Prep / 1 Mainstream 

Celebrating Learning

Maths

Last week, students took part in a short assessment to see how well they grasped addition and subtraction concepts and celebrate their learning progress! We were proud to see how well students adapted to using digital technology to show their understanding and learning growth. We also explored a variety of ways to continue and create patterns! Working independently and in groups, students practised pattern making using hands on materials, drawing, body percussion and movement. We were very impressed with their creations and ability to recognise different pattern types (e.g. ABAB, ABB, and ABC patterns).

This week students are deepening their division knowledge, looking at equal groups. They are also looking at arrays as ways to represent groups of items and numbers.

We are also continuing weekly check-in testing with our year 1 students using “fast facts” worksheets focusing on addition and subtraction strategies. Students are moving through these strategies, or taking their sheets back to take home and practise. Keep up the great work!

Writing:

Our non-fiction posters look fantastic! We are very impressed by our students' editing. Year 1s have been developing their independent editing skills, ensuring that their writing has:

• Finger spaces between each word.
• Correct sentence formation (a “who”/ “what” and a “what happened”) followed by an appropriate punctuation mark (.?!).
• Correct spelling (words that you are unsure of need to be underlined).
• A capital letter at the beginning of a sentence or for the name of a person, place or thing.

This week we have switched our focus back to fiction retelling and creation. We started where we left off in our previous unit, using our story grammar cards which identify:

• Characters
• Setting 
• Problem
• Characters feelings
• Plan to resolve the problem
• Idea to resolve the problem
• Ending
• End feeling.

After retelling a story verbally and through role play, students re-write the story using their own words.

Reading:

An integral part of building fluency is reading out loud to a partner and receiving feedback. This gives students the chance to notice how reading words accurately impacts their own and their partners' understanding of the text. A listening partner can assist their reading  partner to read a word accurately by saying:

• “That word is _____”
• “What’s that word?”
• “Good. Can you read that sentence again, please?”

We have introduced paragraph shrinking in our classrooms to assist with reading comprehension. Paragraph shrinking helps build student understanding of the text and therefore improves fluency. Students are asked to “shrink” either a very short page or paragraph of the text by identifying who the text is mostly about and what the most thing is that has happened. Students then say the main idea in a sentence that is 10 words or less. In line with our writing focus, we are switching our focus back to fiction texts. 

In our phonics groups over the past two weeks, we have been focussing on the following sounds:

Rylee/ Anastasia and Jess:

• /th/ as in think and /th/ and in them. Remember /th/ can be voiced and unvoiced!
• /ng/ as in tongs

Matt was reviewing:

• /ow/ as in cow
• /ou/ as in ouch

Steph was learning:

• /ue/ as in Tuesday
• /u_e/ as in tune
• /ew/ as in few
• /u/ as in music

What’s to come in the next two weeks:

• We have an exciting experience coming up! Our Prep/One Aussie Wildlife Incursion is happening on Monday the 24th of November. Check out the compass event for information about consent and payment. 
• Thank you for continuing to support your children to take home readers and practise at home. 
• If your year 1 child brings home a fast fact sheet to revise, have a look at the sheet with them. You can practise any of the number sentences they haven't finished or ones that they might have miscalculated. 
• Maths: We will be continuing to look at “groups of” and “arrays”.
• Writing: We are continuing to develop our narrative retelling and narrative creating skills!
• This term, we need to be wearing hats when we go outside for recess and lunch time. Please ensure your child comes to school with a broad brimmed hat to wear! Both classes have a space in the room for students to bring their hats and leave them at school so they don’t get forgotten.

Warmly,

Anastasia, Jess and Rylee