Level 1: Connect

Hello Level 1 families,

Welcome back to another instalment of Level 1 Connect. Hope you are all staying fit and healthy! Our students appear to be over the worst of their illnesses thank goodness. Students are still regularly reminded to wash or sanitise their hands and to cough or sneeze into their elbows. Please do not send your child to school if they are at all unwell to enable the health and safety of others. Thank you for your co-operation with this.

Well done to our students who all behaved so superbly during their swimming lessons over the previous two weeks. The students showed so much resilience, organisation, independence and enjoyment. Congratulations Level 1! We are so proud of you.

Thanks to all who have completed their child's "All About Me!" information sheet that went out last week. The information within will be invaluable in assisting our students to complete their very own autobiography.

Have an amazing fortnight,

Nishtha, Lizzie and Robyn

Reminders

Literacy

Reading and Writing

Last week, students began reading 'Little People, Big Dreams - David Attenborough' and learning what a biography consists of. We will continue to study this book this week and we will begin writing our own autobiographies. Exciting times! Our writing will be based on the information sheets that hopefully have all been completed at home last week. 

Families, thanks for your support with this.

In Week 8 we will continue to look at information reports with a focus on animals- both wild ones and pets! We will read a variety of different texts about aminals around the world. Students will create a mini-book on an animal of their choosing, including such facts as diet, appearance and behaviour. 

Core Literacy

Students are involved in Core Literacy lessons every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. 

During these lessons, students engage in many activities relating to spelling, phonics and morphology (how words are formed and how they relate to each other) such as dictation, card deck and reading words.

Each week we have a sound/letter focus and a morphology focus.

During each of these sessions, students have a text that corresponds to their reading level that is read daily. These texts go home with the student every Friday for hopefully extra practise at home. 

Here's what's happening in Core Literacy in the fortnight ahead:

Week 7 Heart Words - any, knew, many

Week 8 Heart Words- does, because, through

Morphology - consonant le syllables, r controlled syllables- see below

Phonemes- oe as in toe, ew as in screw

Maths

All Grade 1 students have done a fantastic job practising telling the time and have shown great progress in identifying the days of the week and months of the year. It has been wonderful to see their confidence grow as they apply their knowledge of time in different activities.

Over the next fortnight, we will continue exploring Measurement and Patterns. Students will learn to use calendars to locate given dates and identify the day of the week, as well as work out how many days, weeks and months are between dates. In Patterns, students will identify and create increasing and decreasing number patterns that change by one-digit numbers, 10 or 100.

Inquiry

Following on from the students' interest and enjoyment in our geography focus last term, our Term 3 Inquiry focus is all about Australian History.

By the end of this unit, students will:

• Understand that Aboriginal Peoples were the first to explore and settle Australia, using knowledge of land, water, and seasons.
• Know that Aboriginal People already lived on the land before Europeans arrived, and that their knowledge systems mapped Country in different ways.
• Describe how early settlers in Sydney Town faced challenges with farming, water, and food, and how Arthur Phillip helped the colony survive.
• Recognise that Bass and Flinders mapped the coastline and discovered Bass Strait, helping future travel and trade.

Term 3 Timetable