Year 1/2

Year 1/2 Cluster News 

HARMONY DAY: 

As part of our commitment to celebrating the rich cultural diversity within our school community, we invite you to complete this short survey about your family’s cultural background and your child’s sense of belonging at school. Your insights will help us ensure that every student feels seen, valued and included. We are also seeking parent support for our upcoming Harmony Day celebrations and would love to know if you are able to contribute in any way. Thank you for partnering with us as we continue to nurture a welcoming and inclusive community for all. 

Family Cultural Background, Languages and Harmony Day Survey  – Fill in form 

1/2AK: 

Mrs. Arnold is still at school on Thursday but will be working in other classes.  

Mrs. Samantha Ridley will be taking the class on this day. The children have had her already earlier in the year. 

Home Inquiry   

How We Express Ourselves: Spend some time together being creative – bake, draw, play with Lego, build in the sand. Talk about how you were creative and if you had to share ideas to make it work.  

Reading: every night for 10-15 minutes. At home, please listen to your child read the decodable books and ask the ‘check for understanding’ questions at the back. The ‘Interest books' with coloured round stickers on the front may need to be read together or some children can read all of the text to you. 

Word Study: videos to support the focus of the week 

Week 7 

Year 1: short o e.g. on, box, dot, hop 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcy9iR1ZRbc 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qFNtt51iQg 

 Year 2: long ‘o’ (oa, o_e,) e.g. boat, note 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZHn2UhrLZM 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vO7Kyd7rHY  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRft_i-5Oxo 

Mental Computation ideas  

Counting in 5s: https://youtu.be/KKg0eu9_fsM?si=R0tW_7MJcdaSpK6P      

Counting in 2s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCxvNtrcDIs    

Counting in 10s forwards and backwards: https://youtu.be/7stosHbZZZg?si=g1KUrdpRuq8YCo0z    

Weekly Timetable – 1/2 Classes 

 Learning for Week 6 and 7 

Christian Studies; 

We are inquiring into how Christians make decisions, which links to the previous Unit of Inquiry: Who We Are. Students are reading and discussing stories from the Bible where people made decisions e.g. The Good Samaritan, Jonah and the whale. 

Grammar Focus 

Year 1: sentences and capital letters 

Year 2: speech marks and question marks 

Writer’s Workshop: Students are bookmaking with a focus on looking at what ideas we have and how to use them to craft stories. We are also continuing to focus on what a mini lesson is and conferencing time. We are coming together for celebration time with our buddies to share our learning.  

Readers Workshop: Students practice reading independently and reading with a partner. We are also exploring fiction and non-fiction books. We are coming together for celebration time with our buddies to share our learning. 

Mathematics:  

Year 1 and 2: Understanding Place Value through expanded notation e.g. 567 = 500 + 60 + 7 

Year 1: Exploring shapes through comparing and classifying familiar objects. 

Year 2: Exploring shapes and using spatial terms including words like curved and straight.  

Unit of Inquiry: How We Express Ourselves 

We are continuing with our Unit of Inquiry and exploring where we get ideas from and how we communicate ideas for feedback. We are also exploring the concept of perspective and how we can have different points of view as we are creating.  

Other Reminders 

Bag Tags 

It is useful for students to have a bag tag to identify their bag. Please only put one bag tag on and make sure it is not a special one that will be missed if it is lost as we are not able to monitor this. 

Each day students need to bring the following. Please label everything.  

• hats – these will remain at school for the term. GGOSH have spare hats if needed. 

• Take Home Bags which are also for Library borrowing. 

• water bottles  

• a fruit snack 

• recess 

• lunch 

Lunch Boxes 

Please pack a substantial lunch rather than lots of recess snacks and put an ice pack in on hot days as the lunches remain in school bags outside. We also ask that you send in ‘nude food’ which does not include wrappers. 

Take Home books 

Take Home Folders need to be at school each day, particularly Mondays for borrowing/changing 2-3 Interest books to read with an adult. Decodable books are sent home for your child to read to you. We encourage re-reading each page until it is fluent. Please ask the understanding questions at the back of the book.  

During the week, we listen to children and change decodable books which your child will be able to read. 

On Thursdays the Take Home Folders are needed for Library borrowing.  

Shoelaces 

Please make sure your child can do up shoelaces themselves. Another option is shoes with Velcro or using the stretchy laces until they learn this skill.  

Canteen 

Please remind your child not to buy items for others from the canteen. 

Family Photos 

Please continue to send or email these to us for a class display. 

Toddle 

We post important information reminders, student learning, photos/videos, and assessments on this platform. Please contact the office if you are not connected. 

Volunteers 

During the year we have excursions, a Year 1 Sleepover and a Year 2 Camp.  

If you are interested in volunteering, you need to have the following checks up to date. Please do not volunteer unless you have these already. Contact the office if you have any questions. 

• Working With Children Check (WWCC)  
• Responding to Abuse, Harm and Neglect training (RRHAN-EC)  
• Valuing Safe Communities (VSC) training 

https://www.goldengrove.sa.edu.au/parent-portal/volunteering/  

School Calendar:   

https://www.goldengrove.sa.edu.au/calendar/  

May God bless your week, 

Lauren Hall and Melanie Arnold 

Lauren Hall Hall.lauren@goldengrove.sa.edu.au 

Melanie Arnold: Arnold.melanie@goldengrove.sa.edu.au 

Tim Kriewaldt kriewaldt.tim@goldengrove.sa.edu.au 

Ellen Zimmer zimmer.ellen@goldengrove.sa.edu.au