing
6. Bending Materials to Change Their Shape
7. Melting Materials with Heat
8. Choosing the Best Way to Change Materials

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 2

WA terms run roughly 9–11 weeks, and in 2026 Term 2 runs from Monday 20 April to Friday 3 July — 11 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.