Year 1

Term 2 Reflection

What a fantastic Term 2 it has been in Year 1! Throughout the term, students have been highly engaged in our STEAM unit on Community, developing a deeper understanding of what makes a community and the important roles people play within it.

One of the highlights of the term was our community walk around Cheltenham. Students enjoyed exploring the local area and identifying important places that help our community function. We were also fortunate to welcome family members into the classroom to share insights about their occupations and explain how their work contributes to the community. To celebrate the culmination of our unit, the Junior School visited the Cheltenham Library, where students explored the valuable services and resources that libraries provide.

Throughout the term, students made meaningful connections between their classroom learning and the world around them. They demonstrated curiosity, enthusiasm, and a growing awareness of the people, places, and services that support our community. It has been wonderful to see their confidence and understanding develop as they explored what it means to be an active and contributing member of a community.

Literacy: 

In Literacy, students explored a range of rich texts, including The Map of Me by Nicola Davies, and completed an author study on Bob Graham. Through these texts, students developed their understanding of belonging, community, and how places change over time. They demonstrated growing confidence in their reading and writing skills, creating informative texts about community helpers, persuasive texts about the importance of community spaces, they wrote letters to themselves, and began to develop their own imaginative narratives.

MSL

Students also worked hard during MSL lessons, consolidating their knowledge of spelling patterns and phonics concepts. It has been wonderful to see their confidence grow as they apply these skills to both their reading and writing.

This term, the following spellings were introduced: Schwa, FLOSS rule, ai/ay, oi/oy, ie/igh, ee/ea, oa/ow, ou/ow, air/ear/are.

Mathematics

In Mathematics, students strengthened their understanding of place value by exploring the value of tens and ones, and by investigating number patterns through skip counting. They were introduced to a range of addition and subtraction strategies and showed increasing flexibility and confidence when solving mathematical problems. These concepts will continue to be developed and consolidated in Term 3.

Through our STEAM projects, students also explored a variety of mathematical concepts, including:

• Measurement: using comparative language such as bigger, smaller, longer, shorter, wider and thinner.
• Location: using prepositional language such as next to, behind, between, left and right, as well as developing their coding skills through Beebot activities.
• 2D Shapes: identifying and naming common 2D shapes and describing their features by counting sides and corners.

STEAM

A particular highlight of the term was our STEAM project, where students worked collaboratively to design and create model communities. Students began by exploring the needs and wants of a community, using information gathered through a family survey to guide their thinking. They then carefully planned and designed their own community spaces, identifying and labelling the materials they would need. Once the planning was complete, students enthusiastically brought their ideas to life by constructing their communities and working together to solve challenges along the way. To conclude the project, students applied their coding skills by programming Beebots to safely navigate through their community designs. It was fantastic to see students demonstrating creativity, teamwork, problem-solving, and critical thinking while engaging in this hands-on learning experience.

We are incredibly proud of the growth, resilience, and enthusiasm shown by all students this term. Thank you to our families for your ongoing support. We hope everyone has a safe and restful break and look forward to another exciting term ahead.

Year 1 Team

Lauren Mackenzie (1A), Meg Nicholas (1B), Rachel Scott (1C Mon-Wed) and Jessica Kennedy (1C Wed-Fri) 

Important Dates:

Monday 13th July:  First day of Term 3

Dates TBC: Parent Teacher Interviews

Tuesday 21st July:  Mini Commonwealth Games

Thursday 6th August: Moonlit Sanctuary Excursion

Dates TBC: Upcoming Book Week Events in August 

Week of Monday 7th and Monday 14th September: School Swimming

Friday 18th September: End of Term 3