Around the Classrooms

1/2G

The students in Year 1/2 G have had a very busy and exciting Term 3!

We have just completed two weeks of our swimming program and the final day focussed on Water Safety so that the  students could practise survival skills in the water. 

Reading

Year 1

Our focus this term has included learning the difference between short and long vowel sounds, as well as how adding a Bossy 'e' can change the way a word is pronounced and its meaning - for example, from Tim to time. We have also been learning how to add suffixes such as ‘s’, ‘ed’ and ‘ing’ to base words to change their tense or meaning. We have continued to learn new tricky words including: “I’m”, “about” and “ask”. 

Year 2

The Year 2 focus has included spelling, comprehension & fluency and grammar. 

During our comprehension and fluency lessons, we have been identifying the purpose and structure of different types of texts including Imaginative and Persuasive. The Year 2 Curriculum also encourages students to identify tricky words in their reading including “bought”, “thought” and “work”. The class has been focussing on making accurate spelling choices using the digraphs ue, ew or u_e.

Writing

1/2G have been writing Narratives this term and following the structure of an Orientation, Complication and Resolution. They have been scaffolded in their writing by colourful images including a setting, characters and the planning of a problem and solution. The class has chosen from a range of settings including: Space, Candyland, a Castle and The Zoo. Last week they read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and told the tale from the Wolf’s perspective!

Mathematics

The students started off the term focusing on Shape and comparing and describing familiar shapes and recognising them in our environment. They identified the number of sides using words such as “parallel”, “curved” and “straight”. The class moved on to the unit of Multiplication and Division where they divided objects into equal groups, created arrays and calculated totals using familiar skip counting patterns such as 2’s, 5’s and 10’s. The Year Two students used repeated addition as a way of working out the total of an array.

Inquiry

The highlight of our Inquiry Unit, Change Over Time, has been our recent excursion to Rippon Lea Estate. The students visited the Mansion and learnt about how wealthy people lived in the past. They also engaged in some old fashioned games including playing with skipping ropes and a game of croquet. The students were put to work as though they were servants and did the washing for the day! They also discovered some creatures in the beautiful surroundings as they decoded messages.

Religion

The focus this term in Religion has been on Forgiveness and Compassion and the importance of forgiving those who we know, love and care for, especially if they are members of our family. The children learnt this important message through reading the story of The Prodigal Son, where the loving father threw his son a party despite his wasting of all of his money. Also in the story of Zacchaeus we learnt from Jesus showing acceptance of someone who was known as a sinner, and how they could change by repaying their debts to others four times over and realising the importance of living an honest life.

Thank you, families, for your kind support with our excursion, swimming and your wonderful care for your child!

Have a lovely holiday and Take Care,

Rachel Gurvich

Year 1/2G Teacher