Year One

Dear Year One Families,  

We are excited to share with you everything we have been learning in the past week!  

Reading: 

In Reading, students have been exploring different non-fiction texts and have been practising the comprehension strategies of “summarising” and “questioning.” Students used the 5Ws to guide their understanding and share what they have read; the 5Ws stand for who, what, where, when, and why. Students also learned about the 'long A sound' and identified all the different letter combinations that can make that sound.  

Please ensure that students are reading their take-home readers each night and are bringing them in to change each week!  

Writing: 

In Writing, students have been learning to write an information report. An information report is a non-fiction text that gives us facts about a specific topic. This week, we used our summaries from Reading to write an information report on the Earth. Each report included an introduction, as well as body paragraphs to describe the appearance, location, and size of our planet.  

Don’t forget that students are expected to practice their spelling words each night by completing one of the activities from the 'Word Work Choice Board'. The choice board can be found at the front of students' homework books.  

Maths: 

In Maths, students have been doing lots of hands-on activities! They explored the capacity of different containers using water or materials in our classrooms. Capacity is the amount that a container can hold. In Year 1, we use informal units to measure how much a container can hold – for example, cups of water, or handfuls of unifix blocks. As a challenge, some students also looked at formal metric units like litres and millilitres. 

Inquiry: 

During Inquiry, students reflected on their knowledge of space and came up with wonderings that they would like to inquire into. Some of their wonderings included:  

• “How big is space?” 
• “How many stars are in the universe?” 
• “Can you jump on the moon?” 
• “How many dwarf planets are there?” 
• “How many astronauts have landed on the moon?” 
• “How many Earths can fit into Jupiter and Saturn?” 

After identifying their wonderings, students started furthering their knowledge of our new central idea: Earth is part of an interconnected system. They identified the different planets in the solar system by learning the mnemonic ‘My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nachos’.  

Mini-Olympics 

On Friday, students also had their Year 1 Mini-Olympics! Everyone had a fantastic time! Students were risk-takers, by participating in six different activities, and principled by following the rules of the activities. 

Some general reminders: 

• Doors are opened at 8:20 AM and classes start at 8:30 AM, please obtain a late pass from the office after 8:40 AM. 
• Fully charged iPads should be brought to school every day. 
• Hats are compulsory for Term Four. No hat, no play. 
• Homework expectations – students should be doing daily reading (take-home readers, PM readers and Reading Eggs) and their spelling homework. Check with your child’s teacher if you require clarification around this. 
• Dismissal is at 2:40 PM - we ask that you please do not wait on the verandas for your child. This helps keep the area free of additional congestion. We appreciate your understanding on this matter.