Developed in partnership with Education Services Australia

The Australian Curriculum sets the goal for what all students should learn as they progress through their school life. Skills in the Year 1-2 curriculum include:

• identifying and describing familiar events that involve chance
• identifying possible outcomes of familiar activities and events
• recognising the difference between certainty and uncertainty
• recognising that some events are more likely to happen than others
• describing the chance of events using words such as might, possible and unlikely.

It’s easy to help your child practise these skills as part of everyday life – just use these simple ideas.

Keep talking

You are already teaching your child these concepts and language by using them in your everyday conversations, so just keep it up! In particular:

• use the vocabulary of chance and certainty, such as definitely, possibly, probably, might 
  
  I’m definitely going to do the weeding today!
  
  Daddy might make dumplings this weekend.
  
  Your sister will probably be hungry after her soccer match.
• talk about the chance of things happening
  
  I wonder if we need to take an umbrella. How likely is it to rain today?
  
  We left home two minutes late, but we'll probably still be in time for the train.
• talk about what might happen in different scenarios
  
  If we go to the supermarket after school, you might be feeling tired. But if we go tomorrow, it will probably be crowded and take longer.
• talk about likelihood when you are playing games that involve chance.
  
  I need a double six to win the game, but it’s very unlikely that I’ll roll one.

Go online

For online reinforcement, Slushy sludger: yes, no, maybe will give your child practice at:

• creating combinations to create different probabilities.

The giraffe ate it will give your child practice at:

• identifying how likely different events are.

Will it rain today? will give your child practice at:

• describing the chance of events using words such as likely, unlikely, possible and impossible

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