Grade 1
Reading
In Week 1, grade 1 students explored some interesting sounds: ear, eer, air, and are. They practiced words like ear, cheer, hair, and beware—learning how these special vowel combinations make unique sounds. Through fun reading activities and games, students got comfortable spotting and sounding out these patterns in words.
In Week 2, we focused on the tricky letters ‘c’ and ‘g’ when they make the soft /s/ and /j/ sounds! We practiced words with ‘c’ followed by e, i, y (like cent, city, cycle) and ‘g’ followed by e, i, y (like giraffe, giant, gym). The children enjoyed playing games that helped them remember these special sounds and use them when reading and spelling.
The enthusiasm and progress have been wonderful to see—keep encouraging your child to listen for these sounds in everyday words.
Maths
Students have had a great start to Term 4, engaging in a range of mathematical concepts through hands-on and collaborative activities.
In Week 1, the focus was on data collection and representation. As a class, students discussed different types of questions, identifying those that give yes/no answers, those that elicit numerous possible answers, and those suitable for gathering data. They conducted a class fruit survey, recording responses using tally marks to determine the most and least popular fruits, and then created a picture graph to display the results. To extend their learning, students designed their own survey, gathered data using tally marks, and answered questions based on their findings.
In Week 2, students focused on location and movement. They used ordinal numbers to identify positions and followed verbal and written instructions that used location words, such as "front," "back," "left," and "right." In groups, they used coloured blocks to practise changing positions accurately and discussed strategies to check their order. Students participated in an obstacle course activity, working in pairs to provide each other with verbal instructions to navigate the pathways. They then wrote step-by-step instructions using symbols and words and drew the paths to match — applying their learning to solve location problems in a fun and practical way.
Writing
The Year 1s have had a wonderful start to Term 4! During Week 1, we focused on revising our key writing skills. Students began with Holiday Writing, sharing their favourite memories from the break and turning their ideas into super sentences using capital letters, full stops, and interesting vocabulary. We also revisited how to use the conjunction ‘and’ to join ideas together, and practised writing both informative and narrative texts independently through our cold writes.
In Week 2, our writing lessons were inspired by the picture book Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker. Students explored the layers of a story by identifying what was real and what was imagined, and practised writing both statements and questions about the text. We focused on noticing patterns in the story that helped us predict how the characters might feel or what they might do next. The week finished with a narrative cold write, where students applied their knowledge of punctuation, conjunctions, and sentence structure to create their own imaginative stories.
Additional Subjects
Over the first 2 weeks of Term 4, students have been continuing their Geography unit and discussing how we can take care of our local environment and how to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Students went on a rubbish hunt around the school and discussed whether the materials they found could be recycled or not. In Respectful Relationships, we have been exploring gender norms and stereotypes. The students have been learning to understand their own interests and how they can be similar or different to others and why it's important to not label interests to simply boys or girls things. In the library the students have been introduced to book genres and have been looking into fairy tales and fables and what makes them interesting and different to other books.
Reptiles Incursion- Term 3
In the last week of Term 3, the Year 1s enjoyed an exciting Reptile Encounters incursion! Students learned lots of interesting facts about a range of reptiles, their habitats, and the physical features that help them survive in the wild. A special highlight was getting up close with some of the animals and even having the chance to hold or touch them! It was a fun, hands-on experience to end the term. Enjoy some photos of our brave students meeting their scaly new friends!
