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NSW Early Stage 1 Science & Technology: Materials and Properties

Teach NSW Early Stage 1 Science — Kindergarten Material World unit on properties of objects, sorting and design and make with classroom-ready K resources.

Expert guide for Australian primary and secondary school teachers. Published by TeachBuySell.

NSW Early Stage 1 Science: Materials and Their Properties

For Kindergarten teachers in a NSW primary school, the Materials and Properties unit is one of the most hands-on units in the whole Foundation year. Sitting in the Material World strand of the NSW Science & Technology K-6 Syllabus, it lets five-year-olds do real science with the most familiar things in the room — paper, plastic, fabric, wood, metal, glass, rubber — and connect what they observe to genuine engineering and design questions about why we use particular materials for particular jobs.

This guide is for Foundation (Early Stage 1) teachers planning the Materials unit fresh, returning to Kindergarten after teaching older grades, or hunting for ready-made teacher resources that align with the NSW K-6 Science syllabus and the Term 2 placement most published Scope and Sequences recommend.

What the Materials and Properties unit covers

The NSW Science & Technology K-6 Syllabus places Materials at Early Stage 1 in the Material World strand. Across the unit, Kindergarten students are expected to:

  • Identify materials used in everyday objects — wood, metal, plastic, glass, paper, fabric, rubber, cardboard.
  • Describe observable properties of materials — hard or soft, smooth or rough, flexible or rigid, transparent or opaque, waterproof, magnetic, heavy or light.
  • Sort and group objects by material — using sort trays, hoops, or material-mat printables.
  • Connect material choice to object purpose — "why is the rain jacket made of plastic and not paper?" — beginning to see materials as design decisions.
  • Begin Working Technologically processes — designing and making a simple object from a chosen material, evaluating whether it does its job.

The unit is designed to integrate the Material World content with Working Scientifically (observe, question, predict, test) and Working Technologically (design, make, evaluate) processes from the K-6 syllabus. At Foundation, both process strands stay short, concrete, and oral.

How the unit fits the NSW Science & Technology K-6 Syllabus

The NSW K-6 Science syllabus organises content by strand (Living World, Material World, Physical World, Earth and Space) plus Working Scientifically and Working Technologically processes. The Materials unit at Early Stage 1 lays the foundation for Stage 1 (Years 1-2) work on changing materials and Stage 2-3 work on physical and chemical changes, properties of solids and liquids, and engineering design challenges.

The Working Technologically content — designing and making something with a chosen material — is one of the highest-engagement experiences a Kindergarten student has all year, and it ties cleanly to design-process teaching that grows across K-6. For broader scaffolding on the design and make process across Stage 1 to Stage 3, see our NSW science and design process guide.

A practical Term 2 teaching sequence

Most NSW Kindergarten teachers run the Materials unit across six to eight weeks in Term 2, integrating it with Visual Arts (junk modelling, collage), English (descriptive vocabulary, simple procedure writing), and free-play construction routines. A workable sequence:

  1. What is it made of? (week 1) — open the unit with a classroom material hunt. Students point out wood, plastic, paper, metal, fabric, and glass objects in the room. Build a class "Materials We Found" wall display.
  2. Looking and feeling closely (weeks 2-3) — material property stations. Five trays — wood, plastic, fabric, metal, paper — and laminated property cards (smooth, rough, hard, soft, flexible, rigid, transparent, opaque). Students rotate and sort.
  3. Sorting and grouping (week 3-4) — sort-and-classify mats with printable picture cards. Group everyday objects by primary material. Add Venn-diagram sorts ("things made of paper" / "things made of plastic" / "both").
  4. Why this material? (weeks 4-5) — design questions. Show a rain jacket and a paper bag — which would keep you dry? Show a glass cup and a plastic cup — which would survive a Foundation classroom? Build descriptive vocabulary around purpose and property.
  5. Design and make (weeks 5-7) — a short design challenge. "Build a tower at least 30 cm tall using only one material." "Make a boat that floats using junk-modelling materials." "Design a hat from paper and tape." Students plan, make, test, and evaluate.
  6. Sharing learning (week 7-8) — students present a simple finished artefact — their design, a class "Materials We Use" book, or a labelled property poster.

Design-and-make activities in particular benefit from explicit fine-motor scaffolding — see our fine motor activities guide for cutting, folding, and joining routines that support Foundation makers.

Working Scientifically routines that suit Foundation

Like the Living Things unit, the Materials unit is most effective when Foundation students do real Working Scientifically routines — short, concrete, and visual. Practical routines to embed:

  • Predict-observe-explain — "will this paper boat float?" — followed by a quick test in a water tray.
  • Property-cards stations — laminated cards with property words (smooth, rough, transparent, magnetic) that students physically place next to objects.
  • Wonder walls — "why is the playground slide made of metal and not wood?" Revisit weekly.
  • Sort-and-classify mats — repeatable, low-prep, and brilliant for assessment-of-learning at the end of the unit.

Many of the Materials unit's most useful activities sit naturally inside structured play. Junk-modelling tubs, construction stations, and material-property treasure baskets are core Foundation play set-ups — see our play-based learning activities guide for set-ups that double as Material World teaching. For broader Foundation science teaching ideas across all strands, our science activities guide is a useful companion.

The carousels below pull together teacher-created Early Stage 1 Materials resources — many bundle property-sorting cards, material hunt printables, design and make planning sheets, and procedure writing templates into single classroom-ready packages.

Frequently Asked Questions

When in the year do NSW Kindergarten teachers usually teach the Materials and Properties unit?

Most NSW Kindergarten teachers run the Materials unit in Term 2, in line with the published Scope and Sequence used by many NSW programs. A Term 2 placement works well because it follows on from Term 1 Living Things and gives students a different kind of Working Scientifically experience — sorting, classifying, and design-and-make. Some schools instead place Materials in Term 4 to anchor a summer make-and-build season, or split it across Term 2 and Term 4 with the design-and-make challenges sitting at the end of the year. All three placements are syllabus-compliant.

What does the NSW Science & Technology Syllabus expect Kindergarten students to learn about materials?

The NSW Science & Technology K-6 Syllabus expects Early Stage 1 students to identify materials used in everyday objects (wood, metal, plastic, glass, paper, fabric, rubber), describe observable properties (hard or soft, smooth or rough, flexible or rigid, transparent or opaque), sort and group objects by material, and connect material choice to the purpose of an object. Students also begin Working Technologically processes — designing, making, and evaluating a simple object using a chosen material. The Material World content sits alongside the Working Scientifically processes that run through every unit.

What design and make activities work for Kindergarten students?

Foundation-friendly design and make tasks need to be short, concrete, and finishable in one or two lessons. Reliable Kindergarten challenges include build-a-tower-at-least-30-cm-tall using only one material, make-a-boat-that-floats from junk-modelling materials, design-a-hat from paper and tape, build-a-bridge for a toy car using paper and cardboard, and create-a-shelter from fabric and pegs. Each task should explicitly link back to material properties — students plan with one property in mind (waterproof, rigid, flexible), then test whether their design did its job and evaluate what they would change next time.

How do I teach material properties without using too much technical vocabulary?

Foundation students can absolutely use property words like flexible, rigid, transparent, and opaque if you teach them explicitly with concrete examples. Best practice is to introduce one or two property words per lesson, model them with two contrasting objects (a glass cup is transparent, a wooden block is opaque), and add the words to a classroom property wall students can revisit. Pair each new word with a sorting station the same week so students physically use the word as they sort. Avoid teaching too many property words in one lesson — depth and repetition beat breadth at Early Stage 1.

What kinds of resources work best for Kindergarten Materials and Properties?

Effective Early Stage 1 Materials resources are tactile, visual, and reusable. Look for material-property sort cards, laminated property word strips, classroom material hunt printables, design and make planning sheets with simple draw-and-label fields, junk-modelling reference cards, and Venn-diagram or sorting-hoop printables. A materials property treasure basket — a real basket with examples of every common classroom material — is one of the highest-impact resources you can prepare and reuse all term. Picture books with strong material themes (tools, building, junk) make the strongest read-alouds for this unit.