Level 1: Connect

Hello Level 1 Families,

Welcome to our latest newsletter instalment!

We hope you have all had a lovely fortnight and have been able to enjoy our lovely spring weather. Well done to all the dads who braved the dads' and kids' camp last weekend. Sounds like you had a wonderful time, albeit a bit wet underfoot.

Market Day was a huge success. We are so proud of how our students managed their money and also their urges to eat all of the lollies and chocolates!

Enjoy the snippets below.

As always, thanks for all you do to support your children at SEPS!

Term 4 Reminders:

Literacy:

Heart words: This coming fortnight we will be focusing on words such as  cough, laugh and enough and writing these words into sentences. 

This week we focussed on the words below:

Phonemes: Next week will continue to learn about the 'age' phoneme- as in baggage and package.

Morphology: During our core literacy lessons, we will continue learning about prefixes-  next week it's the 'ex' prefix as in exterior, ex-student and exit. Happy days!

Writing

Grade 1 students are exploring adjectives and adverbs—the special words that make sentences more descriptive and exciting! 

Students are learning how adjectives describe nouns (e.g., the fluffy cat or the tall tree) and how adverbs describe actions (e.g., she ran quickly or he sang loudly). Through explicit teaching, writing prompts, and hands-on activities, students are practising adding these words to their sentences to make their writing come alive.

Last week, our Grade 1 students practiced their recount writing skills by writing about Market Day! They focused on putting events in order, using time words like first, next, and finally, and adding details to make their stories clear and interesting.

Maths:

Did you know that we have started using retrieval practice to start our maths lessons?

We use retrieval practice to help students strengthen their memory and understanding of key maths skills. Retrieval practice means regularly asking students to recall what they’ve learned — for example, counting strategies, number facts, or ways to solve problems.

Each time children remember information, they make those connections in their brain stronger. This helps them recall maths facts more quickly and apply their learning with confidence in new situations. It’s a bit like exercising a muscle — the more they practise recalling what they know, the stronger their mathematical thinking becomes!

This past fortnight we have been focusing on using a bar model when solving multiplication problems. We started by using bar models to represent groups of, then looked at identifying the difference between sharing and grouping, students have used think boards to help record their thinking, then students moved on to solving problems. 

Inquiry:

Over the past fortnight we have been learning about the kings and queens of Mesopotamia and their roles in a civilisation. We also learnt about the form of writing called 'cuneiform'. Students even had a chance to write their names in Mesopotamian on clay which they found was a lot more challenging than they first thought!

Level 1 Term 4 Specialist Timetable 

All the best for a an amazing fortnight,

Suzanne, Robyn, Leon and Marc

Level 1 Teachers