Year 1 Term 2 Overviews

Dear Year 1 Families,

Welcome back to school for Term 2! We have been very proud of the Year 1 student’s transition back into the routines and they have already demonstrated their growth since Prep!

Curriculum:

Literacy 

In Reading, students will be able to understand how pictures and words work together to inform the reader. They will explore the structure of fiction and non-fiction texts and understand the author's purpose. Students will understand the different features in a text and how we can use these to search and use information. Students will use the structure of a text to summarise the key information, as well as think about their prior knowledge and use it to understand new information. Students will explore punctuation and understand how this influences our expression and understanding as a reader. Students will use a range of evidence sources to infer the meaning of the story, information about the character and the events of the text. Students will recognise words with plurals and suffixes and how this changes the meaning of a word. Students will practise solving words using parts of larger words and connect them to other words. 

In writing, students will be using mentor texts to support their development of ideas, word choice, sentence fluency and organisation. Throughout the term students will investigate how an author uses different vocabulary to help their readers visualise as well as uses punctuation to create flow in their writing.  Students will focus on real life experience to assist them with narratives and information reports. Students will continue to build on their ability to use punctuation such as full stops and capital letters correctly.  Each week, students will engage in SMART spelling and phonics to help improve their understanding of spelling patterns and letter formation.

Numeracy

This term, Year 1 students will learn how to tell time to the hour and half-hour using analogue and digital clocks and describe the duration of familiar events. Students will then explore chance through looking at everyday events and describing them using everyday language such as ‘will happen’, ‘won't happen’ and ‘might happen’. Later in the term students will be learning how to order Australian coins according to their value and describing the coins’ appearance (shape, size, colour). Year 1 students will also have an integrated focus on place value throughout the term to expose them to multiple strategies of counting efficiently and additive strategies.

Inquiry  

Throughout this inquiry unit, Year 1 students will lead the direction of the inquiry based on their wonderings, creativity and critical thinking to investigate the driving statement: Humans have changed planet Earth. Students will investigate how the environment changes naturally and with human interference. Students will be looking at the difference between natural and human made resources, and explore how humans have impacted the environment. At the conclusion of the unit, students will take action with their learning, and plan how they will look after the environment. 

Ways to Help Your Child At Home:

Home Reading - We have started our Home Reading program. The expectation is for your child to read their take home book 5 nights a week, answer some comprehension questions that an older family member asks them and record the title, date and a comment in the yellow reading journal themselves. Take home books are for enjoyment and for your child to practise their reading strategies, and are not meant to be a challenging task for your child. In addition to the Home Reading program, Wushka and Reading Eggs are extremely valuable resources to help your child practise their reading.

Seesaw - We have also commenced the use of Seesaw as a form of weekly homework. Every Monday, a post will be added with tasks for your child to complete throughout the week. These tasks are closely linked to the learning that occurs during the week. Please contact your child’s teacher if you do not have access to Seesaw.

Learning Goals - Your child’s individualised learning goals are listed on Compass. There is a Reading goal, a Writing goal, a Maths goal, and a goal focussed on dispositions and skills around social learning for your child. Please read these and support your child by going through the suggested strategies to help at home. These goals will be updated in Weeks 5 and 10, and you will also be informed of your child’s achievement of these goals.

Thank you for your continued support with your child’s learning. 

Year 1 Team