Grade 1 News
Important Reminders
All important dates and events are on our Compass Calendar, please check the calendar regularly to stay up to date!
Library
Please refer to the timetable below of which day each class is going to the library. Please ensure your child has their library bag so they can borrow weekly.
Please remember to send your child's take-home folder to school.
A few upcoming dates
25/2: Meet the Teacher Night 1
26/2: Meet the Teacher Night 2
28/2: House Cross Country
10/3: Labour Day Public Holiday
4/4: Last Day of Term 1
Production dates:
Tuesday 2nd September
Wednesday 3rd September
Homework
For homework in Grade 1 the expectation is that students will read their take-home book to an adult each day. Every student will receive a new book from their classroom on a Monday. Students will need to return their previous book before receiving a new book.
Here are some optional activities:
Learning in Action
Literacy
In Literacy this fortnight, students continued consolidating CVCC and CCVCC words through our Word Work decoding and spelling program. They practised applying the sounds ‘th’, ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘ph’, ‘wh’, ‘ng’ and learnt new digraphs ‘ir’, ‘ur’ and ‘er’.
Students also began practising their individual reading goals by learning and practising activities to support them in moving through the goals. They have also continued practising their fluency partner reading to improve their ability to read their texts fluently.
Our Literature Units this fortnight explored the big idea of overcoming challenges and how these are a normal part of life and we can overcome challenges in different ways. Students engaged in the texts ‘Mr Huff’ and ‘Florette’ to consider these ideas.
In Writing, our focus was on editing sentences for boundary punctuation and expanding simple sentences to include an adverbial ‘when’ and ‘where’. Students explored the purpose of capital letters, full stops, exclamation marks and question marks and practised editing sentences to include appropriate punctuation. Students also brainstormed adverbial when and where phrases and applied this skill by including them to expand a simple sentence. Eg. The dog swam at the beach on Monday.
Grade 1’s have also been working hard on their handwriting skills and this fortnight we practised writing the letters t, l, h, h, b, d, f and z on the correct lines.
Preview of learning:
In the coming weeks, students will continue to practise their decoding and spelling of CCVCC words with new digraphs and their individual reading goals. Our Literature Unit will explore the idea of ‘Actions have consequences’ and we will engage in three texts to support this understanding. In Writing, students will learn about adjectives and include these in sentences to add detail. Students will also continue practising their handwriting skills through new weekly letters.
Numeracy
In Maths this fortnight, students have been learning how to represent numbers in multiple ways. This has included using concrete materials, tens frames, exploring before and after numbers, tally marks and counters. Through this exploration, students were able to connect number names to numerals and recall what a numeral looks like in different ways on their ‘Think Board’.
In Maths Investigations, students have utilised their prior knowledge on the topic of Length to work collaboratively in groups to measure one another using icy pole sticks. Students were then asked to describe their own length in relation to the members of their group using the language of ‘shorter than’, ‘longer than’ and ‘equal to’. In problem-solving, students explored the concept that problems can have more than one answer. This was modelled by the teacher, who had modelled having 2 colour counters and making the number 16 as many ways as possible, for example, 10 and 6, 8 and 8. Students then practised this concept using the number 20.
Preview of learning: Students will learn to count forwards and backwards from any number by 1’s. Following on from this, students will count forwards from any two-digit number and then from any starting point on a 100’s chart. They will repeat the same notion for counting backwards.
Inquiry
Over the past fortnight, students have been learning about what makes a healthy person. We have been brainstorming choices that help us stay healthy, and identifying some actions that a healthy person would do. We zoomed in on physical health and brainstormed ways that a person can be active.
Preview of learning: Over the next fortnight we will be focusing on nutrition and mental health, and the students will be experiencing a variety of activities that can support these areas of wellbeing.
Wellbeing
Learning in Action
Over the past fortnight, students have been learning how to name their feelings by assigning colours to different emotions. This supports students in valuing and understanding both positive and negative emotions. Additionally, students have been learning some strategies to make new friends, including introducing themselves and different ways to ask someone to play with them.
Preview of learning: Over the next fortnight, students will be learning more basics of friendships, including what trust and respect look like in a friendship and noticing the difference between healthy and unhealthy friendships.
From the Grade 1 teachers,
Ms Holmes, Miss Albanese, Mrs Reynolds and Mrs Ryan
Mathematics Hub
This guide describes what children learn in maths at school in Grade One. They will give you some ideas for games and activities you can play at home to help your child learn.
