Year 1/2 News
English
Reading
During our start up program in Reading, the Grade 1/2 students will be discussing and identifying the routines and expectations of our reading lessons. Our lessons will focus on establishing expectations for independent reading, selecting Just Right Texts, participating in buddy reading opportunities, setting up and taking care of our classroom library and understanding and appreciating varied reading interests. We will also be establishing structures and routines for conferencing, teacher focus groups and purposeful reading experiences.
For the remainder of the term, the students will be reading, processing and comprehending a wide range of high quality mentor texts. The comprehension strategies we will be explicitly teaching this term are Activating Prior Knowledge, Predicting, Retelling and Making Connection. Students will also have the opportunity to look at the basic structures and features of fiction and non-fiction texts, as well as learn strategies to assist students in working out unknown words and fluency.
Writing
To start the year in Writing, the Grade 1/2 students will be familiarising themselves with the writing lesson structure and routines. Students will have the opportunity to conduct both teacher directed and personal choice writing using different materials from their classroom writing centres. Students will also be setting up and personalising their Writer’s Notebooks, which will be used throughout the year to support their development of ideas when writing.
Students will then be participating in an introductory unit on Narratives. This unit will support students to begin to develop their skills in narrative writing through the context of reimagined traditional tales e.g. The Three Little Pigs. Students will be following the structure of a narrative and also focusing on elements such as planning and sequencing ideas, structuring sentences, using capital letters and full stops appropriately and simple revising/editing strategies before publishing their narrative.
Mathematics
The Grade 1/2 students will begin the year familiarising themselves with the tools and equipment that they will use to support their learning in mathematics sessions. Students will also be familiarising themselves with the routines and expectations of our mathematics sessions, including how to work productively with a ‘maths mate’. Students will complete some simple problem solving lessons during the Mathematics Start Up program which allows them to showcase their knowledge to their new teachers.
Our first mathematics unit will focus on Time. Students will spend a short time revising days of the week, months of the year and calendars, before beginning to look at reading half past time and consolidating o’clock time on analogue clock faces. This focus will be ongoing throughout the year.
Following Time, Counting and patterns will be the main focus for the term as this is a pivotal part to all other areas of mathematics. Students will investigate, continue and produce a range of counting patterns and begin to develop fluency with these patterns. Students will be given counting goals which they will practise with a ‘maths mate’ throughout the year.
The last few weeks of Term 1 will be focused on Place Value and Data. Students will begin to work towards recognising, reading, writing and modelling numbers to 2 digit and 3 digit numbers. During Data lessons the students will be learning how to collect information and display this using graphs. They will also begin interpreting the information some graphs tell us, including picture graphs and bar graphs.
Inquiry
During this term, the Grade 1 students will be settling back into classroom routines and structures and revisiting positive behaviours. They will begin the term by focusing on our school wide Learning to Learn program to ensure school wide positive behaviours are understood and displayed. These will be regularly revisited throughout the year. We will also look at identifying and understanding our emotions and potential responses to these emotions, with a large focus on Zones of Regulation.
The students will then begin their first Inquiry unit ‘My School is Cool’ where they will learn a range of strategies and actions to keep their classroom and school a healthy and safe space. They will identify ways to include others and acknowledge the importance of a sense of belonging. The students will also learn about help seeking inside and outside the classroom.
Science
Welcome Grade 1-2 to an exciting Term 1 Science 2024 !
This term the students will be focusing on the Biological Science strand. Students will explore the life cycle of humans and the five main stages they go through as they grow – birth, child, teenager, adult, elderly; students will investigate, and discuss, some of the changes that will occur as they grow up (such as growing taller and appearances changing). This term the Grade 1-2 students will be focusing on the Biological Science strand. Students will explore the life cycle of humans and the five main stages they go through as they grow – birth, child, teenager, adult, elderly; students will investigate, and discuss, some of the changes that will occur as they grow up (such as growing taller and appearances changes).
This is going to be a super exciting term in Science!
LOTE-AUSLAN
It is with much excitement to announce that this year students at Melton West Primary School from Prep to Grade six will be learning AUSLAN as our new LOTE subject! The program will commence in due course when it is available and set up for learning to take place in classrooms. Classroom teachers will facilitate the learning and will be provided with comprehensive resources and a teaching program from Auslan Education Services. We look forward to our students learning this wonderful skill which will provide many opportunities to communicate with the broader and inclusive community. Be sure to look out for notifications in our newsletter and social media platforms for when students have begun to engage in this fantastic learning experience!
Art
Welcome to Term 1 Art, 2024! In Art, Grade 1 and 2 will begin by settling into routines and following expectations in our art room environment. This will include taking pride and care when using art materials and tools and demonstrating positive behaviours. The topic for this term is Colour Theory. Students will revise the Primary Colours of red, blue and yellow and how these can be mixed to make Secondary Colours, which are orange, green and purple. Students will use different mediums. such as paint, when creating artworks and mixing colours. They will look at artworks by different artists to explore how colours can be used. Grade 1 and 2 will also explore working with warm and cool colours to create their art pieces.
Looking forward to lots of creativity and wonderful artworks from Grade I and 2 in Term 1!
P.E
Welcome back to a new year of Physical Education. During this term our grade 1/ 2 students will be continuing their learning and building on skills introduced last year. In this term we will focus on the sports of football and netball. The aim of our learning is to develop all the relevant skills required to perform each of these sports and then participate in games that showcase these skills. Our students will be performing the linked fundamental movement skills for these sports which includes throwing, catching, running, kicking, and striking. They will also continue to develop problem solving skills and use strategy when participating in the different sports to try and achieve successful outcomes. A games-based approach will be evident throughout the year in Physical Education where all students will be given time to participate and play in actual games so that they can learn by playing and learn by doing each activity. This is to help each student develop an understanding of the skills, rules, and game concepts required to play. I am excited and looking forward to working with all the grade 1/ 2 students this term!