Year 1 Term 1 Overviews

Dear Year 1 Families,

Welcome back to school for 2025! This year we have nine Year 1 classes and the teachers are: 

The Year 1 teachers are extremely proud of the Year 1 student’s return to school and are looking forward to watching them grow as learners.

Artefacts

In order to get to know each other better, we asked students to bring in an artefact so we could find out more about them, and more about all of the cultures we have at DCC, along with what our students identify to be significant to them..  We are very grateful for parental support in providing an artefact and also speaking to your child about why they chose it and how it was important to them.  It was lovely to hear about special items, important holidays/festivals celebrated by their families and memories that are important to them.

Literacy 

Reading will be a priority for all Year 1 students with a larger emphasis on comprehension of texts (understanding) and text features. As your child begins to develop their reading skills through decoding (solving the words) and fluency (notice and using punctuation to make meaning), they will encounter a larger variety of Fiction and Non-Fiction texts which will further develop their love for reading. This term in reading, students will focus on identifying the purpose, genre and features of a text (Fiction and Nonfiction), developing their ability to infer, making text to self connections and summarising the important parts of a text. To support the development of reading, students will engage in daily guided reading sessions, reading conferences, buddy reading, independent reading and serial class reading. 

This term in Writing, Year 1  students will engage in phonics as well as handwriting practice to understand that letters and sounds can be combined to make words. They will learn how writers develop their ideas and use this as inspiration to create their own poetry and personal recounts. Using their knowledge of letter sounds, High-Frequency-Words, syllables and regular spelling patterns, students will write sentences that include one or more ideas and draw a picture to add detail. As authors, they will form upper- and lower-case letters to present their writing, experiment with adding and deleting sounds to create new words, and read back their writing to ensure that it makes sense. 

Numeracy

This term in Numeracy, Year 1 students will begin the term by recapping and expanding their knowledge of number and place value.  This is a core focus area through the year and in Term 1, they will begin by partitioning 2-digit numbers into tens and ones and exploring different ways of making numbers.  They will develop their understanding of skip counting in 2s, 5s and 10s to begin to count larger quantities of objects more efficiently.  Students will identify and create pattern sequences with number, symbols, shapes and objects including Australian coins. Throughout the term, students will continue to be exposed to different mathematical situations where they will be required to problem solve using the skills of modelling, diagrams and equations.  Students will then move to space by investigating 2D shapes and 3D objects.  Using their knowledge and understanding of shape to classify, compare and recognise familiar shapes in the environment.  To conclude Term 1, students will be acquiring and recording data in various ways including drawing, tally marks and symbols.  

SEL (Social and Emotional Learning)

In SEL, students will be identifying and naming both comfortable and uncomfortable feelings.  They will explore ways to regulate their emotions and also discuss what to do when they feel uncomfortable feelings.  We will be investigating ways to keep safe around the school, both inside the classroom and outside in the playground.  To support this, we will discuss what we should do if we have a problem in the playground.  This may include talking through a problem with a friend or finding the yard duty teacher if they need further support.  Throughout the term, we will come back to understanding that people feel emotions in different ways and how we can support others if they have big feelings. This will be explored through the PATHS, Respectful Relationships and Berry Street Program. 

Unit of Inquiry - Wellbeing and Health

This term, students will explore how ‘our decisions impact our physical and mental health’. Students will understand effective calming strategies as well as how to communicate and express their emotions to keep a healthy mind. They will use critical thinking skills of asking questions to reflect on their health choices, such as “what does a healthy lunchbox look like?”. Students will work together to explain what a healthy home and school environment looks like, sounds like and feels like. By the end of this inquiry, students will reflect how our personal choices affect our health now and in the future. 

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. 

Learning Apps - This year at DCC we will be using Wushka to support your child's reading at home. To support numeracy at home students will have access to IXL. Log in details for both of these will go home in the coming weeks.

Please remember to send your child to school with a hat during Terms 1 and 4.  We are still experiencing very hot weather so to be sun safe, children should have their hat everyday.

Kind regards,

Year 1 Team