1/2A

Robot Buddies EXPO

On Wednesday 24th June from 2:45pm, grownups are invited into our classroom to come and view our 'Robot Buddies'! The students in 1/2A are so excited to show you the robot buddies they have designed and constructed in order to solve a problem they have identified. After the expo, students will be able to take their new robot buddies home for the holidays! 

We hope to see you there 🤖

Maths

Addition, Subtraction and Making Patterns

Over the past fortnight, students in 1/2A have been learning about inverse operations. Students have been experimenting with changing the order in which they combine two parts together to create a whole, and whether the order in which we add or subtract parts makes a difference to the result. Our mini mathematicians discovered that it does not matter in which order you add parts, your whole will still be the same. However, it was with great confusion that students discovered it definitely matters in which order parts are subtracted. 

Did you know, the answer to a subtraction problem using whole numbers will always be smaller than the amount you began with?! And if you add two amounts together, the answer will always be larger than each of the small amounts?! 

MINDS BLOWN🤯

To take a rest from all that backwards and forwards thinking, students began exploring making patterns and the concept of repeating units. This concept is something we also use when we are learning to skip count, so it is a mathematical concept that covers many areas! Take a look at our string bead patterns below. Some students based their pattern on colour, some on shape, some on size, and some with a combination of those!

While some of us are not quite there yet with our understanding, we made sure to have our growth mindset in place and reminded ourselves that it isn't 'too hard' for us, it's just new to us and will take some practice for our brain to learn! 💪🏻

Writing: Putting our skills to the test!

Over this term, students have been using the mentor text 'Wendy' to look at all of the elements a good author includes in their writing - from accurate spelling, to varied use of punctuation, to different types and lengths of sentences. All purpose-chosen specifically to engage the reader and hook them into the story. 

We have been practicing our own sentences based on what we have read in 'Wendy' and have slowly been building up our writing stamina in order to build sentence-writing fluency. You can see some samples of this writing in the photos below.

Last week, the time came to put all of those skills into action with the long-awaited FREE WRITE! This is where students have the opportunity to think about and write about any topic they are interested it. Sometimes, having this much freedom can result in a bit of writing paralysis, so we had some topics as back up - just in case!

Students absolutely loved the opportunity to take their skills and really show what they could do and how much they had learnt about good sentence writing this term. They also took this opportunity to practice revising their sentences as they wrote, rather than waiting until the end to read back through everything. This is a skill in itself and one which students will continue to master throughout their whole schooling lives.

WRAPPING UP!

Mrs Dallas and Miss Gale would love to wish you all a happy, safe and fun-filled Term 2 holidays! Thank you for all of your support throughout the term, and for encouraging your children to come to school with a positive mindset and a willingness to learn and take on new challenges. We can't wait to see what Term 3 has in store! 👋🏻