Koala Classroom

Welcome to the Koala Class!

Literacy

In Literacy this term, K–1 students are building their confidence and independence as writers through our Quick Writes program. Each week, students respond to an engaging stimulus and practise creating short written texts for different purposes, including recounts, stories, informative writing and opinion pieces. These 10 to 15 minute writing sessions help students develop their ideas, use vocabulary with purpose, build simple and compound sentences, and apply punctuation such as capital letters, full stops, question marks and exclamation marks. Students are also learning to re-read their writing, make small edits and share their ideas with an audience.

Maths

In Mathematics, our Kindergarten student is continuing to build his understanding of subtraction through number stories within 10. We are using classroom materials, drawings and ten-frames to represent taking away, count how many are left, and explain their thinking using sentence frames such as “10 take away 3 is 7.” We are also learning to make up their own subtraction stories to match pictures and compare two collections by finding the difference. These hands-on activities help students connect subtraction to real-life situations and strengthen their understanding of part, whole and number relationships.

In Mathematics, Year 1 students are continuing to build on their learning about area from Term 2. They are further developing their understanding of how to compare and measure the surface of different objects and shapes. Students are directly comparing areas by placing shapes on top of each other, and indirectly comparing areas by using paper cut-outs or familiar classroom materials. They are also beginning to measure area using informal units such as paper squares, cards or books, making sure there are no gaps or overlaps. These hands-on activities help students strengthen the language of area, including bigger than, smaller than and the same as, while building their understanding of measurement in practical ways.

Koala Class Routines