Ulysses 

Welcome to Grade One!

It has been a wonderful start to the year. The children are settling in beautifully and are beginning to feel confident in their new classroom environment. We have been focusing on building routines, understanding expectations, and learning how to work both independently and with others. It has been lovely to see new friendships forming and students showing care and kindness towards one another.

Reading

In Reading, we are learning a range of strategies to help us become strong, confident readers. We are practising how to look at the pictures for clues, stretch out sounds in words, reread when something does not make sense, and think about what is happening in the story. These strategies are helping students solve unknown words and understand what they are reading.

We are also working on building our reading stamina. This means training our brains to stay focused and engaged with a book for longer periods of time. The children are learning what good reading looks like and sounds like, and they are very proud of the progress they are making.

You can support your child at home by reading together each night and encouraging them to talk about the story. Asking simple questions like “What happened first?” or “Why did that happen?” helps build understanding and confidence.

Thank you for your continued support. I am looking forward to a fantastic term ahead.

Writing

In Writing, we have been learning how to build strong, clear sentences. The students are practising how to include a subject, noun, verb and adjective in their sentences. We are learning that a sentence needs to make sense and tell the reader who or what it is about, what is happening, and sometimes give extra detail to make it more interesting.

We have also started learning how to write a recount. To support this, the children watched a story and took part in a virtual tour of the zoo. This gave them a shared experience to write about. They are learning to retell events in order, using words such as first, next and last.

Throughout this unit, we are following the full writing process. Students are learning how to plan their ideas, draft their sentences, revise their work to improve it, edit for simple punctuation and spelling, and then publish their final piece. They are also drawing detailed pictures, labelling their illustrations, and writing sentences to match their drawings.

It has been wonderful to see the students becoming more confident writers and taking pride in their work. You can support your child at home by encouraging them to talk about their day and practise saying sentences out loud before writing them down.

Maths

This term we have been focusing on building strong foundations in number and understanding the world around us through mathematics.

We began by learning about the days of the week, months of year and the seasons. Students are practising putting the days in order, identifying yesterday, today and tomorrow, and recognising the four seasons and their features. This helps build their understanding of time and patterns in our everyday lives.

In Measurement, we are exploring length. The children are learning to compare objects using language such as longer, shorter and equal. They are also measuring items using informal units, such as blocks or counters, to understand that length can be measured and compared.

In Number, we are working on addition and place value. Students are learning how numbers are made up of tens and ones, and how to count forward and backward with confidence. We are practising counting by ones, twos, fives and tens to build number fluency.

To solve addition problems, the children are using different strategies such as counting on, using their fingers, drawing pictures, using number lines and making groups. We are encouraging them to explain their thinking and share the strategy they used.

It has been wonderful to see the students growing in confidence and developing a positive attitude towards Maths. You can support your child at home by practising counting, talking about the days of the week, and involving them in everyday maths such as measuring while cooking or counting items around the house.

Inquiry

his term, our learning has focused on healthy eating and building positive relationships with others. Through our immersion centres, students have been exploring what it means to make healthy food choices. They have been drawing and designing their own healthy lunchboxes, carefully selecting foods that help our bodies grow strong and stay energised. The children also took part in sorting activities where they grouped foods into healthy and unhealthy categories. We explored supermarket brochures together and discussed different food options, helping students think about everyday choices in a practical way.

Alongside healthy eating, we have been learning about positive interactions. Students are practising how to play constructively with others, share materials, take turns and solve small problems respectfully. It has been wonderful to see friendships forming and students learning how to include everyone in their play.

We are also developing skills to help us manage our emotions. The children are learning simple strategies to calm themselves, such as mindfulness breathing and quiet colouring. We regularly use emotional emojis to help students identify how they are feeling and encourage them to share their thoughts with a buddy. This is helping them build confidence in expressing their emotions in a safe and supportive way.

SEL

This term, our learning has focused on healthy eating and building positive relationships with others. Through our immersion centres, students have been exploring what it means to make healthy food choices. They have been drawing and designing their own healthy lunchboxes, carefully selecting foods that help our bodies grow strong and stay energised. The children also took part in sorting activities where they grouped foods into healthy and unhealthy categories. We explored supermarket brochures together and discussed different food options, helping students think about everyday choices in a practical way.

Alongside healthy eating, we have been learning about positive interactions. Students are practising how to play constructively with others, share materials, take turns and solve small problems respectfully. It has been wonderful to see friendships forming and students learning how to include everyone in their play.

We are also developing skills to help us manage our emotions. The children are learning simple strategies to calm themselves, such as mindfulness breathing and quiet colouring. We regularly use emotional emojis to help students identify how they are feeling and encourage them to share their thoughts with a buddy. This is helping them build confidence in expressing their emotions in a safe and supportive way.

Reminders

 Hats! Students must wear hats in Terms 1 and 4.

 Brain food - all students should have brain food (fruits and vegetables) packed in their bag.

 Home readers - should be changed on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. 

Library bags and books need to be returned on your child's library day..

The Ulysses Team.

Bree, Sunila, Emily, Namarta and Emma.