Year 1 News
Reading
In Reading, students have been learning how to make predictions before and during reading. They used the images and words on the front cover, along with their own prior knowledge, to make smart guesses about the story. They have also been working on breaking words into chunks when reading, helping students become more confident and fluent readers. Students are learning to apply their knowledge of phonemes and graphemes, identify digraphs (two letters that make one sound), find smaller words inside bigger words, and blend sounds together to read smoothly. You can support this at home by encouraging your child to predict what a book might be about and to sound out tricky words as they read.
“Chunking helps me to read faster”- Darcie 1A“I love making predictions.”- Aman 1A
Writing
In Writing, our students have been diving into Procedural Writing, where they learn to craft clear, step-by-step instructions. Recently, the students have been focusing on writing about everyday tasks, including how to tie shoelaces, how to make a bed and how to set the table. They have been bringing a lot of previous knowledge to this topic as well as learning new skills. The students have been focusing on the language that is used in this particular writing style and how this will help when giving instructions to others. Please give the time to practise these skills at home as well, they are very excited to show you what they have been learning.
“Procedure writing is good for writing how to do things” - Alana 1B
Maths
Last week Year 1 finished the topic Positional Language by working with Beebots to navigate them around the room, avoiding obstacles. They used all of the language that they have learned throughout the term so far to design a plan, using the Beebots, adjusting the plan and trying again. They worked extremely hard with the members of their team to become successful.
This week Year 1 has been learning about data representation. They have really enjoyed working out how information can be collected, represented and analysed.
The students have been learning to represent data using tally marks , symbols, dots and stickers.
They have been working on understanding which method is the most effective in different scenarios.
The students also explored how to interpret the data that they gathered. Answering questions like; which category has the most votes, which has the fewest, what is the difference between the highest and lowest votes, how many votes are there altogether?
“I am getting better at using the Bee Bots because we practised the directions in Maths.”- Sophia 1A
“I like finding out what my friends like.”- Shumail 1A
Inquiry
This week, Year 1 has been continuing with the topic Features of Places, both natural and made. Ahead of our trip to the creek, we were learning about the natural and man features we might see on the way there and at the location. We were discussing how to stay responsible when we are there and what we need to do to look after the environment around us.
“I was looking at all the natural features on my way home from school.”- Hafsa 1A
Social and Emotional Learning
Learning how to stay focused during lessons is an important skill that our Year 1 students are practicing each day. Through fun activities, mindfulness exercises and classroom discussions, they are learning strategies to help them to listen carefully to instructions, complete their tasks with attention and care and avoid distractions.
Special Event
To celebrate Mother's Day, our Year 1 students created beautiful, personalised cards for someone special at home. They practised staying focused during the activity, carefully drawing, decorating and writing special messages. We took this opportunity to create a cross curricular link and develop their procedural writing skills, making sure that they followed the particular steps that they created themselves, to complete the card.
Year 1 also attended the Mother's Day stalls. This was a lovely opportunity to practise buying items and receiving change, while also getting a gift for someone special.
