Year 1 Spotlight

Too Fast!

As we were reflecting on how our year had been, the children in 1D ‘complained’ that the year had gone so quickly. I said to them, “Yes, time flies when you have fun!”. As we are getting closer to the end of the year, the children have shown great independence and enthusiasm towards their learning. We are very proud of how far they have come this year and looking forward to celebrating our year with the Melbourne Zoo excursion. We wish them all the best for next year.

Literacy

This term in reading and phonics, students have been asking questions, building prior knowledge, searching for information, and expanding their vocabulary during reading sessions. We have been focusing on the ‘oo’ and ‘yoo’ sounds made by a variety of graphemes, including ue as in blue, u-e as in rude, ew as in blew, ue as in Tuesday, and u-e as in tune.

We have enjoyed incorporating adjectives into our descriptive writing and learning about the four different types of sentences: commands, exclamations, questions, and statements. We have also been creating our own narratives. We have focussed on writing in the correct structure, including an orientation, a problem and a solution.

Below are some snippets of Year 1 writing.

“In my orientation, there’s an emu on a toilet eating Oreos. Emu is friends with Pocket, they work together at the zoo. In my problem, Pocket breaks out of the zoo and gets lost in the woods.”

~ Eska 1A

“In my orientation, there are three characters. Their names are Mercat, Merwolf and Mermaid. They all live in the Great Barrier Reef. One day there was a big noise. There was something coming to get them. It was a big net!”

~ Arlo O, 1A

Maths

Students have enjoyed working on fractions to show halves and quarters, using shapes and collections to demonstrate equal parts. We have also been learning about the probability of events, describing outcomes as "will happen," "won't happen," or "might happen."

Last week we compared containers to see which container would hold more liquid. First we put the containers in order from smallest to largest. Then we checked by measuring the amount of liquid each container could hold. Some of us were surprised that a tall skinny container held less than a short wide container.

“Measuring volume was really fun. We put water in cups and compared which cup held more.”

~ Ruby, 1B

“We measured different containers by pouring water in them. Then we measured the water in a measuring jug to see which held more.”

~ Julius, 1B

For our Launch, Explore, Summarise lesson, the children had to design a cylinder container that could hold 15 “blueberries” (we used the small MAB blocks as fake blueberries). After “sweaty brain time”, students trialled and tested their containers until its volume was exactly 15 blueberries. There were lots of proud children at the end of the lesson.

Inquiry

This term, Year 1 students had a fantastic time at the Create It incursion, where they worked in small groups to design, make, and present an arcade-style game. They had the choice to make a Plinker, Maze, Basketball Shooter, or Ring Toss.

Quotes from the incursion:

We made arcade games. It was really fun! I would love to keep making these! ~ Ted, 1A
I liked it. We made arcade games like ring toss and it was pretty fun. I learnt about different machines and new ones. I liked how we made it and built it. ~ Francis, 1A
It was amazing to see everyone’s games that they made out of recycled materials. Ours was a ball maze. You pushed the ball with a straw or your finger. ~ Vivienne, 1B
We made a ring toss, using a box, straws and cardboard rings. It was fun! ~ Hugo, 1B
We made a ball maze and it was really fun. We got to pick out materials to make it. We used cardboard and tape. We moved the box around to make the ball move. ~ Quinn, 1B

Remembrance Day

On the 11th of November we remembered all the people who have fought and died in the war. We listened to the Last Post and had one minute of silence to remember them. We talked about Armistice Day, another name for Remembrance Day, and made a wreath of poppies.

Student reflections:

We remembered the soldiers who protected us. ~ Senna, 1B
We have Remembrance Day for people who have fought in the war. ~ Henry, 1B
They sell poppies for Remembrance Day and at 11 o’clock they play the Last Post so we can remember them. ~ Ruby, 1B
Remembrance Day is also called Armistice Day because World War 1 ended on this day. They wear red poppies to remember all the soldiers who fought in wars because red poppies grow wild in the fields where the war was fought. ~ Salina, 1B
We remembered the soldiers who fought in the war. ~ Chipper, 1B

~ Year 1 Teachers (Chiara, Anne, Tam, Binh, Prue & Grace) and Students