Starting to think about making a curriculum

Organising your curriculum 

Starting with kindergarten/Prep

Also known as Early Stage 1

I need a “frame” to work with, so I started with the Key Learning Areas (KLA's):

The following is available on the Board of Studies Web site. I found it to be a very dry and quite frankly an unclear process. Each subject is set out differently, I could not find the same information for each Subject. For example I couldn't not find the scope and sequence for each subject. They may be there, embedded in site but not to be seen by me :o-

The Foundation Statements are a good start.

Here's what I have decoded!

English

Maths

HSIE (Human Society and it's Environment)

Science and Technology

CAPA (Creative and Performing Arts)

PD H PE (Personal development, Health, Physical Education)

These are the same for all the primary school grades/stages

The KLA's are broken down further into “strands”:

ENGLISH: Talking and Listening, Reading, Writing

MATHS: Working Mathematically, Number, Patterns and Algebra, Measurement and Data, Space and Geometry

HSIE: Change and Continuity, Cultures, Environments, Social Systems and Structures.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY: Investigating Scientifically, Designing and Making, The Natural Environment, The Made Environment.

CAPA: Visual Arts, Music, drama, dance.

PD H PE: Fundamental movement & physical Activity, Healthy Choices, Self and Relationships.

Then you might look into Scope and Sequence for clues on the sorts of units of work being done in the schools. You can use these for your own curriculum or do your own thing.

Eg.

HSIE:School Days, This is me, Places We Know, Meeting Needs

SCIENCE/TECHNOLOGY: Growing up, What do we eat, Hot/Cold, Kids care

Also there are Outcomes to look at and Indicators that you can print out and mark off as your child reaches each indicator if you are so inclined.

If you are like me, in the past, at this point it all looks too hard and fall in a heap and decide to buy curriculum. There is nothing wrong with doing this and as confidence grows you might develop your own to supplement or follow completely.

However, I hope that the posts that follow might help you to make your own, I'll post as we use or try them.

Remember every school is not studying the same thing, teachers can chose different ways to achieve the outcomes with their class.

Why is any of this important? Apart from wanting to actually educate our precious children, it seems to me a good idea to keep up with what is happening in the schools, albeit loosely, so that if your circumstances change at any time your child will slip into a school without too much up set to the child and be at a similar level to the other children. You just don't know what the future holds.