What's happening in 1/2?
Year 1/2SM has had a fantastic start to the year. We have established routines, built connections, had many great learning experiences and a whole lot of fun.
One highlight from this term was the Harmony Day Haunted House. The 1/2 students loved taking turns hiding under tables, grabbing legs and moving decorations to scare our guests. It was a lot of fun and we even managed to scare Mrs Carlei!
Gardening
Students have also enjoyed working in the garden with Mrs Simic. Last week students took turns watering the plants, picking leaves to make tea and learning about autumn vegetables.
Integrated Studies
Our focus this term has been all about Our Family History and how to find out more information about our family history. We are also learning about the traditions for our favourite family celebrations and what makes an event special.
In weeks 7-8 students learnt about how special objects can help us remember special events. We read a book, Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge, which is about a boy who collects special items to help an old lady remember stories from her past. Then, last Thursday students each brought in a special item or photo of their own to talk about their own important memory. It was great to see how these special items not only helped to trigger students’ individual memories but also invoked other classmates' memories and inspired lots of rich discussion. All of the children spoke clearly and confidently, and they were so happy to share their stories.
Religion
In Religion we have been learning about Our Connection to God through images, prayer and stories. Students thoroughly enjoyed creating artworks that showed their personal image of God. It was so lovely to see how each student saw God in a different way and some students created images from their different religion.
We have been fortunate to spend some of our Religion lessons and prayer sessions with the Preps. It has been lovely to come together as a whole Junior School group to pray, worship and learn about God.
Our Shrove Tuesday Pancake Session was a favourite highlight of the term and I am sure it will be a special memory for all of the junior school students.
Last week the Junior School students spent the afternoon talking about and creating self-portraits to show how Jesus lives in our hearts. The display looks fabulous and I encourage everyone to have a look when you walk by.
We have started preparations for our Holy Week presentation. This year we will be performing the story of Palm Sunday as a whole Junior School group.
Mathematics
Recently students have been learning Financial Maths. They have enjoyed learning about and exploring Australian money as well as looking at money from other countries.
Students completed coin rubbings of Australian coins and foreign coins then compared the different features. We explored the different images on Australian notes and coins and discussed how the size of coins does not correlate to their value. We then moved on to adding collections of coins using skip counting strategies and addition skills and using coins to make a specific total. Students looked at catalogues to choose items; they had to combine their money knowledge with their addition skills to work out the different coin/note combinations that they could use to purchase their item.
Writing
Our writing sessions have been abuzz with excitement and creativity as students have been working on their own Narrative pieces. We began by looking at provocation images to help spark creative thinking and story ideas, before students began brainstorming their own ideas. We then chose our favourite ideas and began planning our stories.
Students had to plan their characters and story setting, as well as the beginning, middle and end of their story. We looked at different ways to start a story such as, writing a description of the character and/or setting, beginning the story with a question or using dialogue to enhance the reader’s interest. Students have been busily drafting their stories and they will go through a process of revising and editing before completing their final copies. We hope to create a whole class book full of our amazing stories.
Our writing lessons have also been linked to our Storybook reading lessons and even our Religion lessons as we explored the features of texts and discussed beginning, middle and end of different picture books and parables.
I have had such a great time working with all of these amazing children and I am sure we will have many more get experiences together.
Ms Shanlan Moore
Year 1 & 2 Teac