Grade 1 News

📅 Important Dates & Reminders

All important dates and events are available on our Compass Calendar. Please check the calendar regularly to stay up to date.

Monday 9th  March: Labour Day Public Holiday

Friday 20th March: Harmony Day (Wear a touch of Orange)

Thursday 2nd  April: Last day of Term 1. Dismissal at 2.30pm (Happy Hat Parade)

*Icy Poles will be sold by the Grade 6's on Monday and Tuesdays! $1 each*

Key Information

• Students are to bring their take-home bags to school daily beginning week 3 to swap books for home. 
• Students will need their hats this term to play outside. 
• Senior School Leaders will be selling icy poles at lunchtime on a Monday and Tuesday.

Cross country

Students had an amazing time last Friday afternoon heading outside to support their house in the Lysterfield House Cross Country. They showed great enthusiasm, tried their very best, and gave it their all. Most importantly, they had so much fun cheering each other on and participating with pride.

Learning Reflection

➗Maths 

This fortnight, students began a new unit on counting and place value, building their understanding of two-digit numbers. They have been practising counting forwards and backwards from 0–120, as well as bundling ones into tens to strengthen their understanding of how numbers are formed. Through hands-on learning experiences, students are developing confidence in recognising that two-digit numbers are made up of tens and ones.

Students have been using MAB blocks to model and represent two-digit numbers in a concrete way. By physically building numbers, they can clearly see the difference between the tens and ones place. This has supported their ability to compare and order numbers, helping them identify which number is the biggest or smallest. Students are encouraged to explain their thinking by looking at the tens first, and then the ones if needed.

Students have also continued their Maths Masters practise and completed daily reviews. These sessions revisit previously learnt concepts to support the retrieval process, strengthen understanding, and build fluency in key skills. It has been wonderful to see students growing in confidence as they apply their knowledge in a variety of ways.

Preview for learning: Next fortnight, students will continue strengthening their understanding of tens and ones in two-digit numbers, while also beginning a new unit on partitioning numbers to ten in three different ways.

📖 Literacy 

Word Work: 

This fortnight in Word Work students focused on compound words and the -ing suffix. Students practised decoding and spelling a number of compound words that had different codes and spelling patterns. When learning about the -ing suffix, we learnt that a suffix is added to the end of a base word to change its meaning. Students learnt that -ing indicates that something is happening now. 

Preview for learning:

Next fortnight, students will continue learning about the SFE (Silent Final E) rule and recognising the difference between a short vowel and long vowel sound. 

Handwriting

In Grade 1, our handwriting routine consists of reviewing and practising previously taught letters and being introduced to new letters daily. This fortnight students have practised forming the letters f, a, z, c, e and s on the correct lines.

Literature: 

This fortnight in Literature, we began our unit on Aesop’s Fables, exploring engaging stories such as The Grasshopper and the Owl, The Crow and the Fox, and The Dog and the Bone. Through shared reading, students practised listening carefully, answering questions, and discussing characters, their choices, and the important lessons these stories teach us, such as being cautious, making wise decisions, and not being greedy.

Alongside reading, students developed their sentence writing skills. They learned about adjectives and how these describing words help make sentences more interesting and detailed. Students practised identifying adjectives in stories and adding their own to describe characters, animals, and objects.

In the second week, students were introduced to prepositions, which help tell us where and when something happens. They explored how adding these words and phrases can expand simple sentences and give the reader clearer information. Students enjoyed creating and sharing their own expanded sentences inspired by the fables we read together. 

Knowledge Rich:

This fortnight we continued to look at our Knowledge Rich Unit, Countries, Continents and Maps. We explored Asia, Europe, Africa, North America (including Canada, Mexico and Central America) and South America. Students were highly engaged as they discovered interesting facts about each place, drew pictures to represent their learning, acted out different animals from around the world and watched short videos to further deepen their understanding. It has been wonderful to see their curiosity grow as they learn more about the diverse countries and continents that make up our world.

Preview for learning:

Next fortnight, we will continue our unit on Poetry and Aesop’s Fabels.

😊Friendology

During this fortnight in Friendology, we will be focusing on helping students develop a strong understanding of friendships by exploring the “truths” of what healthy relationships look like. Students will learn how respect can be shown and heard in their friendships, and discuss realistic expectations when building connections with others. They will also explore the difference between healthy and unhealthy friendships, including how body language can affect the way we communicate and relate to one another. This learning supports students in building positive, respectful relationships with their peers.

Curious Corner 

This term during Curious Corner, students will be exploring our school values through play-based learning experiences. We will also be focusing on building positive friendships, practising social skills, and learning how to work and play cooperatively with others. It’s been wonderful to see students beginning to connect and support one another as they learn.

Fine Motor Skills

This term in Grade 1, students participate in Fine Motor Rotations once a week. During this time, children are grouped together to practise important fine motor skills, which help strengthen the small muscles in their hands and fingers. These skills are essential for everyday classroom tasks such as handwriting, cutting, drawing, fastening buttons, and using tools confidently and independently. Activities in our rotations include cutting focus tasks, practising correct pencil grip, using tongs to build hand strength, tying elastic bands to practise bundling, handwriting practice, and balancing dominoes to develop control and coordination. These fun, hands-on activities help build strong foundations for learning!

Homework

Optional Homework for Grade 1 

For homework in Grade 1 the expectation is that students will read their take home book to an adult each day. Every student will choose a new book from their classroom on a daily basis (optional). Students will need to return their previous book before receiving a new book. Here is a link to a folder to access Sparkle at home activities if you wish: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/126BRm52aR9NyaCdEgnCljLC3X0MWqupj 

If you are not sure which level your child is on, please ask your child’s teacher.

For those students who are off sparkle, please encourage them to read any book of their choice at home. 

Thank you for reading our newsletter, please remember if you have any questions feel free to contact your child’s teacher. 

Grade 1 Teachers, 

Catia Anson, Bella Albanese and Jess Kitteringham.