Term 1 — The Great Harvest 🌾

Late Summer → Autumn (roughly late January to early April)

← Program overview · How to use · Next: Term 2 →

The season outside: The year opens hot. Gardens are heavy with summer fruit, cicadas are roaring, the light is long and gold, and then — slowly — the mornings get a bite to them and the first leaves turn. Term 1 is about abundance, gathering, preserving and gratitude. We harvest what summer made, and we learn to keep it.

Big idea of the term: Nothing is wasted. A harvest is the end of one cycle and the seed of the next.

🔗 Pairs with free reading: Seasonal living in Australia · Backyard homesteading for families · Nature journaling with kids

How to run this term

Before Week 1, set up your three stations (nature table, a journal per child, a grow spot) — see How to use this planner. You'll also want a worm farm or compost bin going early (Week 8 builds on it), so start one in Week 1 if you can.

The throughline: each week we gather something and ask "how do we keep it, use it, or pass it on?" Keep a running "harvest tally" on the wall — every fruit picked, seed saved and jar filled — and total it at the harvest festival in Week 10.

Rhythm reminder: outdoors early (it's hot), kitchen and quiet work in the heat of the day. A relaxed week spreads the eight parts across Mon–Fri; a busy week runs the Core Day only.

Safety this term: sun protection and water for every outing; adult supervision for the stove, knives and preserving; and the foraging rule — never taste a wild plant unless an expert has confirmed it's safe.

Week 1 — Setting the table for the year

🌍 Big Question: What is our patch of nature, and how does it change?
🥾 Outdoor: Map your yard, balcony or local park. Mark sun, shade, water, the "wild corner", and any food growing.
🪓 Homestead skill: Build the nature table and start the nature journal (date the first page, sketch one thing from outside).
📖 Literacy: Read-aloud kick-off + each child writes their "I notice…" first journal sentence. Little Hands dictate; Bigger Hands write 3 sentences.
🔢 Numeracy: Pace out and measure the garden/space; record dimensions and draw a simple scale map.
🔬 Science: Where does the sun rise and set from your patch? Mark it.
🎨 Make-it: Decorate the cover of the nature journal with pressed summer leaves.
✅ Codes: AC9ELE / AC9HS (place & space) / AC9S*I01 (questioning & observing).

▸ Do this: Walk the whole space together first. Then give each child a simple base map (a rectangle for the yard) and have them add symbols — a sun for sunny spots, wavy lines for water, a tree for shade. Pace out one edge heel-to-toe and count the steps to get a rough measurement. 🗣️ Talk about it: Which part of our patch do you think changes the most through the year? Why? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — just draw and label, skip the scale. Harder — measure with a tape, calculate the area, and add a compass direction (N/S/E/W).

Week 2 — The summer harvest

🌍 Big Question: What is ripe right now, and how do we know?
🥾 Outdoor: Harvest walk — tomatoes, zucchini, stone fruit, berries, herbs, or visit a farm gate / farmers' market.
🪓 Homestead skill: Pick, wash and sort a harvest. Learn the test for ripe (colour, smell, give, ease of picking).
📖 Literacy: Nature-journal entry: draw + label one fruit, write where it grew.
🔢 Numeracy: Weigh the harvest; sort by size; make a tally of each type.
🔬 Science: Cut a fruit open — find and count the seeds. Where do seeds sit?
🎨 Make-it: Fruit/veg print painting with the off-cuts.
✅ Codes: AC9M (measurement, data) / AC9S*U (living things) / AC9TE (food).

▸ Do this: Before picking, teach the four ripeness tests — colour, smell, give (a gentle squeeze) and how easily it comes off the plant. Let kids judge each fruit. Back inside, line the harvest up smallest to largest, weigh it on kitchen scales, and make a tally chart of how many of each type. 🗣️ Talk about it: Why does fruit get sweet and colourful when it's ripe — who is that for? (Leads to seeds and animals.) 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — sort and count only. Harder — record each weight and find the total and the heaviest/lightest; estimate before weighing.

Week 3 — Keeping the harvest (preserving)

🌍 Big Question: Why does food go bad, and how did people keep it before fridges?
🥾 Outdoor: Hunt for "the slow rot" — find decomposing fruit/leaves and observe what's eating them.
🪓 Homestead skill: Preserve something simple — sun-dried tomatoes, herb drying, freezing berries, or a no-cook jam. (Balcony version: dry herbs on a string.)
📖 Literacy: Write the recipe/method in steps (procedure writing).
🔢 Numeracy: Fractions in the kitchen — halve and double a recipe.
🔬 Science: Mould & microbes — set up a "two slices of bread" fair test (one dry, one damp), predict and observe over the week.
🎨 Make-it: Design a label for your preserved jar/bag.
✅ Codes: AC9S*U (decay, microbes) / AC9M (fractions) / AC9E (procedure).

▸ Do this: Pick one preserving method and do it start to finish together. As you go, have kids photograph or sketch each step, then write it up as a numbered "how to" (procedure). Start the bread fair test today so it's ready to discuss by Week 4 — same bread, one kept dry, one dampened and bagged. 🗣️ Talk about it: What do mould and bacteria need to grow? How does drying, freezing or sugaring stop them? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — dictate the recipe steps. Harder — double the recipe and recalculate every quantity as a fraction. 🔗 Go deeper: Backyard homesteading for families → preserving

Week 4 — Seed savers

🌍 Big Question: How does a plant make the next plant?
🥾 Outdoor: Collect seed heads (dill, sunflower, beans, poppies) gone dry on the plant.
🪓 Homestead skill: Clean, dry and store seed; make labelled paper seed packets.
📖 Literacy: Letter writing — write a "seed swap" note to a friend/neighbour.
🔢 Numeracy: Count and estimate — how many seeds in one pod? In ten pods?
🔬 Science: Seed dispersal investigation — which seeds fly, stick, float, pop?
🎨 Make-it: A seed mosaic / seed-packet art.
✅ Codes: AC9S*U (life cycles, dispersal) / AC9M (estimation) / AC9E (letter).

▸ Do this: Collect only dry, brown seed heads. Spread them on paper, rub out the seeds, and blow away the chaff. Count the seeds in one pod, then estimate the total in ten pods before counting to check. Fold paper packets, label with the plant name and the date, and add them to a seed box. 🗣️ Talk about it: A single plant makes hundreds of seeds — why so many, when only a few will grow? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — count and glue a seed mosaic. Harder — test dispersal by dropping different seeds and timing/measuring how they travel.

Week 5 — Bees, ants and the workers of summer

🌍 Big Question: Who does the work that makes our food possible?
🥾 Outdoor: Pollinator stake-out — sit still 10 minutes and tally every insect that visits one flowering plant.
🪓 Homestead skill: Plant a small pollinator pot (bee-friendly natives/herbs).
📖 Literacy: Read-aloud about bees; Bigger Hands write a "day in the life of a worker bee" recount.
🔢 Numeracy: Make a bar graph of the insect tally.
🔬 Science: Flower dissection — find the parts that make the seed.
🎨 Make-it: Build a simple native bee/insect hotel from bamboo and a tin.
✅ Codes: AC9S*U (interdependence, pollination) / AC9M (data) / AC9HP (focus/stillness).

▸ Do this: Sit quietly by one flowering plant for ten minutes with a tally sheet — one mark per insect visit, sorted by type (bee, fly, butterfly, ant). Turn the tally into a bar graph. Then pull a flower apart and find the pollen, the sticky centre (stigma) and where the seed will form. 🗣️ Talk about it: What would happen to our fruit and veg if the pollinators disappeared? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — just count total visitors. Harder — repeat at two times of day and compare which is busier, and why.

Week 6 — First Nations seasons & the gathering calendar

🌍 Big Question: How did the first Australians read the seasons here?
🥾 Outdoor: Look for the local seasonal signs (flowering, fruiting, animal behaviour) and match them to your region.
🪓 Homestead skill: Identify (with a parent and a good guide) one safe, local bush food or native plant; learn one respectful use.
📖 Literacy: Read a First Nations-authored story; discuss & journal one thing learned.
🔢 Numeracy: Compare calendars — 4 European seasons vs the 6-season calendars (e.g. D'harawal, Noongar). Build a circular calendar diagram.
🔬 Science: Phenology — record the natural signs that mark your seasons.
🎨 Make-it: Paint a personal six-season wheel for your place.
✅ Codes: Cross-curriculum priority: Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Histories & Cultures / AC9HS (time, place) / AC9S*U (seasonal change).

▸ Do this: Look up your region's First Nations seasonal calendar using a community-authored source (the Bureau of Meteorology's Indigenous Weather Knowledge site is a respectful start). Draw a circle, divide it into that calendar's seasons, and fill each wedge with the signs that mark it where you live. Begin a class phenology log — the first wattle, cicada, or ripe fruit. 🗣️ Talk about it: Why might reading the land (what's flowering, what's running) be more useful here than dates on a calendar? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — focus on one season and its signs. Harder — research and compare two different nations' calendars. ⚠️ Foraging note: only ever eat a wild plant when an expert has confirmed it. Many Australian natives have cultural protocols — teach respect first.

Week 7 — Water in the dry

🌍 Big Question: Where does our water come from, and how do we waste less?
🥾 Outdoor: Follow the water — downpipes, drains, the lowest point in the yard.
🪓 Homestead skill: Set up greywater bucketing or mulch a bed to hold moisture. (Balcony: self-watering pot saucer.)
📖 Literacy: Persuasive writing — "Three ways our family can save water."
🔢 Numeracy: Measure water use — how many litres to fill the watering can? Estimate weekly garden use.
🔬 Science: Evaporation test — same water, sun vs shade, measure the drop.
🎨 Make-it: Build a mini terrarium (a closed water cycle in a jar).
✅ Codes: AC9S*U (water cycle) / AC9M (volume) / Sustainability priority.

▸ Do this: Trace where rain goes when it lands on your roof — follow the downpipe to the drain or tank. Set up the evaporation test (two identical containers with the same water, one in sun, one in shade) and mark the levels. Build a sealed jar terrarium and watch condensation form — the water cycle in miniature. 🗣️ Talk about it: The water in our tap is millions of years old and keeps being recycled — where might "our" water have been before? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — observe and draw the terrarium. Harder — measure the evaporation in mm each day and graph sun vs shade.

Week 8 — The compost cycle begins

🌍 Big Question: What happens to everything that dies?
🥾 Outdoor: Decomposer hunt — lift a log/rock, find the recyclers (worms, slaters, fungi, beetles).
🪓 Homestead skill: Start a compost or worm farm from the term's harvest scraps. (Balcony: a small worm tower or bokashi bin.)
📖 Literacy: Journal — "The secret life of our compost bin" descriptive writing.
🔢 Numeracy: Greens-to-browns ratio (sorting, ratio, volume).
🔬 Science: What rots and what doesn't? Bury samples (leaf, paper, plastic, apple core) and dig up at term's end.
🎨 Make-it: Draw the decomposer food web of your patch.
✅ Codes: AC9S*U (decomposition, food webs) / Sustainability priority / AC9M (ratio).

▸ Do this: On a decomposer hunt, gently lift logs and rocks (and put them back) to find the clean-up crew. Start your worm farm or compost using the term's scraps, learning the "greens to browns" balance (roughly 1 part food scraps to 2 parts dry leaves/paper). Bury four labelled samples — leaf, paper, plastic, apple core — to dig up in Week 10. 🗣️ Talk about it: If nothing ever decomposed, what would the world look like? Where do the nutrients in a dead leaf go? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — sort scraps into "greens" and "browns." Harder — express the ratio as a fraction and a percentage, and predict which buried sample will rot most. 🔗 Go deeper: How to start a worm farm with kids

Week 9 — Autumn arrives

🌍 Big Question: What is changing now that summer is ending?
🥾 Outdoor: "Then & now" walk — compare the same spot you mapped in Week 1.
🪓 Homestead skill: Plant your autumn/winter seedlings (brassicas, peas, broad beans, leafy greens).
📖 Literacy: Seasonal poetry — write an autumn haiku or list poem.
🔢 Numeracy: Temperature tracking — graph daily highs across the week; compare to Week 1.
🔬 Science: Why do some leaves change colour? Leaf-chromatography (rubbing alcohol).
🎨 Make-it: Pressed-leaf bunting / autumn colour collage.
✅ Codes: AC9S*U (seasonal change) / AC9M (data, line graph) / AC9E (poetry).

▸ Do this: Return to your Week 1 map spot and list everything that's different — light, temperature, plants, sounds. Plant the cool-season seedlings in your grow spot. Try leaf chromatography: tear a green leaf into a glass, add a splash of rubbing alcohol, stand a paper strip in it, and watch the hidden colours climb. 🗣️ Talk about it: The yellow and orange were in the leaf all along — why could we only see the green until now? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — collect and sort leaves by colour. Harder — keep a daily temperature line graph and compare the term's start and end.

Week 10 — Harvest festival & reflection (lighter week)

🌍 Big Question: What did we grow, keep and learn this term?
🥾 Outdoor: Final harvest of summer crops; clear and feed the bed.
🪓 Homestead skill: Cook a "from-the-patch" meal using your harvest and preserves. Dig up the Week 8 buried-sample test and discuss.
📖 Literacy: Write a menu + invitation to a family harvest dinner.
🔢 Numeracy: Plan the meal to a budget; double the recipe for guests.
🔬 Science: Review the term's experiments (mould, evaporation, decomposition).
🎨 Make-it: A "term gallery" of journal pages + a simple table centrepiece.
✅ Codes: AC9TE (food & nutrition) / AC9M (money, fractions) / AC9E (reflection).

▸ Do this: Make this a celebration. Cook a meal using what you grew and preserved this term, set the table with a made centrepiece, and invite family. Dig up the four buried samples and compare what rotted and what didn't. Total your wall "harvest tally" and flip back through the journals together. 🗣️ Talk about it: What surprised you most this term? What do you want to grow or try next? 🔧 Adapt it: Easier — help cook and retell one favourite moment. Harder — plan the whole meal to a set budget, doubling the recipe for guests.

Term 1 at a glance — what to gather

Seeds going to harvest, jars for preserving, a worm farm/compost bin, a pollinator-friendly seedling, bamboo + a tin for the insect hotel, a jar for the terrarium. Full list: Materials & supplies.

Curriculum codes covered this term: see Curriculum alignment → Term 1.

→ Next term: Term 2 — Soil, Seeds & Slowing Down