Grade 1 News

📅 Important Dates & Reminders

All important dates and events are available on our Compass Calendar. Please check the calendar regularly to stay up to date.

Upcoming dates/Important Info

Monday June 8th: King’s Birthday Public Holiday

Icy Poles will be sold outside the senior school Monday & Tuesday lunchtimes

Key Information

• Students are to bring their take-home bags to school daily (optional) to swap books for home.

Learning Reflection

Scienceworks Excursion

On Wednesday, the Grade 1 students visited Scienceworks as part of our Knowledge Rich Unit on Astronomy. A highlight of the excursion was visiting the Planetarium, where students watched an engaging animation about a character travelling to Mars. Students also learnt about star constellations and explored what different constellations look like in the night sky.

After the Planetarium session, students explored the museum’s interactive exhibitions, including Sportsworks and Think Ahead, where they enjoyed engaging with hands-on activities and learning about movement, science and future technologies. Students had a fantastic time exploring, investigating and participating throughout the day. Thank you to the parents who volunteered their time to attend and support our excursion.

➗Maths

This fortnight in Grade 1, students have been exploring the concepts of mass and capacity through a range of engaging hands-on investigations and problem-solving activities. Students learnt to compare and order objects by mass using strategies such as hefting and balance scales, while developing their understanding of vocabulary including heavier, lighter and about the same weight. They investigated the mass of classroom objects and used trial and error to compare, balance and order items from heaviest to lightest.

Students also explored the concept of capacity by investigating how much different containers can hold. Using water and a variety of containers, students compared which containers held more, less or the same amount. They practised ordering containers by capacity and recording their findings using mathematical language. Students also discovered that taller containers do not always hold the most, helping to strengthen their reasoning, observation and problem-solving skills through practical learning experiences.

Preview - Over the next fortnight we will be looking into addition and subtraction!

📖 Literacy 

Word Work: 

This fortnight, students have been learning about the digraphs ee and ea, exploring how ee is commonly found in the middle and at the end of words, while ea can appear anywhere within a word. As this is a tricky digraph, students are encouraged to ask questions whenever they are unsure which spelling pattern to use. Towards the end of the fortnight, students will begin learning the trigraph igh, further strengthening their decoding and spelling skills. 

Handwriting

This fortnight students have practised forming the letters v, d, o, n, m, h, b, r, y, g, i, u, w, and x. 

Literature: 

This fortnight, students have begun exploring the book 'The Most Magnificent Thing,' by Ashley Spires. They have practised listening to and responding to stories by asking and answering questions, as well as sharing their ideas about the characters, events, and key messages within the text. 

In Writing, students have started experimenting with the conjunctions but and because. They have been identifying sentence endings that best match each conjunction and explaining their thinking. Students also reflected on whether they liked or disliked Iggy Peck, Architect, providing reasons to support their opinions.

Preview - Looking ahead, students will begin planning and writing a procedure explaining how to create their own magnificent invention. Students will also begin exploring the words before and after and practise applying them appropriately within their own sentences.

Knowledge Rich:

Students have begun an exciting new Knowledge Rich unit exploring Ancient Egypt. Throughout the fortnight, students have shared their prior knowledge and started delving deeper into key aspects of this ancient civilisation. They have explored important ideas such as pyramids, pharaohs, deserts, and daily life in Ancient Egypt. 

Preview - Over the coming fortnight, students will continue building on their understanding by investigating these concepts in greater detail and making connections to how people lived in the past. 

Wellbeing😊

This fortnight, students participated in their first Circles session for the term. Circles is a wonderful opportunity for students to connect with peers and teachers from different areas of the school, helping them build relationships, confidence, and independence.

During our Wellbeing sessions, students explored the importance of acts of kindness and reflected on ways they have shown kindness to others. It was lovely to see students sharing thoughtful examples and recognising the positive impact kindness can have on those around them.

Curious Corner 

This fortnight, students have continued to have the opportunity to explore our Curious Corner, sparking their sense of wonder and creativity. They have particularly enjoyed how this space connects to our current unit on Astronomy, allowing them to apply what they have been learning in class through imaginative play. It has been wonderful to see students beginning to make connections in their learning while also supporting one another as they explore and discover together. 

Homework

Optional Homework for Grade 1 

For homework in Grade 1, the expectation is that students will read their take-home book to an adult each day. Every student will choose a new book from their classroom on a daily basis (optional). Students will need to return their previous book before receiving a new book. Here is a link to a folder to access Sparkle at home activities if you wish: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/126BRm52aR9NyaCdEgnCljLC3X0MWqupj 

If you are not sure which level your child is on, please ask your child’s teacher.

For those students who are off sparkle, please encourage them to read any book of their choice at home. 

Thank you for reading our newsletter, please remember if you have any questions feel free to contact your child’s teacher. 

Grade 1 Teachers, 

Catia Anson, Bella Albanese and Jess Kitteringham.