Wave Behaviour Vocabulary
Your child can use science words for light and sound. They can explain why a straw looks bent in water, and what happens when a sound bounces back as an echo.
In curriculum terms
Use technical vocabulary for wave behaviour — refraction, absorption, reflection, scattering, amplitude, frequency, wavelength, echo, spectrum, angle of incidence, angle of reflection — and apply these when explaining how light and sound travel and interact with different materials
Ages are typical, not deadlines — follow your child’s pace. How to help at home →
How to tell they’ve got it
Tick these off as you see them — no test required.
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Try this together
Can your child explain why a straw looks bent in a glass of water using a proper science word — or tell you what's actually happening when you hear an echo?
Where this sits on the map
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solid = must come firstdashed = helps
Curriculum alignment
Where this fits in the official school curriculum — our best automated guess, not yet checked by a person.
This skill sits outside the F–6 Australian Curriculum — no candidate code matched (v0.1). No NSW K–6 outcome code matched (v0.1). No Victorian Curriculum 2.0 code matched (v0.1).