Grade 1

Literacy

Over the past two weeks, Year 1 students have been building upon their existing literacy skills and knowledge. This has included practising individual letter sounds, segmenting sounds in simple words, and blending them back together. Students have been learning about literacy terms such as phonemes, vowels, and consonants, helping them recognise these elements within words. To deepen their understanding, students have explored digraphs, focusing on ‘sh’, ‘wh’, ‘ch’, ‘th’, ‘oo’, and ‘ng’. They have engaged in interactive songs and games to sort and identify words containing these digraphs. Additionally, students have expanded their tricky word vocabulary by learning and practising words such as ‘put’, ‘have’, ‘were’, ‘then’, ‘there’, and ‘they’.

Maths

Over the last two weeks our Grade 1 students have been diving into the concept of place value with a special focus on recognising the tens place. Through engaging, hands-on activities, the students have been using a variety of materials to explore and reinforce this important math skill. We’ve been using tools like tens frames and icy pole sticks to create and identify groups of ten, helping students visualise the concept of place value in a fun and interactive way. By practising counting by tens, our students are building a strong foundation for understanding larger numbers and their structure. We are excited to see how quickly our Grade 1’s are mastering this skill and look forward to exploring these concepts more in the weeks ahead!

Writing

Over the last 2 weeks, students have been delving into the story of “The Pencil”. The story tells of a talking pencil who can draw anything to life. The pencil starts with drawing a boy ‘Banjo’, who wants a dog, who wants a cat to chase! The pencil draws a helpful paintbrush that brings colour to the world. But when issues start arising in the town, the pencil draws an eraser to fix all the problems away. However, the eraser starts erasing the whole entire town! And you’ll need to ask your child what the solution to this story was! During this inquiry, students have learnt the definition of the words: shiver, hesitate and ridiculous to help utilise in their writing. They participated in a writing learning task where they needed to write a recount story about the ‘The Pencil’, making sure to include the characters, setting, problem and solution.

Additional Subjects

This fortnight, students in Year 1 have been working on recognising their emotional triggers and understanding appropriate ways of expressing their emotions in Lets Talk and Respectful Relationships lessons. They continued looking at how families vary within communities and across time, taking particular notice of how roles have changed within families. In Culture lessons, students learned about International Women’s Day, the importance of equal rights across society and how lucky we are to be living in Australia, where these values are recognised broadly.