Year 1/2 News

Hello to our wonderful 1/2 parents and carers! 

Last week was a big yet exciting week for the 12 students! 

On Thursday we had a massive change in routine that all students managed to take in their stride. Our resilience was tested when engaging in six activities with the Proactivity incursion- trying new activities and working on new skills is a challenge but everyone rose to the occasion and experienced lots of successes (and even a few failures!) 

We also give a big shout out to the students who completed and returned their homework last week!

Reminders: We change our take-home readers every Friday. We are working towards our students increasing their independence and responsibility when managing everyday tasks. If we had a dollar for every time one of our students told us that “My parents forgot to pack our bags”, we’d be very rich right now! We can assure you that we are on your side and that it is not a parent responsibility but that of the students themselves! Yes, you can breathe a sigh of relief…less work for you to do each morning when packing their bags!

Special toys: Please ensure that your child does not bring any special toys from home that have the potential to be lost forever! If your child needs a specific toy/fidget/aid and it has been recommended by a professional, please see your homeroom teacher to discuss this. 

English classroom news: We continue to adjust to new routines, and everyone is getting used to working with new positive learning partners, getting to know some new faces and settle into life in our learning world.

In Reading, we are practicing choral reading, echo reading and paired fluency activities. These provide students with an opportunity to read with others throughout the lesson, practicing our phrasing, pausing, expression and word accuracy. These practices encourage students to become more confident when reading out loud, to learn new and unfamiliar words and analyse texts together.

In Writing, our continued focus is writing recounts, including a ‘who, what, where, when and why’, so that our recounts are detailed and written in a sequenced order of events. We continue to build on sentence structure and parts of speech. 

Our Year 1’s are familiarising themselves with the grammatical terms ‘nouns (common and proper), adjectives and verbs and applying it into their writing. Some of our Year 2’s are examining been at how we order adjectives within a sentence.

In Maths, we are revising skip counting, number patterns and place value. The students have been assessed for place value, and it was a magnificent effort from the Year 1’s to complete their first written assessment! 

Spanish Literacy 

This week in Spanish literacy, students have been working on pronouns, personal descriptions, and adjectives related to personality and physical appearance. They are learning how to describe themselves and their family members using simple sentences and appropriate vocabulary. 

To reinforce their learning in a fun and engaging way, students have been playing memory games online using the Educaplay platform. These interactive activities help strengthen their recall, pronunciation, and confidence when using new words. 

We are also practicing how to introduce ourselves in Spanish. As part of this unit, students are creating their own “passports” with personal information such as their name, age, and nationality. They have been enjoying role-playing airport scenarios, pretending to travel and introducing themselves to others. This activity encourages speaking practice in a creative and meaningful context. 

In Maths, we are focusing on learning about money and developing our counting skills. Students are practicing counting from 10 onwards and building fluency with larger numbers. 

We are also working with 10-frames to support number sense and visual counting strategies. Through hands-on activities using dice and number games, students practice identifying numbers, as well as determining which number comes before and after a given number. These activities help strengthen their understanding of number sequences in an engaging and interactive way.