Year 1 News

It’s hard to believe we are already in Week 8! Time certainly flies when you’re having fun, and it has been another wonderful week of exciting learning in Year 1. 

As readers and writers, we have been exploring Procedural Texts. We read a variety of procedures and identified their structural elements and language features, including a goal, materials list, numbered steps in sequence, and present tense verbs. We then had a go at writing our own procedures and challenged our teachers to follow them. This helped us understand the importance of being specific, choosing precise verbs, and including everything needed to successfully complete a task.

After reading the story How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth, we used our imaginations to write procedures explaining how to wash something else. We wrote about climbing ladders, using long hoses, putting on goggles, and using multiple bottles of soap and shampoo to wash dragons, giraffes, elephants, and even unicorns!

As mathematicians, we tuned in to the concept of Subtraction. We activated our prior knowledge, sharing the different skills and strategies we already know. As thinkers, we explored some of the different vocabulary we might use when subtracting, such as take-away, minus, difference, fewer and less, before diving deeper into the world of ‘difference’. We learnt that when working out the difference between two numbers, we are subtracting! We can count up, or we can count back/down to. We had so much fun playing Diffy Towers and solving worded stories, using blocks and bar models to help us. 

As researchers, we had time and opportunity to participate in an incursion for Reconciliation Week with Majeda from Nexus Arts. Majeda is an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander woman. She shared her culture, traditions, and stories through music, singing, and dance. We learnt about ochre painting, traditional instruments such as the tubular bamboo drum (Buruburu) and the shakers (kulaps), and traditional clothing like the hand-woven grass skirts. We had so much fun and learnt some amazing things about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. 

Our week ended with a wonderful Whole School Prayer presented by 1CW. Congratulations to 1CW on leading their first assembly for 2026 and teaching us about Empathy! 

This week, we will be learning about…

• Numeracy: Subtraction
• Reading: Structure and Features of Procedure Texts
• InitiaLit: New sounds: Split digraphs: bossy ‘e’...a_e, i_e
• Revising learnt sounds and digraphs and building, reading and spelling words and sentences (ck, ll, ff, ss, sh, qu, ee, z, zz, ch, v, x, th, wh, y, ng, oo, ay, ai, ee, ea, oa, ow, igh, _y, ue, ew, ar, or, ore, ir, ur, er, -ing, -s) 
• Writing: Procedure Texts
• Inquiry: Mini Museum of Toys and Technology
• Religion: Eucharist
• TRP: Mindfulness 

Have a wonderful week! 

Year 1 Team, 

Alycia Marsico, Chloe Wang and Olivia Bovolato