Year 1 Bulletin

Investigations support the development of a wide range of skills aligned with the Victorian Curriculum, particularly in critical thinking, problem-solving, scientific inquiry, and collaboration. It provides students with the tools to become independent thinkers who are capable of approaching complex issues systematically. 

We use Bloom's Taxonomy to broaden the children’s experiences and go beyond remembering facts and experiences to apply, analyse, evaluate and reflect.

Whole class:

● Teaching Point

Every Investigations session starts with a learning focus based on the activities planned for the week.

On Mondays, we choose an English focus. On Wednesdays, we choose a Maths focus, and on Fridays, we choose a Wellbeing focus.

Our focus for our whole class discussions at the beginning of Investigations was adjectives. The children identified adjectives as describing words and developed a list of adjectives to use when describing nouns.

● Focus Children

Each Focus child is encouraged to bring an item, idea, experience or wondering to share with their class. This is an opportunity for students to practise their speaking and listening skills. We focus their attention on developing skills in using appropriate eye contact, body language, tone and voice, and how well they respond to their audience's questions and comments.

Focus children work with the teacher throughout the session where they establish strategies and resources to support and find out about their wonderings.

● Reporter and Photographer

The Reporter and Photographer are given their tasks for the session. These relate to the curriculum focus for the day. For this session, we focused on adjectives and the reporter and photographer each were given a task that related. 

Reporter: What are 2 adjectives that you can use to describe a noun?

Photographer: Find and photograph adjectives around our classrooms.

● Small Group Area

Each provocation has a Learning Intention that is linked directly to our curriculum and learning outcomes. The children work in small groups to investigate the following provocations:

Book Nook, Inspiring Writers, Mini Makers, Sensory Zone, Mathematical Minds, Fancy Fingers, Art Studio: Portrait Galley, Dance Studio, Ninja Course, City Planners and Grocery Store. 

Whole Class: Sharing

At the end of the session, the Focus Children, Reporter and Photographer report back their findings and discuss how they could take their wonderings further.

Year 1 Team

stephanie.lampard@education.vic.gov.au

rosanna.caruso@education.vic.gov.au

jarryd.lamb@education.vic.gov.au