Grade 1 Community News

Dear Grade 1 Families, we are finally over the halfway hump of our third term and managing so well to keep up with new and revised learning!

Well done to this fortnight’s award winners below:

InitiaLit

In our literacy lessons, we have continued to review our Bossy ‘e’ rule. We have practiced checking for the bossy ‘e’ on the end of words, reading words and spelling them correctly, making sure to identify whether the vowel makes a long or short sound.

We have also been learning the two new digraphs that make the /or/ sound - ‘aw’ (claw) and ‘au’ (autumn).

InitiaLit - Tricky Words: about, ask, our

How you can support at home:

Read for a few minutes each night and ask your child to spot words with our focus sounds
Practice tricky words by writing them on paper, saying them aloud, or using them in a sentence.
Identify and write down nouns, verbs and adjectives you find in your books while reading, and discuss their meanings with your child.

Storybook & Vocabulary

This fortnight we have been reading three poems from the book Now We are Six, by A.A. Milne, written more than 90 years ago.

The poems are called ‘Forgiven’, ‘Waiting at the Window’ and ‘The End’, each of which describes things the fictional character Christopher Robin (from Winnie the Pooh) did when he was six. They have helped to expose the children to poetic features such as rhyme, repetition and rhythm.

From these stories, we have learned three new vocabulary words to use in our writing and daily language: certain, ooze and smear

Writing

In Writing, students have been learning about poetry, and how to use the poetic features we were introduced to during Storybook lessons to create various styles of poetry.

We planned and published Acrostic Poems using our own names as the first letter of each new line, and chose adjectives and short phrases to describe ourselves.

We planned Shape Poems using adjectives to describe our favourite food and worked on drafting them in the shape of our chosen food.

We then began to plan and draft a Cinquain Poem. A Cinquain poem is a short, five-line poem that does not rhyme, but follows a specific pattern:

How you can support at home:

Encourage your child to describe the things (nouns) around them using describing words (adjectives). Take them further by writing these words down, and organising them with your child into various poetic styles, like those described above.
Invite your child to ‘present’ their poems before or after dinner time to develop their oral presentation skills.

Maths

In Maths, our Grade 1 mathematicians have been busy developing their understanding of time, equal groups, fractions, statistics, and addition.

Students have been learning to tell time to the half hour, using the language o’clock and half-past. They have been practicing reading analogue clocks and connecting the position of the hands with the time shown.

We have also been exploring equal groups. Students are learning to identify whether groups contain the same number of objects, work out how many objects are in each group, and use skip counting to find the total number of objects in equal groups.

Our Grade 1s have also been learning about halves and quarters. They are exploring how a whole can be divided into equal parts and identifying whether shapes and collections have been divided into halves or quarters.

Remember:

One half = one out of two equal parts is shaded.

One quarter = one out of four equal parts is shaded.

In Statistics, students have been learning how to ask questions to gather information from others. They have been collecting data and using tally marks to record their results, helping them organise and make sense of the information they collect.

Students have also been introduced to a new addition strategy: the addition algorithm. They are learning to solve two-digit addition problems by writing the numbers vertically, adding the ones first and then the tens. This is helping students develop accuracy and confidence when solving larger addition problems.

It has been wonderful to see students engaging with hands-on activities, sharing their mathematical thinking, and developing new strategies to solve problems.

How you can support at home:

Practice telling the time using an analogue clock, focusing on o’clock and half-past.
Make equal groups using everyday objects such as blocks, toys or buttons. Ask, “Are the groups equal?” and “How many are in each group?”
Practice skip counting by 2s, 3s, 5s or 10s when making equal groups.
Look for examples of halves and quarters when sharing food or objects. Talk about how each part must be equal.
Ask your child simple questions such as, “What is your favourite fruit?” and collect the answers using tally marks.

Humanities

This fortnight in Humanities, our Grade 1 explorers have been learning more about water environments and how people use different water places.

Students have been working as water detectives, learning to ask simple questions, observe how people use places such as rivers, lakes, beaches, and pools, and collect information using tally marks and drawings. They have been comparing their data to notice what is the same and different about the ways people use different water places. Students are beginning to understand that the features of a place can influence what people do there.

We have also been learning about freshwater and saltwater places in Australia. Students have been using maps to locate different water places and identifying whether they are freshwater or saltwater. They have been developing their understanding of how these water environments are different and noticing that different plants and animals may live in or around different types of water places.

It has been wonderful to see our Grade 1 students asking thoughtful questions, sharing their observations, and using simple data to help them learn more about the water environments around us.

Respectful Relationships

In Respectful Relationships, our Grade 1 students have been learning more about asking for help and identifying trusted people they can turn to when they need support.

Through our discussions and activities, students are developing confidence in recognising when they need help, knowing who they can turn to, and understanding that it is okay to ask for support when the problem feels too big to work through on their own.

Digital Technology

This fortnight in Digital Technologies, our Grade 1 students have been learning about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and where we might find it in our everyday lives.

Students have been exploring different items and technologies to identify whether they use AI or do not use AI. They have been learning to spot examples of AI technology in familiar places, including at home, at school, and in public places.

Reminders

Make sure to clearly label all uniform items with your child’s name. The weather is still cold, so we are expecting students to bring their jackets and beanies to wear during outside play. All items worn at school must be school uniform, with no other items worn over or visible under their uniform items.
Please continue to read every night and ensure your child swaps their take home readers on their allocated day.
Please check Compass for information on the upcoming Grade 1 Excursion to SeaLife Aquarium in Week 7. Consent and payment dates have now closed.
Book Week Character Dress-Up Day and Assembly will be in Week 7, on Wednesday 26th August. Be sure to check out the Shortlisted Book Display and Book Fair in Pod 1 (Room 6), which will be open all week.

Tricky Word practice: Scan the QR code below to view and practice the Tricky Words we have learned so far - watch until 4:54.

Thank you for your continued support with your child’s learning journey - We can’t wait to see all the creative and exciting Book Week characters come alive next week!

Warm regards,

Ms. Santos, Ms. Duncan, Ms. Yianni, Ms. Marsden, Ms. Newman, Ms. T, Ms. Hannah,

Ms. Stafford, Ms. Chandler, Mrs. Mill, Ms. Fetolofai and Ms. Doris of PLC1 😊