1/2 A Mainstream 

Integrated- What we have been up to: 

What a fabulous community turnout for our 1/2 Light and Sound Shadow Puppet Show. The students were so excited to share their learning of light and sound and retells with you all. Thank you to everyone who attended. We filmed the movies and I am presently putting them together into one film to present at the Arts Festival next term. After that I will look into making a QR code so everyone can download a copy of their child’s retell.

Over the past week the 1/2 students have also enjoyed participating in the Learning to Swim Program at Ivanhoe Aquatic Centre. Students worked with their appointed instructor to build skills and become stronger and better swimmers. On the last day they had organised fun things to do as a group where they could put all the different skills they had learnt to the test. 

As the term winds up, Year 1/2 classes are finishing off the integrated focus on ‘Light and Sound’. Children have been running experiments and making lots of sounds themselves because they are so excited about the holidays! 

Next term we will be investigating chemical reactions! Watch out for more information coming early next term.

Maths: 

Students finished off their multiplication and division journey with more division stories and multiplication games. Fast Facts  continued, and we have been excited to see how many students have taken on a desire to improve. Thank you to all the parents who have supported their children at home with fast facts practise. It really does make a difference in how  students see themselves as learners. We have also been exploring our understanding of capacity, through estimating and comparing containers of differing size and height. 

Literacy:

1/2A were so excited to see the culmination of our reading and integrated learning come to life through our puppet show performances at the end of Week 8! Throughout the term, we have been developing our reading fluency by practising reading aloud with our fluency partners. Students also applied their understanding of open sounds (vowels) and phonics, along with their new learning about how sound travels, to help ensure their voices could be heard clearly during their performances.

It was such a special treat to welcome our parents and carers into our classrooms to enjoy the children's hard work. We really appreciate the extra effort many families made to give our Grade 1/2 students a wonderful audience. Having this authentic opportunity to share their learning made the experience even more meaningful and memorable for so many of the children.

We have also wrapped up our poetry unit, where students explored and created a range of different poems, including acrostic, cinquain, shape and free verse poems. It has been wonderful to see their creativity and confidence grow as they experimented with words, ideas and different poetic forms.

Next term, we will begin exploring persuasive writing, learning how to share opinions, provide reasons and build strong arguments.

As part of our phonics program, classes have begun Little Learners Love Literacy  Stage 7.4 sounds. These sounds include: a_e as in gate, e_e as in these, i_e as in kite, o_e as in cone  and u_e as in huge.

What’s to come in the next two weeks:

School holidays will finally be here - YAY! While we are not at school together, here are some ways families can support learning:

• Continue reading at home. Record any books that you read from the library or your own collection. If your child is choosing a text that is ‘too easy’, work on other skills like fluency (see above) and comprehension strategies. 
• Visit the local library.
• Take notice of any numbers you see in the world, read the number together and work out what it is counting.
•  Lots of cooking, craft and measuring. Think about and discuss ½, ¼, and ⅛
• Card games.