Year 1 News
GRADE 1 CELEBRATION NEWSLETTER TERM 2 2026
Reading
This term, the Grade 1 students explored books and texts about oceans and sea creatures. They enjoyed reading fiction stories such as The Rainbow Fish, Octopants, The Singing Seal, and The Little Turtle and the Sea. As they read, students practised important comprehension skills, including making predictions, connecting stories to their own experiences, making inferences, and retelling key events.
In the second half of the term, students focused on nonfiction texts. They learned how to identify and use text features such as contents pages, headings, diagrams, and labels to help them find and understand information. This helped students build their confidence in reading and learning from informational texts. The nonfiction texts that were selected for this unit were based around students' interest in sea animals, these included reading nonfiction texts about sea animals such as starfish, jellyfish, whales, sharks and turtles.
Throughout this unit, the students and teachers have worked to create an ‘underwater’ display in the Grade 1 corridor. As a celebration of the learning of this unit, the students enjoyed an excursion to the Melbourne Aquarium where they learnt about the habitats of various sea animals.
Writing
This term in Writing, Grade 1 students have been learning how to build complete simple sentences. They explored different parts of a sentence including nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Students learned that nouns tell us who a sentence is about, while verbs tell us what is happening. They also practised adding adjectives to make their writing more detailed and engaging. Using the books and texts from their reading lessons as examples, students worked on creating sentences with the correct structure and increasing detail.
Throughout their Phonics lessons, Grade 1 students have been developing their handwriting skills by practising correct letter formation and placement using dotted thirds. They have also been learning how to blend sounds together to read and spell words. This has included words with digraphs such as ch, sh, wh, th, ss, ll, ff.
Mathematics
This term, Grade 1 students have been learning about Place Value, Addition and Subtraction in Mathematics for their Number and Algebra units. Students continued to develop their understanding of two-digit numbers by using hands-on materials to show that numbers are made up of tens and ones. They used this knowledge to explore number patterns and identify numbers that are 1 more, 1 less, 10 more and 10 less.
During their Addition and Subtraction unit, students learned a range of strategies to solve problems. They explored number bonds and part-part-whole models to help them understand how numbers can be broken apart and put together in different ways.
In Measurement and Geometry, students learned about length and 3D objects. They used informal units of measurement, such as hands and feet, to estimate, measure and compare the length of different objects. Students also explored the features of 3D objects and learned to identify and name common 3D shapes.
Inquiry
The Grade 1 students have been learning about different environments and how to care for them during Term 2. Students have learnt about 3 types of environments - natural, constructed and managed. They have explored ways in which different environments can be cared for, as well as learning how they can contribute to the care of different environments. This care has included picking up rubbish and placing it in bins, keeping areas tidy, watering plants and following rules and signs. As part of this learning, students planted ‘Hairy Harry Grassheads’ to practice caring for their grasshead with watering and sunlight.
To showcase their learning about environments and how we care for them, students have been creating diorama’s of different environments and explaining what care would be required for their chosen environment.
Science
Congratulations to all Grade 1 students for all that you have achieved in Science during Term 2. During our ‘Properties of Materials and Mixtures’, students learnt that observable properties of materials and their uses in everyday objects; identified the different materials combined in objects for different purposes; described what a mixture is and how combining materials can create new properties; created mixtures to describe how the properties of some mixtures can change over time; learnt how some materials easily combine to form mixtures, while others do not mix; explored how properties of a mixture can be affected with different amounts of materials combined; applied our knowledge and understanding of the properties of materials and mixtures by answering questions.
LOTE
During Term 2 Grade 1 students learnt about: – Food/Lunch, Inside Appliances, Medical #2, Fingerspelling, Camping, Birds, Materials, HOLM + NMF #2, Constructed Action/Role Shift and Revision. The students continued combining signs to build their Auslan communication. With the videos, presenting new learning & revising past learning, incorporated stories and poems with activity games for practice. Constructed Action/mime was a feature this term, where students were
encouraged to use their bodies and facial expression to extend their Auslan
communication. This is a rich feature of the Auslan Language. The Revision lesson introduced the life stories of some Deaf people and their culture. At this level the students began to gain confidence in both signing (Expressive)
and understanding others’ signs (Receptive).
Art
In Term 2, Year 1 students continued to build their confidence in the art room while strengthening their understanding of routines, expectations and the safe use of materials. They further developed their ability to express ideas through creative and thoughtful artworks.
Students began the term by learning about the significance of ANZAC Day, drawing and creating poppy artworks to show respect and remembrance. They explored the symbolic meaning of poppies while practicing their drawing and painting skills using a variety of materials.
Students were then introduced to the work of Vincent van Gogh, creating vibrant flower artworks inspired by his use of bold colour and expressive brushstrokes as part of their Mother’s Day celebrations.
Towards the end of the term, students explored the work of Pablo Picasso. They learned how he created artworks in unique and imaginative ways and experimented with creating their own portraits using different shapes and perspectives.
It was a positive and engaging Term 2 in Art, with Year 1 students continuing to develop their creativity, skills and confidence.
P.E
This term in Physical Education, our Grade 1 students had an active and engaging Term 2. They began with a soccer unit, developing their passing, dribbling and shooting skills through a range of fun activities, before applying these skills in small modified games. Students then took part in a short athletics unit, where they focused on relay racing and built their teamwork, turn-taking and running techniques. They also completed activities such as egg and spoon races and balancing tennis balls on tennis racquets, helping them develop coordination and control in a fun and safe way. Later in the term, students took part in a teamwork unit, learning how to communicate, cooperate and support one another through a variety of team games. It has been great to see their progress this term, and I look forward to seeing our Grade 1 students continue to develop next semester!
