Achilles Community Report

Introduction

As we near the end of Term 2, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the wonderful journey of learning and growth we've experienced together. It has been a term filled with joy, discovery, and plenty of fun-filled educational experiences for our Grade 1 students.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to all families for your invaluable support in your child's education. Your involvement makes all the difference.

Wishing you all a restful break and looking forward to continuing our journey together in Term 3.

Refugee Week

We celebrated Refugee Week together! Our students dressed up in their special cultural outfits, sharing their traditions and stories with all of us. It was amazing to see our community filled with so many beautiful colours and learn about the different cultures that make us unique.

House Spirit Day

We had an absolute blast on House Spirit Day! Our Grade 1 students showed off their school spirit by dressing up in their house colours, filling our school with a rainbow of enthusiasm and pride. To top it all off, we had an exciting Grade 1 disco party during lunchtime! The students danced, laughed, and had a fantastic time grooving to their favourite tunes.

Reading

This month we have jumped into the world of non-fiction reading. We have explored various texts and investigated non-fiction text features, such as headings, captions, and contents pages, to understand how they help us gather information. Our phonics lessons have continued with a focus on the silent e and long vowel phonemes, enhancing our reading skills. Many have enjoyed reading about diverse topics, including the weather, dinosaurs, saltwater crocodiles, and Australian Pink Lakes, sparking curiosity and many interesting discussions in class. 

Writing

This month in Writing the Grade 1 students have been looking at a variety of Information reports about Australian animals and Reducing, Reusing and Recycling. The students learnt a lot of new information about these topics and were able to create simple sentences to support their ideas. They made plans to structure their sentences, wrote sentences with verbs and nouns in their books, and even published their work using a Triorama about Emus or Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. They made sure to add adjectives to revise their work. The students also used capital letters, full stops and checked over their spelling to edit their work so that it makes sense. The Year 1's created sentences about some other new concepts including 'Nude food', Recycling bins and how to pick up rubbish around our school which linked really well to our inquiry unit.

Maths

In Maths, students have been exploring 2D shapes and mass. Students participated in different activities exploring, naming and describing 2-dimensional shapes around them. Students loved trying hefting different items in the classrooms and identifying whether they were heavier or lighter than other items and explaining why. Students have also explored subtraction, trying to solve subtraction problems using a subtraction strategy. We have learned a lot of strategies to help us subtract, including using manipulatives, number lines, tens frames and drawings.

Inquiry

This month in Inquiry, we have continued our exploration of sustainability and ways to care for our environment. Students have been empowered to guide their own learning by selecting how they wish to demonstrate their knowledge and contribute to addressing the waste management challenges at our school.

Some students have opted to write letters advocating for additional recycling bins at school, design posters promoting a "nude food" day, and create maps to assist visitors in locating rubbish and recycling bins throughout our school grounds.

We commend our students for their thoughtful efforts in enhancing the well-being of our school environment and for their innovative ideas to help control the rubbish around our school.

SEL

The Achilles children continued to work on their problem-solving skills by first identifying how big the problem they are faced with and deciding if they can solve the problem by themselves or need some help from a peer or adult. Students also learnt about honesty and the consequences of always telling lies. Caring for others was a focus this term. The students learned the importance to share their toys and look after their peers to keep everyone safe. This term the children also joined in the celebration of Refugee Week, discovered about the struggles refugees face and how they can help them.

Reminders:

• If you put in a lunch order for your child, please make sure they come to school with a piece of fruit or snack.