Learning News 1/2

Years 1/2

I can’t believe it’s already Term 4! It’s shaping up to be a very busy term, with swimming, Grandparents’ Day, and our class running Mass this week. Our last Rewards Day was a huge success, so we’ll be holding another one this term if the class continues to work hard and receives enough compliments from adults who visit our room. I’m sure you’ve already heard that we are working towards a Water Play Day as our reward this term!

Writing

In Writing, we’ve started the term learning about poetry. This week, we explored senses poems and wrote our own about our grandparents or special friends. The students enjoyed using descriptive language to express what makes these people so special to them. We will continue to focus on poetry for the first half of the term, and then move on to researching and writing an information report about Australia to link with our Geography unit.

You can support your child’s learning in Writing by talking about poetry and information texts at home. When reading together, point out rhyming words, describing words, and how poets use their senses to create images. Encourage your child to share their own poems or write short verses about people, places, or things they love.

Later in the term, as we move into information reports, you might like to look at books or websites about Australia together. Talk about interesting facts, landmarks, animals, or symbols, and help your child practise writing simple facts in their own words.

Please make sure you read your child’s News/Talk Homework page each week — this helps them prepare for speaking tasks and builds their confidence sharing ideas in front of the class.

Mathematics

In Maths, we are learning about Forming Groups: Fractions of a Collection. Students are using the structure of equal groups to solve multiplication problems and using sharing or grouping strategies to solve division problems.

Tips for Parents

• Involve your child in cooking activities that require half or a quarter of a cup of an ingredient. They could help by half-filling the cup measure for you.
• When making sandwiches or cutting other foods, talk about how you are cutting them into halves or quarters. Use words such as half, even, equal, parts, quarters, four equal parts, and eighths.
• Involve your child in sharing food or objects equally, making sure that each person has a fair share — both halves need to be equal.