We are kind to our minds

Maths

In Term 1, students will be learning about number, place value and length. They will be applying their knowledge to solve problematised situations. In Term 2, the focus will be on number, place value and mass. 

German 

Al classes have one German lesson per week in our Languages room with Frau Edwards.  In German lessons, students use language in context through familiar routines, games, songs and repetition.  They exchange greetings and information making connections between English and German.  A range of learning experiences allow students to gain confidence using the language.  

Knowing about language and relating it to the students own experiences helps them to make connections that link to every day literacy.  Words can look similar but sound different, questions marks are used, nouns have capital letters in German.  Language learning also lends itself to cultural awareness, making comparisons not only with Australia and Germany but also  individual student's cultural backgrounds and experiences.

Characters (puppets) visiting from Germany, Felix (a frog) and Franzi (a duck) play a key role in encouraging the students to use the language to communicate.

Please encourage your child(ren) to tell you about what they have been learning in German. See what they can teach you!  

The Arts 

Each class will spend 6 weeks focussing on each subject from the arts: Drama, Dance, Media Arts, Visual Arts and Music. 

English

Students will be taught skills to help them to understand what they are reading. In Semester 1, the main strategies taught  will be activating prior knowledge (thinking about what we already know about a topic), predicting and making connections (connecting what we have seen, done or know to what we are reading about). Every 3 weeks, a sheet will come home in the Reading Toolkit  to show you the reading comprehension strategy that we are focussing on in class and this will help you to talk with your child about their reading and comprehension. Students are expected to read every night and to complete the Premier’s Reading Challenge. Students need to continue to practise high frequency (star) words at home and share their progress with the teacher until they know how to read all 25 pages of words confidently.

In Semester 1, the genre writing focuses will be explanation (explaining how something happens) and exposition (persuading someone to agree with your point of view).

Students also participate in Bookmaking. During Bookmaking, they are able to choose which genre they wish to use, eg narrative, information text and be an author. Students think of a story, draw pictures to tell it, write words to tell it and then share it with an adult. We encourage students to have a go at writing words independently using the sounds they have learnt. They also use their knowledge of high frequency words from their reading. Literacy mats and other resources are available to help students to find the spelling of sounds and common words. Teachers conference with students to build their skills as an author, helping them to listen to sounds in words, use interesting language, use punctuation, etc.

Targeted workshops 

This year students will participate in two workshops, where all year 1/2 students will be grouped according to what they need to learn. Therefore, students are likely to be working with another teacher and students who are not in their class. The 2 targeted workshops will be Word Study and My Maths.

Word Study

Word Study workshops will happen on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays this year. In Word Study, instead of memorising lists of words, students learn skills that will help them to spell, understand and use many words, such as learning about long and short vowel sounds, blends (2 consonants together, such as br and sk) endings and other spelling patterns.

My Maths

In the My Maths workshops, students will be increasing their understanding of place value and additive strategies. These workshops will occur on Mondays and Tuesdays, starting around the middle of the term. Skills taught will include subitising (recognising how many without counting), counting, adding and subtracting numbers using a range of strategies and naming the hundreds, tens and ones in a number. These skills will help students to be confident to use numbers efficiently when solving problems.

IT 

Year 1s and 2s have access to Chromebooks and ipads. Each student has their own Google Chrome account and will be learning or revising how to create, name and share documents and organise their learning.