Year 1/2

Celebrating Learning

What we have been up to: 

We have soared into the “imagine” stage of the design process, year 1/2 classes started to explore the properties of different materials in the classroom. Students have been testing and tinkering with recycled materials to determine what might be suitable for their flying machines that they are making at home! Ask your child about their discoveries!

Year 1/2 students had their first “practise for next year” transition session in week 6. Students in year 1 had the current foundation students come and join in with their classes, giving them the opportunity to meet some of their potential future classmates.

The year 2s got to spend the morning with the year 3s in the 3/4 classrooms. Students were able to see their potential future classrooms, participate in year 3/4 classroom routines and get reacquainted with their classmates from last year. 

“I got to go in my brothers’ old teacher’s class.” Memphis

“I liked how we played help because it was intense.” Chester

“It helped me figure out who the new people will be who will stick up for me next year. I was nervous before but now I can see that there are people who can be my friend in the new classes.” Odette

“It was really fun because they gave us really hard stuff to do.” Frank

“I got to go with some of my friends and I got to sit next to a really good mate from last year.” Elke

“We did quicker phonics and it was fun.” Arik

Official transition dates will be later this term.

Maths:

Our students place value knowledge continues to strengthen as we revisit place value. We have been reading, ordering, writing and partitioning two digit, three digit and four digit (and beyond!) numbers. Students have continued to discuss analogue and digital clocks and are learning how to tell the time to the hour, half hour, quarter hour (and to the minute when they are ready).

English:

In writing sessions, we’ve drifted over into “persuasive text’ land. Students are following our writer’s process to plan, draft, revise and edit persuasive texts. Persuasive texts are a great way to teach students about how important your “audience” is when writing as this will inform the tone of your arguments.

Students had their first go at a persuasive in week 5. There were some excellent reasons that students came up with as to why everyone should/ should not learn how to cook:

“If you don't, you could burn the house down.” Daniel

“When you grow up you don't have to eat raw things.” Tex

“You get to eat the mixture and lick the spoon or bowl.” Violette

“Cooking can cheer you up!” Louisa

“We need to cook because we need to look after the world and … not waste your money on takeaway food.” Isobel 

“… if your parents didn’t know how to cook and if uber eats didn’t exist… you will starve to death.” Henry

“Learn to cook because you could make something sumptuous.” Fynn

This term, year 1/2 classes are continuing learning the Little Learners Love Literacy Stage 7.4 sounds. To reinforce their learning, students could be practising their spelling at home. 

7.4 sounds that we have focussed on for weeks 5-6 are suffixes ing, s and er and sounds: wr (write), gn (gnome), kn (know) and mb (lamb).

What’s to come in the next two weeks:

Students will have another “practise for next year” transition session in week 8 following a similar format to the session in week 6.

Students’ flying machines, which they have been designing and creating at home over the past few weeks, are due in week 8 and 9! Students will bring their flying machines into class and will have the opportunity to demonstrate how high/ far they can fly or how long they stay in the air when dropped from a height. We can’t wait to see what students have come up with!

We will start to focus more heavily on the final stage of the writer’s process in the coming weeks after spending a lot of time planning, drafting, revising and editing. Students will learn about the high expectations of a published piece of writing and how they can ensure their published pieces are the best work that they can produce.

In our phonics sessions in week 7 and 8, we will continue reviewing sounds and spelling patterns we have been working on over the course of the year. All students benefit from a daily routine of reading and being read to at home. 

In Maths, we will begin our unit exploring money- learning about the physical coins and notes that we use in Australia.

As we are now in term 4 and the sun is getting stronger, please remember to pack a hat for your child every day!