Year 1
Term One
What a wonderful and eventful start to the new year we have had here in the grade 1 classrooms. It has been so wonderful to see how quickly everyone has settled back into the routines and are enjoying making friends new and old.
If you didn't catch our email in the first week, here is our specialist timetable for the year:
Specialist Timetable
Grade 1S (Swan)
Mondays: Art and and PE
Thursday: STEM and Japanese
Grade 1T (Timperley and Buhler)
Mondays: Art and PE
Wednesdays: Japanese
Thursday: STEM
Shrove Tuesday- Pancake Day
In preparation for Lent last Tuesday, our Grade 1 students were so excited for the delicious pancakes lovingly made by the Grade 6 class. The older students did a wonderful job cooking and serving, and the grade ones couldn’t stop smiling as they added their favourite toppings. Here are some of the smiles from the morning tea treat followed by the play on the playground to burn off some of the excess energy afterwards.
Mercy Day
Mercy Day was celebrated in the grade 1 classrooms with the sharing of two very special picture story books that celebrate our differences, treating everyone with human dignity and finding peace in the small moments of everyday life.
The students then made kites depicting all the small things they enjoy, such as jumping in puddles, playing with siblings or family movie nights. The kites were an engineering challenge and while some didn't make it through the test flight at school, the smiles and excitement were contagious.
Literacy
InitiaLit lessons are currently focused on reviewing the Foundation concepts to embed these sounds and move forward to trickier digraphs.
Any extra practise that the students can have at home on the 'tricky words' would be beneficial!
Storybook Lessons
We have been exploring celebrations and traditions during the Luna New Year through picture books. Students made lanterns to decorate the classroom, practice writing the symbols for the Year of the Fire Horse and reflected on their own favourite family celebrations.
From the students writing about celebrations:
My favourite celebration is Christmas because I like putting out all of the reindeer food. (Poppi)
My favourite celebration is Easter because we get to play my favourite game. (Willow)
Take home books
We have been focusing on revision and consolidation of sounds and words for the first few weeks of school. The children have done a great job stepping back into the routines.
Home readers are changed once or twice throughout the week, depending on the students' reading ability.
Mathematics
We have begun the year strong, with mostly revision of foundation concepts. We are learning the routines around use of whiteboards and how to be active learners in the Numeracy lesson.
Religion
We have celebrated Mercy Day with some wonderful activities about loving ourselves and our differences. We attended Mass for Ash Wednesday and we begin now with our learning about LENT and EASTER.
Inquiry
Students investigated how the past, present and future are signified by terms indicating and describing time. We sequenced time, days, months and seasons,
and were and were introduced to an Aboriginal seasonal calendar.
Students discussed days of personal significance and ones that are significant to other cultures and communities. This linked with our Storybook about Chinese New Year.
If you would like to touch base with us please contact us via email, or leave a message with Bek at the office
pswan@sjeuroa.catholic.edu.au (Fulltime)
rtimperley@sjeuroa.catholic.edu.au Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
cbuhler@sjeuroa.catholic.edu.au Thursday in Year 1
Until next time,
Paula Swan, Rachel Timperley, Christine Buhler and Karen Goss.