Grade 1

Reading 

Over the past fortnight, students have been busy building their reading skills through a focus on word knowledge, phonics, and fluency. We explored the prefix ‘un–’, learning how it changes a word’s meaning (for example, happy becomes unhappy), and practised recognising and reading multi-syllable words by clapping out the parts to make longer words easier to read.

In Week 6, we turned our attention to Tricky Words and the Bossy ‘e’ rule, discovering how a silent ‘e’ can change a vowel’s sound — like hop becoming hope. Students also reviewed key sounds and grammar concepts from earlier in the term, helping to strengthen their confidence and accuracy in both reading and writing. It has been wonderful to see their growing enthusiasm and independence as readers!

Maths

In Week 5, students investigated two-dimensional (2D) shapes through a range of hands-on activities. They created different quadrilaterals using popsicle sticks, learning that all quadrilaterals have four sides but can vary in shape and size. Students also participated in a shape hunt, exploring areas of the classroom to find real-life examples of 2D shapes. They practised naming and describing shapes such as squares, rectangles, rhombuses, and trapeziums, using accurate mathematical language for sides and vertices. Students also compared regular and irregular polygons, identifying how regular polygons have equal sides and an equal amount of turn between the lines that meet, while irregular polygons do not.

In Week 6, students extended their understanding of two-dimensional shapes through a mix of hands-on and digital activities. Using geoboards, they created shapes such as triangles, rectangles, and quadrilaterals, exploring the difference between regular and irregular polygons. Students also drew 2D shapes on dotted paper, using rulers to draw straight lines and follow step-by-step instructions. Working with partners, they compared their drawings and named shapes on each other’s geoboards. They used tangrams to combine smaller shapes into new designs, such as houses or swans, and categorised shapes based on shared features.

Writing 

In Week 5, our Grade 1 students continued exploring Looking After Country with Fire by Victor Steffensen, focusing on how authors use language to persuade and inform. Students learnt about high modality words such as must, always, and definitely, and how these make their opinions sound stronger and more convincing. They used these skills to plan and write a  persuasive paragraph that expressed their opinions about caring for Country, using topic sentences, supporting reasons, and concluding statements. Students also practised identifying and writing the four types of sentences, statements, questions, commands, and exclamations.

In Week 6, students began a new text study with The Imagineer by Christopher Cheng and Lucia Masciullo. They focused on sentence-level writing through alliteration, learning how authors use repeated beginning sounds to make writing entertaining and engaging. Using examples from the story, students created their own alliterative sentences such as “Penny picks perfect parts to power her plane”. The week concluded with an interest free write, where students independently wrote about topics they enjoy, applying their growing knowledge of sentence structure and punctuation.

Additional Subjects

In the last fortnight in Respectful Relationships, students have been learning to understand what violence is and the different types: physically, verbally and damaging possessions. They have had discussions of how it can make people feel as well as when it is unfair because of someone’s gender. The students were taught the importance of naming behaviours and not people as well as how to play and solve problems in a respectful and fair way. 

In the Library, students have been continuing to learn about different book genres and explored the themes and parts of mystery and poetry books. 

Students commemorated Remembrance Day by learning about its importance, joining in the minute of silence, and making beautiful poppy crafts.