Learning In My Level

Level 1 

The Level 1 students have had so many rich learning experiences this term. We asked what the students have enjoyed about this term. Here are some of their responses: 

‘Counting forwards and back. I love to challenge myself’- Sam 

‘Learning new skip counting patterns. I am practising counting in 4s’-Maisie 

‘Learning about addition and subtraction’- Jessica 

‘I like reading because it is good for mindfulness’- Isabelle 

‘Writing stories because we get to use our imagination and ideas’- Orlando, Natalie and Charlie 

‘Reading new books in the classroom’- Sarah 

‘Making and painting our cars’- Joel 

‘Doing mindfulness as part of the Resilience Project’- Estelle 

‘Learning new words to use in writing’- Zoe 

‘Playing whole class games’- Baylee and Eileen 

‘When we went swimming, especially going on the inflatables’- Jobe and Sam 

‘Learning how to stay safe online in our Cyber Safety incursion’- Eva 

‘Learning about Indigenous Australians on Sorry Day’- Isabelle 

Literacy

For Reading sessions, we have been learning about the need to visualise and predict when reading. During this term students participated in a variety of activities to help improve their use of different reading strategies. We have continued to unpack different elements of the ‘CAFE’ model, which focuses on Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding Vocabulary. Some of the skills students have been learning are rereading to check for understanding and chunking letters and sounds. Every student has a goal based on one of the skills in these four areas of the CAFÉ model, which are recorded in their home reading diaries. In this photo are some of the favourite books 1G have read this term.  

We have many parents coming to the classrooms to listen and support students with their reading. Thank you so much for your support with this program. The importance of developing reading accuracy for Year 1 students cannot be understated. You are making a huge difference!  

We are incorporating explicit phonics teaching each week through our Little Learners Love Literacy program. Students continue to practise learning their words from the weekly spelling list. 

This term, we are writing narratives and have learnt how to describe characters and settings, create a problem and solution, write an interesting opening as well as using interesting words. Every student has a writing goal recorded in their home reading diaries. 

Earlier this term students made a special effort to deliver an interesting presentation on a topic they are an expert in. It was great to hear students talk about such diverse interests in their life: sunflowers, dinosaurs, space, cars etc. We were so proud of their efforts and achievements. 

Mathematics 

In Maths we have had lots of experience counting forwards and backwards in 1s, as well as skip counting in 2s, 5s and 10s. We have been playing lots of Maths games in our units of work on Addition and Subtraction. The open afternoon during Education Week provided an opportunity for our students to play some of these games with each other and their family members. We have been learning the importance of using different strategies to add and subtract. Here are some examples: 

Inquiry 

The students have participated in weekly Inquiry rotations every Monday based around the Education Week topic, ‘Move, Make and Motivate’. Last term, students were surveyed to discover their interests and the Year 1 team of teachers put together a selection of hands-on activities to engage our students in the topics they expressed an interest in. These included making origami, exercise and the human body, making animal puppets and using the coding app ScratchJr.  

At the beginning of the term, students had the opportunity to participate in a CraftPower incursion where they made their own moving car using different tools and painted it afterwards. I think it’s fair to say they had great fun! 

The Level 1 team