Grade 1/2 News
Term 1, Week 4
Welcome back to the Grade 1/2 page!
Key Dates:
- Monday 10th March: Labour Day
Wednesday 18th March: School Photos
Toileting during class time: We have a number of students opting to take regular toileting breaks. We understand younger students often need to go more regularly but we also want to minimise the disruption this can cause to learning when the breaks are frequently requested and may not be necessary.
If your child has a legitimate reason for needing to go more regularly, can you please communicate this with your child's teacher, so that we can manage this appropriately.
Our team and emails are as follows:
Madie Floyd: Madison.Floyd@education.vic.gov.au
Tegan Edwards: Tegan.Edwards@education.vic.gov.au
Jane Rodda: Jane.Rodda@education.vic.gov.au
Sami Craig: Samantha.Craig@education.vic.gov.au
Chris McClellan: Christopher.McClellan@education.vic.gov.au
What we have been up to...
Last week when reading the book 'Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge', we heard about a boy, Wilfrid, who helps an elderly friend, Nancy, to regain some of her memory. One activity for this book involved the students drawing a picture of themselves with their favourite older person doing something fun together. This week, our focus text was 'Molly and Mae'. This story compared a friendship to a train journey. There are happy moments, boring moments and exciting moments. There is anger and loneliness, and there is forgiveness, and the thread of friendship runs through everything, like rail tracks through the countryside.
For Writing, students have continued learning how to write a detailed and interesting recount. We have investigated ways to make our writing more descriptive and how to write complete sentences.
In Mathematics, we continued with our unit on Data. Students learnt different ways that we can collect data and the how we can present this data in a picture graph. This week, we have begun our next unit which is on Place Value.
Students did an excellent job presenting to the class their 'Me in a Bag'. It was a great activity which allowed students to share things about themselves which we might not otherwise find out and was great way to build our knowledge of each other in the classroom. Thank you to our families for their support with this activity!
Our students had a wonderful time at the Start Up performance today. They have shown excellent persistence and determination in learning and practising their group performance over the past couple of weeks. Thank you to the many families who came to watch!
Photos from the last fortnight...
Upcoming Learning
Week 5 and 6
Reading, Writing and Spelling:
Our focus texts for the next fortnight are:
- Miss Kraken - by Nicki Greenberg
- Your School is the Best! – by Maggie Hutchings
Students will practise using the reading strategies of predicting, comparing and contrasting and also tuning into interesting vocabulary, whilst being read these books.
Phonemes for Term 1 will include:
Week 5 – ai, ay, a_e 💗 – say, play, day |
Week 6 – ee, ea, e_e 💗 – seen, tree, week, please |
Week 7 – ie, y, igh 💗 – might, light, night |
Week 8 – oa, o_e, ow, o 💗 – know, show, snow |
Weeks 9 & 10: Revise based on student need
Mathematics: The focus will continue to be on Place Value. Students will take part in activities to help them to recognise, represent and order two- and three-digit numbers, using physical and virtual materials, numerals and number lines.
Topic: Over the next fortnight students will explore the concept of belonging in their class and within the wider school community. They will complete activities to support them to learn more about each other and to work collaboratively.
Rights, Resilience and Respectful Relationships (R.R.R.R.): During Respectful Relationships lessons classes will focus on acts of Friendship.
Reminders: (Repeated from last newsletter)
Hats: As we are a proud SunSmart school, between September and April all students must be wearing a hat when playing outside. We ask that students leave their hats in the classroom at the end of each day to ensure they are at school and ready to use. Any students who do not have a hat will be asked to play in the shade in The Hub.
Drink Bottles: We encourage that, where possible, students have a labelled drink bottle filled with water each day.
Belongings: We ask that any belongings which are coming to school or things that can be taken off during the day such as jumpers, please be clearly labelled with your child's name.
Home Reading Expectations: Over the next week, students will begin bringing books home to read. We ask that families do their best to read 4 nights each week and fill in the yellow reading diary on those days. Students may read somewhere between 5 - 20 minutes. Home reading is not designed to be a difficult task and at times the readers may even seem easy which is absolutely fine. Students may bring the same books for a number of days and this is to support them to develop their fluency and expression. Library books can be used for parents to read to their child and discuss asking questions such as: Who was in the book? What happened in the story? Was there a problem that needed solving?
Please ensure that your child's reading satchel is returned to school every day, as we practise reading our readers each morning. We also use the reading satchel as a way to transport notes home, so please keep an eye out for those!