Year 1/2
Welcome
Dear Parents,
Welcome to the new school year! We hope that you had a lovely and refreshing break.
We look forward to educating your children and celebrating their many achievements
and progress throughout 2025.
Our Learning this Term
English
Throughout Term One, our first Literacy cycle will consist of opportunities to learn various strategies based on fiction books. Students will learn to use imagery to determine how a character feels. They will identify and create simple and/or compound sentences. Students will develop their vocabulary and investigate the meaning of new or unknown words. They will also examine words with short vowel sounds and build lists of rhyming words.
E.g. mug-rug, pug, dug, tug
In our reading groups, we will focus on a wide range of strategies, including the use of words and illustrations to make predictions, identifying and breaking up sounds in words, and making connections between the experience of the child and those of the characters in the text, along with locating specific information within a text.
Readers will be sent home soon with a letter outlining ways to support your child. It is very important that children engage in nightly reading at home.
Reading with your children at home has many benefits, including developing listening skills, spelling, reading comprehension, and vocabulary and establishing essential foundational literacy skills.
Religion
To begin this term in Religion, students have been learning about prayer and why people pray. Each class has been preparing prayer tables and discussing ‘Our Place Of Prayer’ and how this can differ for everyone. Students will explore the different types of prayer and discover that we can pray to God at various times and in different places.
Prayer is an important part of the life of St Andrew’s. The children pray daily with the Grade 6 leaders, reading the St Andrew’s prayer over the PA system. This is a wonderful way for classes to join as a school community.
Additionally, students are investigating the importance of Lent and Easter.
With the Liturgical Season of Lent upon us, the students are learning about the significance of Shrove Tuesday and will enjoy a pancake or two.
The children will attend Mass for Ash Wednesday and are reminded that it is the first day of Lent. The students are learning that Lent is a time of growth and change. We will also be learning the significance of each day of Holy Week leading up to Easter.
Maths
During Term 1, the students will learn about various Mathematical concepts.
Throughout the term, there will be daily opportunities to review and practice concepts taught to ensure that the information taught becomes stored in students' long-term memory.
Data
Our first unit of work for the year is Data. Students will practise using tally marks to record responses to a given question and identify categories. They will practise gathering and interpreting data through questions such as “What response was most and least popular?”
Students then extend their knowledge by learning to create a picture graph from a given data set of tally marks. The students will collect data for a given question, recording responses as tally marks and creating both horizontal and vertical picture graphs to represent the collected data.
Counting and Place Value
Additionally, students will focus on counting and placing value. This unit will involve the students learning to represent three-digit numbers on ten-frames and writing the numeral. The students are learning to apply place value knowledge to solve equations. They will learn to compare and order numbers up to 120.
Addition and Subtraction
Finally, the students will complete the addition and subtraction unit during the end of Term One. Students will learn the symbols used for addition, subtraction and “is equal to”. They will then learn to add and subtract within 20 by bridging ten on ten-frames, as well as add and subtract within the range of 20 using number lines.
Inquiry Learning
During Inquiry this term, the students are looking at how they can be the best learners that they can be.
They will learn about a range of emotions, including feeling happy, sad, calm, worried and angry, and explore various scenarios that cause these specific feelings at home and school.
The students will be investigating strategies to assist them in managing their emotions. If they are angry they could count to 10 or take deep breaths. When feeling sad, they could speak to a friend, spend time with their family or pray.
They will engage in a number of team challenges where they analyse what worked well and identify how they could work even better. They will be introduced to learning assets that focus on making teamwork more productive and positive. The learning assets are Thinker, Researcher, Self Manager, Communicator and Collaborator.
Students will determine their greatest strength and how this will assist them in their learning and social interactions.
Classroom Organisation
Independence is an essential skill that the students in Year 1/2 continue to develop with the support of their teachers and families.
Teachers encourage students to develop this at school through being responsible for:
• Following their class’ morning routine, which includes:
- Unpacking of their bags at school
- Organising their personal belongings
- Organising their take-home readers
• Handing in any notes
• Bringing back library books and bags on their assigned day
• Being punctual to class and ready for learning.
After 8:50 am, students must report to the office to be registered as late for the day.
If your child is absent from school, it is a requirement that we receive notification of this in writing either via the Audiri app, an email to the classroom teacher or a note handed to the teacher.
All 1/2 students will participate in Specialist classes on a Monday - Italian, Art, Performing Arts and PE. Please remember that every Monday, the students are expected to wear their runners and P.E. uniform to school for Physical Education.
Students must wear their school shoes and full school summer uniform on all other days of the week.
Hats are to be worn in Terms 1 & 4. Please ensure that your child has a St Andrew’s school hat. Sunscreen is also provided in classrooms, and all students will be advised to use it. Please show your child how to apply sunscreen, as this will be their responsibility.
Library Sessions have commenced this term and will take place every 2 weeks. Please return all Library books and bring a Library bag before your child’s lesson. Books are to be returned on the second Wednesday after your child’s lesson and placed in the library tub in your child’s room.
Class lesson days and times:
1/2W, 1/2K - Mondays
1/2G, 1/2L - Tuesdays
Key Dates
February:
- Fri 28th- School Closure Day
March:
- Sat 1st- Term 1 Working Bee 8:30-10.30am
- Tues 4th- Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day)
- Wed 5th - Ash Wednesday Mass
- Mon 10th - Labour Day Public Holiday
- Tues 18th - School Photos (Full Summer School Uniform)
- Mon 31st - Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews 2:30pm - 7pm
April
- Fri 4th - Term 1 concludes - 1:30pm
- Fri 18th - Good Friday
- Sun 20th - Easter Sunday
- Tues 22nd- Term 2 Begins
- Thurs 24th-School Closed TIL day
- Fri 25th-ANZAC DAY Public Holiday
*As dates can be subject to change, please check either the school newsletter or notifications on the Audiri App.
How to Contact Us
Jordan jlonergan@saclaytonsth.catholic.edu.au
Sally skuszner@saclaytonsth.catholic.edu.au
Rachel rgurvich@saclaytonsth.catholic.edu.au
Karen Williams kwilliams@saclaytonsth.catholic.edu.au
We politely request that there is an understanding that emails may only be responded to during working hours.
SPECIALIST PROGRAMS
Library
Welcome to Term One! We are excited to kick off the year and aim to provide a fun-filled, interactive experience where we read, discuss, and engage in creative activities related to entertaining books. A big thank you to everyone who has already brought their library bags! These bags are essential for keeping our books safe and sound, ensuring you can borrow fortnightly. Well done to all the students who have come prepared! For those who haven’t yet, please bring your library bag next time you visit the library. We ask all students to remember the importance of treating books with care, respecting the space, and maintaining a quiet environment for reading. This helps everyone enjoy the library to its fullest! Additionally, students will be revisiting library procedures and expectations.
We are already learning to identify the different parts of a picture book (title, author, illustrator, blurb, spine, front and back covers). Studying fiction and nonfiction books will be a key aspect of library lessons as it helps students understand different types of texts, their features, and how to engage with them. During our book chats, students will be encouraged to discuss plots, characters and settings and connect with their own experiences.
Students have begun to follow our procedure of borrowing a book, sharing and reading it at home and returning it by placing it in the class library box during their non-library week. We’ve added many exciting new titles to our collection this term and will do so throughout the year. Significant days will be explored through different texts and the writing and illustration styles of many popular authors /illustrators. We hope every student takes the time to explore the library, dive into new books, and make the most of our opportunities. Happy reading !!!
Congratulations to our 2025 Library Leaders - Nibedita and Bella
Best wishes,
Mrs Daniella Polites
L.O.T.E. Italian
Ciao a tutti e felice anno nuovo.
Dear parents, welcome to 2025.
The students will begin this term by orally revising previously acquired language. They will also be reminded of the classroom expectations and will be expected to set a personal goal for the term.
The focus will be on further developing the students’ speaking and listening skills as they work on a unit of work centred on the story of a cheeky pet cockatoo in the context of an Italo-Australian family home.
The story focuses on the relationship of a family and their pet cockatoo. It aims to give an understanding and flavour of an Italo-Australian family with a mixture of two cultures over several generations. The students will recycle the language of the story through written activities, songs, and chants and demonstrate understanding of the text by predicting from clues. They will use familiar Italian expressions in their oral communication by completing cloze and matching activities and by repeating new vocabulary.
To help your child practise his/her Italian outside the classroom and to help him/her grow in confidence and knowledge, please access the following links:
https://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/italian/topic10/index.htm
https://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/italian/sect19/index.htm
A presto.
Signora White
Physical Education
Welcome to Term One!
In term one, the 1/2s will focus on developing fundamental skills for all sports, including listening, teamwork and positive communication.
Students' social skills will be developed when working in groups through various activities, including games with and without equipment. Students will demonstrate and practice keeping themselves and others safe, cooperating and communicating positively with their classmates, and listening to and following the rules of various activities. Students will also participate in a Body Movement Unit as well as learn fundamental throwing and catching skills using a variety of different objects.
We are looking forward to a fun first term of learning!
Miss Puetz
Art
Hi everyone,
Welcome to the art room for Term One 2025. The grade 1/2s will continue to practise their cutting, pasting, collage, construction and drawing skills. The children are given opportunities to feel free and confident in expressing ideas and are encouraged to respond to others' artwork. In the art room, we incorporate art making and appreciation to help the children develop a visual arts language. Students will also continue to use various art techniques in colour, pattern, texture, line, shape, form and space. We will continue to create pictures and designs using multiple mediums throughout the term, such as acrylic paints, crayons, water-colour pencils and textured papers. We will be working with shapes with various characteristics to help them become aware of the 3D nature of form. We will also create artwork to coincide with our units of study in religious education and our inquiry units. We began the term by making paper stick snake puppets to celebrate the Lunar Chinese New Year. We aim to have lots of fun during our new learnings, creations and experimentations during art classes throughout Term One.
Enjoy!
Mrs. Santoro
Performing Arts
Hello 1/2 Students and Families!
I’m so excited to be working with the students in Performing Arts this term.
Term one will start with keeping the beat to the music using students’ voices, bodies, dance moves and percussion instruments. We’ll be exploring the difference between beat and rhythm, practising playing or dancing in time to certain rhythms and learning the right timing to stop and start playing, dancing or singing. Students will also build on their musical terminology knowledge, using vocabulary and signs to represent percussion notes such as ta, ti-ti, za and tika-tika.
Throughout the term, the students will create, learn, and practice a song and dance related to being the best learners they can be, as part of the term inquiry. Having a go and being brave are my favourite things students can do in performing arts! We’ll also be looking at songs such as Funga Alafia and Obwisana to link world culture to music to help celebrate Harmony Day later in the term. Towards the end of term, we’ll be learning the songs 1, 2, 3, and Jesus Loves Me (with dance moves) to build confidence in performance!
If you want to help your students, please play music around the house any time and get them to show you how they can march or clap to the beat. Better still, feel free to encourage them to dance along to the music by showing them your own moves!
Happy singing and dancing!
Mrs Emma Cooper