Level 1

Inquiry

Our level one students have had a very busy time during the last two weeks.

“Spot the Difference”, our Inquiry unit about chemical changes has been amazing. Working towards our Expo last Thursday saw the children researching experiments, planning what they would need to perform them, and making sure they knew what to do. As part of our Literacy program children wrote a procedural text which they used to do their experiments, and wrote a short script for their performance. On the day, I’m sure you will agree that our students performed very well indeed. They have loved the ‘Hands-on’ approach to their learning and have embraced the Scientific procedure and the thinking strategies that accompany it. We have a lot of budding scientists within our school. 

Literacy

As our Literacy program for the Year one students concludes, we have taken on a new novel which we are reading together and adopting a ‘Book Club’ approach. The students are loving the book and have been busy making predictions, summarising, being ‘Word Wizards’ and Quiz Masters. They are engaging in deep conversations with their peers, contributing their thoughts and giving evidence for their thinking. They make connections and will be illustrating parts of the story. 

Numeracy

In Maths we have been studying location skills and mapping, which has linked into the novel we are reading, drawing maps of Elmer’s journey and the Island he visits. Students have been learning how to recognise the key features of a map, compass points and the conventions associated with maps. 

Junior Athletics Carnival

Last Friday our Junior students spent the day participating in the House Athletics carnival. It was a very hot day, but the students were undeterred. They could be seen participating enthusiastically in a huge range of events and were obviously enjoying themselves. Level one students were treated to a frozen Zooper Dooper at the end of the day, kindly donated by one of the parents. 

There has been much excitement in the classrooms with the arrival of some rather naughty elves who have been up to all sorts of mischief, including throwing books all around the rooms, throwing toys on the floor, hiding the TV remote and writing some very badly spelt messages all over our whiteboards. They could do with some handwriting lessons, that’s for sure.

In the last weeks we have been visiting the level Two rooms and teachers. We are now looking forward to enjoying the last two weeks of the year as level one students. Time has certainly flown. But there is still so much to look forward to. We will be getting our reports, and finally finding out who will be teaching us next year. We will be taking home our books and property throughout the last two weeks rather than leaving it till the last day. We had the Twilight concert on Monday, and our class party as well as Kris Kringle on Thursday 19th December.

The Level One teachers would like to thank you for the support you have given your child during the year. It has been a pleasure to be a part of their lives and a privilege to be entrusted with their learning.  We hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season and look forward to seeing the children back ready for the next adventure.