Year 1

We’ve had an exciting few weeks in 1C filled with learning, discovery and all the energy!

Students have been exploring the continents of the world and their unique features. We’ve learned about Africa, with its incredible wildlife and landscapes; North and Central America, with its mix of bustling cities and natural wonders; and South America, home to the Amazon Rainforest and Andes Mountains. Next week, we’ll finish our journey with a trip to Antarctica, discovering how animals and people survive in such a cold and extreme environment.

Alongside building our knowledge on the continents, we’ve been studying travel brochures—a tricky find these days! We’re learning how they inform and persuade readers and will soon be creating our own brochures about a chosen continent. Students will use their early research and reading skills to collect interesting facts to include in their writing. We’ve also been learning the names of countries in AUSLAN, which has been a fun way to connect language and geography.

Now that we’ve been introduced to all the Level 7 sounds in Phonics, we’re working on mastering them through lots of reading and writing practice. We’ve also been building our reading fluency—reading more smoothly, accurately and with confidence. This daily quick reading is really paying off, and we are sounding more fluent with every read.

In writing, our daily handwriting practice has paid off! Now we’re bringing it all together using our neatest writing to create simple, well-structured sentences that focus on correct letter formation punctuation, and placement.

In maths, we’re getting ready for Year 2 by learning more efficient strategies for addition and subtraction. We’ve been practising how to count forwards and backwards on number lines, partition numbers in different ways and solve problems using elimination and reasoning. While there have been some really tricky concepts thrown their way, maths lessons are always met with so much enthusiasm, encouragement and persistence by these little superstars! 

We celebrated World Kindness Day on November 13th, stretching it out to a week where we became Kindness Detectives! Throughout the week, we looked for classmates showing kindness through their words and actions. Each kind act was written on a slip for our Kindness Jar and read aloud, helping everyone experience what it feels like to be recognised for being kind.