Grade 1 News

Important Reminders

All important dates and events are on our Compass Calendar, please check the calendar regularly to stay up to date!

A few upcoming dates

Monday, June 9: Monarch’s Birthday - Public Holiday

Thursday, July 3: Cultural Day

Friday, July 4: Last Day Term 2 - 2.30pm finish

Production dates:

Tuesday 2nd September

Wednesday 3rd September

Library

Please refer to the timetable below which shows what day each class is going to the library. Please ensure your child has their library bag so they can borrow weekly. 

Please remember to send your child's take-home folder to school each day.

Homework

For homework in Grade 1 the expectation is that students will read their take-home book to an adult each day. Every student will receive a new book from their classroom on a Monday. Students will need to return their previous book before receiving a new book. 

Here are some optional activities: 

Click Here 

Learning in Action

Literacy

Over the last fortnight students have been busy within the Literacy space.

Literature Unit

During our Literature Unit, we have been learning about different types of poems which have included diamante poems and odes. A diamante poem is made up of nouns, verbs and adjectives so all students have been practising applying their understanding of these concepts in order to create their own poem about a given topic. An ode is a dedication to someone or something that we love. Students practised reading and understanding the structure of ode poems as well as creating their own, thinking about someone in their life that they love. They worked hard to complete sentence stems such as ‘you are as lovely as a…’ and ‘you remind me of a…’ The Grade 1 students had some wonderful ideas such as ‘you are as lovely as a bright sunny day’ and ‘you remind me of a big warm hug’. They were very excited to share their poems with the peers.

Word Work

During Work Word sessions in Grade 1, students engage in daily practise that reinforces previously learned concepts while introducing new phonics patterns to build reading and spelling skills. Each week begins with a review of past content to support retention, followed by the introduction of new sounds and spelling patterns. Recently, students explored the digraphs ‘ou’ and ‘ow’, both making their first sound just like in the words ‘shout’ and ‘how’. We have also focused on decoding and spelling words with the second sound that the digraph ‘ow’ makes, like in the word ‘grow’. 

Sentence Level Writing

In Grade 1 sentence level writing, students were introduced to the concept of a sentence versus a fragment, learning to identify whether a group of words expresses a complete thought. Students worked through sentences making sure that they included a 'who' (noun) and a 'what' (verb). Weekly writing instruction includes structured review of previously taught concepts, with a focus on consolidating weekly, fortnightly, monthly, and termly skills to support long-term retention and growth in sentence construction and grammar understanding.

Handwriting

Students have been revising previously learnt letters and practising both the lowercase and uppercase version of the following letters. We are now refining our learning based on the NSW font. The letters that we have practised this fortnight have included:

Preview of learning: Grade 1s will continue to focus on Poetry and learning about rhyming couplets. They will learn about the digraphs ‘oi’ and ‘oy’ and will be reviewing long vowel sounds. Students will continue to practise identifying fragments vs. sentences during sentence level writing sessions and will continue practising their handwriting skills. 

Numeracy

Subtraction

Over the past two weeks, our Grade 1 students have been learning all about subtraction through whole class teaching and small group goals. We’ve focused on building a clear understanding of what subtraction means and how we use it.

Here are the key learning goals we’ve covered:

• Subtraction is taking parts away from a total Students have been using objects, drawings, and number stories to show how subtraction involves starting with a total and removing part of it to find what is left. For example, “I had 6 apples and gave away 2. Now I have 4.”
• Language and action associated with subtraction We’ve been introducing and using subtraction language such as take away, subtract, less, minus, how many left, and difference.

This focus has helped students begin to build confidence in recognising subtraction situations and explaining their thinking clearly. We’re proud of their progress and look forward to building on these skills in the coming weeks!

Mass and Capacity

This fortnight, our Grade 1 students have been exploring mass and capacity through lots of hands-on activities and investigations. These lessons have helped students make sense of measurement in real-world contexts.

Here’s what we’ve been learning:

• Using a balance scale Students learned how to use a balance scale to compare the weight of objects. They discovered that when both sides of the scale are even, it means the objects weigh the same.
• Comparing mass We practised comparing two objects and using words like heavier, lighter, and the same to describe their mass.
• Understanding capacity Students explored the concept of capacity as how much a container can hold. We used informal units to measure and compare how much different containers could hold.
• Comparing capacities Through pouring, estimating, and testing, students compared the capacity of two containers and described which one could hold more, less, or the same.

These practical experiences have helped students build strong foundational measurement skills and language that they can apply in everyday situations.

Preview for Learning: For the next fortnight, students will be continuing learning about subtraction. Students will be learning a variety of strategies to assist them when solving subtraction problems and will practise the strategies most relevant to them during goal practise time. We will be continuing our Mass and Capacity Unit, where students will create their own ‘lolly jar’ to apply their learning from the unit so far.

Wellbeing

Over the past fortnight, students have begun a new focus on ‘personal strengths’. We played the 'traffic lights game’ which had a focus on listening. Students practised their listening and self-regulation skills and identified the importance of listening as a key skill

for learning. The following lesson, students described the kinds of actions that generate a

sense of pride or accomplishment. This led them to identify key strengths used in the school setting. Some examples are listed below:

Next week, we will create a strength display and have students role play in groups to see what different strengths look like at school. 

From the Grade 1 teachers, 

Ms Holmes, Miss Albanese, Mrs Reynolds and Mrs Ryan

Updates from around the school

Green Team Newsletter #2

The enthusiastic Green Team members from grades 3-6 continue to meet  with Mrs Alexander and Mrs Stokol Wednesday lunchtimes. After checking in re how the yard cleaning roster is going, they share which areas of the yard are the cleanest as well as those that have more rubbish, and then make suggestions for improvements. Whether it’s helping to keep the school free of rubbish, looking after and developing the plants gardens, educating the school community about sustainability is high on the agenda and everyone has fabulous ideas.

The new initiative we’d recently introduced for the collection of 10c containers is doing well and we have raised over $30 in a few weeks!  This involves the Green Team manning the collection bin out front of the canteen every lunch order day, as well as going to each classroom at the end of the week to gather those that have been put aside in specially labelled tubs. With everyone saving these containers on a daily basis, we are helping them from going to landfill and turning them into cash for the Green Team initiatives. Look out for the Sustainability display in the gym over the next few weeks.

Did you know that you can nominate LPS as your donation partner? Just download the app or follow this link  Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme | Learn How To Donate

It’s planting season, and what’s better than free plants? 

Free plants can be gained by playing a game. Did you know that the Knox Environment Society (KES) provides prizes through a Nature Discover Passport ? Wouldn’t  it be great if these were donated to our school for the Green Team to plant? 

Head to one of the many reserves in Knox on the weekend to explore your local ecology. Find stamps, and collect prizes. And who says the fun is only for the kids? Head to the above hyperlinks to learn more.

Thank you, every little bit helps.

Mrs Stokol and Mrs Alexander