Connect: Year 1

Happy Week 6 Grade 1 Families!

As we move past the halfway point of the term, students are working harder than ever, showing incredible dedication to their learning and growth. Classrooms are filled with focus and energy as students tackle new challenges, build on their knowledge, and support one another in their academic journeys.

Key Dates:

Book Parade Photos:

The Grade 1 students had an absolute blast during the Book Week Parade! Dressed up as their favourite storybook characters, they brought their favourite books to life with colourful costumes and big smiles. The excitement was contagious as they proudly walked around, showing off their creative outfits to classmates, teachers, and families. It was wonderful to see their enthusiasm for reading shining through, and the parade helped foster a love of books and storytelling in a fun and memorable way. Everyone enjoyed celebrating the magic of stories together! Well done Grade 1's!

UPCOMING LEARNING:

LITTLE LEARNERS

Over the past week, we explored our new Stage 7.4 sounds including our split vowel diagraph 'i-e' as in 'five strikes' and 'i' as in 'find the giant'. In the next fortnight of learning we are looking at another split vowel diagraph 'e-e' as in 'delete' and 'e' as in 'me, he, she'. Then moving into identifying the 'o-e' sound as in 'best nose'.

WRITING:

The Grade 1 students will continue their work on our mentor text being Jetty Jumping by Andrea Rowe to develop key literacy skills. Through this story, students will practice constructing clear sentences that identify subjects and describe actions. They will explore the use of the conjunction and to connect ideas within sentences. To enhance narrative skills, students will use sentence starters to sequence events effectively. Additionally, they will learn how to expand simple sentences by adding descriptive details. The unit will culminate in students planning and writing their own short stories inspired by the themes and structure of Jetty Jumping.

NUMERACY:

In the next fortnight of learning students will continue to develop their understanding of our sharing and grouping unit. The unit focuses on developing a deep understanding of sharing, grouping, finding halves, and employing skip counting strategies - a crucial foundation for multiplication and division. Students have previously been taught the skill of skip counting in 2s, 5s, and 10s in the context of number tracks and counting patterns. This unit builds on those skills by making groups and applying skip counting to find the total.

3 groups of 2

2 groups of 3

 Arranging into groups and skip counting to find the total

INQUIRY:

The Grade 1 students will continue to explore the fascinating world of minibeasts! These tiny creatures—like ladybugs, ants, worms, and spiders—help us learn about nature and how living things grow and live. Through hands-on activities and outdoor investigations, students are observing minibeasts closely, asking questions, and sharing what they discover. This unit encourages curiosity, respect for living things, and helps build important science and literacy skills as students describe the minibeasts and their habitats.

Wellbeing:

Over the next fortnight, the Grade 1 students are continuing their learning about character strengths—qualities like kindness, courage, and honesty that help us be good friends and classmates. We are also focusing on building respectful relationships by using these strengths every day. By understanding and practicing our strengths, students learn how to care for others, work together, and create a happy and safe classroom community.

Dojo Awards: 

Congratulations to the following students for earning 150 Dojo points and earning their silver awards! The following student names will be read out during this week's assembly. Hope to see you there!

1A

Ameilia Augelli

Hannah Wilmink

Harper Patton 

Layla D'Silva-Fink 

Leo Ebden 

1B

Lacey Verschuren

Oliver Price

Elisabeth Lomas

Brooklyn Kristeff

Lucas Jones

Zahra Hallaby

Logan Fenollar

Louie Emmitt

Scarlett Coulson

Quinn Besim

Noah Chisholm

1C

Lucas Crotty

Jayden Khim

Phoenix Greenbury

Krish Sihu

Sanjana Vivekanandan

Cherlyn Na

Leonidas Triantafillou

Charlotte Rabson

Aya Broad

Angus Filliponi

1D

Colby Brown

Jackson Dodd

Samritha Vivekanandan

Sophie Bridges 

Tallulah Langdon-Prentice

Zoe Antunovic

Charlie Hind 

1E

Zavier Barnard

Have a lovely fortnight!

Ash, Michelle, Anisa, Fiona and Julieanne