Year 1/2 Level Newsletter
Teacher Email Address Contacts
Upcoming Important Dates
From The Team
Hello to our wonderful Year 1/2 families!
What an exciting fortnight it has been in Year 1/2! We celebrated Education Week with our exciting Magical Maths Monday, a Literacy Open Morning, as well as our annual Grandparents and Special Friends' Breakfast Club and Open Morning. It was fantastic to see so many families engaging with the learning happening in our classrooms, and sharing in our enthusiasm during Open Night.
On Monday 19th May, we enjoyed our Healthy Eating So Kids Thrive (HESKT) incursion, where students learnt about making healthy food choices, and tried new fruits and vegetables in a fun and interactive way. In the classroom, we’ve been learning all about time — determining the duration of specific events, reading and representing o’clock, half-past and quarter times on analogue clocks, and using calendars to find dates and count the number of days between events.
We’ve also been busy writing information reports, exploring how to organise facts clearly using subheadings and topic-specific vocabulary. Our Integrated Studies unit is in full swing too, with students designing and constructing their own minibeasts using a variety of recycled materials.
There’s still more to look forward to over the next couple of weeks! A reminder that Monday 26th May is a Curriculum Day (no students at school), and on Monday 2nd June we will head off on our exciting HESKT excursion to the Ferntree Gully Community Garden. There will be additional information about this excursion to come via Compass.
We hope you all have a wonderful fortnight!
- Kate, Jarren and Jordyn
What We Are Learning
Reminders
Excursions - payment and permission: Please check Compass for details about our upcoming excursions.
Communication folders: Please remember to bring these to and from school each day. We really appreciate your support with this.
High Frequency Words & Yellow Reading Log: Continue to help your child to practise their high frequency words and read each night. They are stored in their blue display folder in their communication folder.
Try This...
Can you solve the Mystery of the Missing Socks?
I put 6 pairs of socks in my drawer. My puppy took 3 socks and hid them! How many socks are left in the drawer now?
Bonus challenge: How many pairs of socks do I still have?
Magical Maths Monday
Our F–2 students had a sensational day last Monday during ‘Magical Maths Monday’! Dressed in everything from favourite number t-shirts, to enchanting fairy wings and wizard hats, our young mathematicians enjoyed a day full of hands-on maths fun and learning. They created maths-themed artworks and explored how their lives are full of numbers. A particular highlight was decorating a cookie and adding the different sweet treats together.
A big thank you to all the families who joined us in the classrooms in the afternoon – it was wonderful to see so many smiling faces playing maths games together and admiring the children’s amazing work.
We had a truly magical day!
Education Week
Education Week was a fantastic celebration of learning across SPS! On Tuesday, families enjoyed our Literacy Open Morning, where we showcased our Write2Read program and a reading activity. The following day we held our Grandparents and Special Friends' Breakfast Club, followed by classroom visits where we learnt about dragonflies and had a go at making one! We finished the morning with a wonderful whole-school Morning Tea.
'Healthy Eating So Kids Thrive' Incursion
Our Year 1/2 students had a fun and fruity time at their healthy eating incursion, learning about tasty, nutritious choices and practising mindful eating. They were all smiles as they sampled a rainbow of fruits and veggies — with some surprising new favourites!
Our New SPS Acknowledgement of Country - An ACES Literacy Group Project
On the 2nd of May, the Year 5/6 Accelerate, Challenge and Extend (ACES) Literacy Group presented their new Acknowledgement of Country. This presentation included a slideshow with why we have an Acknowledgement of Country, how it is different from a Welcome to Country, how we did our research, the history of an Acknowledgement of Country, and our final product of the Acknowledgement of Country.
We did our research by searching up other Acknowledgements of Countries and recording interesting facts and ideas. When Australia was divided into nations, before the European settlement, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait peoples would travel the country. Whenever they travelled into a new nation, they would do an Acknowledgement of Country, and in return the owners of the land would do a Welcome to Country.
An Acknowledgement of Country says that you are meeting on land of the First Nations peoples. This gives us an opportunity to show respect for traditional owners and the connection to our land. The Aboriginals pay respect to our country, we pay respect to them.
An Acknowledgement of Country is different from a Welcome to Country because an acknowledgement is saying thank you and we will respect the land and recognise elders. A Welcome to Country can only be done by a First Nations person and it is to welcome people to their land.
We did research individually and wrote our own Acknowledgement of Country before writing an Acknowledgement of Country together. We have included two lands because we are in the middle of two lands, Wurundjeri and Bunurong.
The group created the new Acknowledgement of Country and we wrote, revised and edited it, then sent it to Mrs Hartley, Mrs Rheumer and Mrs Sheaf for some feedback.
