Level One

This means students will match comments made by others, usually their classmates, with the features of displays. These displays will be showing category data as pictographs, set diagrams, and bar charts.

This means students will collect, sort and count data. Students will mostly encounter category data. This data arises from classifying, for example sorting data into colour categories. Simple number data generated through measurement with whole units is also manageable. Students should become familiar with displaying category data using pictographs, set diagrams and bar charts. Discussion should centre on similarities and differences between categories, for example “Six more people like hokey-pokey ice cream than vanilla”.

This means students will physically carry out translations, reflections, and rotations on shapes and discuss what patterns they see. Translations are shifts of a shape along a line, for example repeating a potato print across the top border of a page. Reflections are images of a shape as though it is reflected in a mirror. Rotations are turns, so when an object is turned about a point, either inside or outside of itself, the image is a rotation of the original shape. At level one rotations can be described as fractions of a full turn, for example half and quarter turns.

This means students will describe their position using positional language such as next to, in front of, behind, between, to the right/left and simple diagrams and maps. Their descriptions should become increasingly precise in terms of distance from the landmark (in steps) and location of that landmark on simple schematic maps.

This means students will be able to follow instructions given in distances, for example 14 steps; direction, for example facing the library; and angle (turn), for example do a half turn clockwise (right). They should become proficient at following a series of instructions. Students should also be able to give instructions.

This means students will classify or sort objects by their characteristics. These characteristics include shape, size, colour, texture, weight, and temperature. Students should be able to justify why they have sorted objects in the way they have and be encouraged to develop increasingly sophisticated classifications such as shape and size.

This means students will go through a stage of using direct comparison to establish the relative length, area, volume, weight and temperature of objects. This means that the objects are brought together physically. Through experiences using direct comparison techniques students will come to appreciate the need for units of measure so that objects can be compared without bringing them together. Units have the attribute being measured, have to be the same size and are combined and counted. For example handspans can be used to compare the length of a table and the height of a door.

This means the students will explore sequential patterns. A sequential pattern is one in which further members of that pattern can be predicted from previous members. So ..., and 1, 3, 5, 7, ... are sequential patterns. At Level One students should be able to reproduce a given pattern using objects, drawings or symbols and continue the pattern on with justification.

This means students will understand the link between the cardinal and ordinal aspects of counting. The ordinal aspect refers to the fact that counting numbers have a conventional order. The last number in a count tells how many objects are in a set if all the objects are matched in one-to-one correspondence to the sequence of counting numbers. The next number in the counting sequence tells the result of adding an object while the number before in the sequence tells the count when an object is removed.

This means students will explain to others the number strategies they use, by using a combination of words, numbers and pictures. This implies that students will learn to write equations to express their findings (for example 5 + 9 = 14), to express their ideas using their own language in conjunction with mathematical language (for example, add, subtract, times, fraction), and to develop diagrams to represent their strategies (for example, set diagrams or number lines).