Year 1 Science – Term 4 (WA Curriculum): Push and Pull Forces Around Us

What this unit covers

In Term 4, Year 1 Science in the WA Curriculum centres on the unit “Push and Pull Forces Around Us”.

Students explore how push and pull forces affect the movement and shape of objects through hands-on investigations and observations.

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 Push and Pull Forces in Our Playground
2. What Happens When We Push and Pull? Making Predictions
3. Safe Scientists: Planning Our Force Investigations
4. Observing and Measuring How Objects Move
5. Sorting Our Force Data: Before and After
6. Comparing Our Predictions with What Really Happened
7. Sharing Our Force Discoveries with Pictures and Words
8. Choosing the Best Push or Pull for Different Jobs

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.