Year 1/2–Celebrating Learning

What we have been up to: 

Students have taken a deep dive into the “improving” stage of the design process. They were given the design brief of ‘making a flying object made solely from paper and using any adhesive.’ They were asked to ‘improve’ their design and fill in a graphic organiser to help guide them through the changes they made to help it fly better. Students then got the chance to fly their plane outside. We have had a couple of ‘flying machines’ arrive at school and students have been enjoying listening to the presentations and asking lots of probing questions about the design process. It has been so exciting to see their knowledge of flying machines on display:

‘How long did it take you to make the machine?’ Quinn

‘How many times did you improve your design?’ Pip

‘Why does it fly so long?’ Daniel

Maths:

Students are loving exploring the maths topic of money and financial matters. We have been sorting and ordering Australian coins and notes and comparing the similarities and differences between these and other countries. Thank you so much for sending in your foreign coins for our money expo, it was greatly appreciated. It generated wonderful engagement, with lots of rich discussions about the differences in size, shape, weight, value, colour and even ‘worth’ in relation to our Australian dollar:

 ‘You need two Australian dollars to get one of these pound coins’ Alfie 

Getting your children to pay for things, count the coins in your purse and estimate or work out the change for any purchases, is a great way to support this unit at home. You may want to ask them what the best strategy for counting it is too:)

English:

In writing this week we have started publishing some of our most prized texts in the preparation to share them with you. Students will soon be bringing home an invitation to our writing celebration ‘Book Launch’. Keep your eyes peeled for the compass post.

Students have been excited to reach the end of all the Little Learners Love Literacy Stages. To reinforce their learning, this week we started a review of all the stages starting with Stages 1-5.  These include all the short sounds of the alphabet, double letters ll, ss, ff and blending adjacent consonants in CVC, CVCC, CCVC and CCCVC words.

This week the Year 1/2 students had their second “practise for next year” transition session. Students had another opportunity to see their potential future classrooms and participate in future year level classroom routines. 

What’s to come in the next two weeks:

Students’ flying machines, which they have been designing and creating at home over the past few weeks, are due next week (week 9). Students will bring in their flying machines and present their design to the class. They can then take questions and comments, followed by a demonstration of how high/ far they can fly or how long they stay in the air when dropped from a height. The machines so far have been awesome.

We will continue to focus on the final stage of the writer’s process, publishing in preparation.  Students will learn about the high expectations of a published piece of writing, having a ‘deadline’ and how they can ensure their published pieces are the best work that they can produce.

In our phonics sessions in week 9 and 10, we will continue reviewing sounds and spelling patterns we have been working on over the course of the year. All students benefit from a daily routine of reading and being read to at home. 

In Maths, we continue our unit exploring money- learning about purchasing and change.

Don’t forget the Fun Day happening in the last week of term. It’s great to see so many families already signed up. It should be a great day full of hip hop, hoola hooping, circus plate spinning and more. Yay! Check Compass for the event.

As we are now in term 4 and the sun is getting stronger, please remember to pack a hat for your child every day!