Grade 1
Literacy:
This fortnight, Grade 1 students continued exploring suffixes and added -ing to their growing knowledge. They learnt that adding -ing to the end of a verb shows that the action is happening now, for example, jump becomes jumping. We also reviewed verbs and introduced the suffix -s to help students understand subject-verb agreement, such as “He runs” or “She sings”. In phonics, students learnt to recognise and read words with the digraph or (as in fork) and the trigraph ore (as in snore) and enjoyed practising these in reading and writing tasks. We’re so proud of how confident and curious our Grade 1 learners are becoming with their word work!
Storybook/ Writing
Over the past fortnight, our students have been diving into the story A Library Book for Bear. This book has helped us continue developing our opinion writing and grammar skills.
We began the week with students creating their own drawing poster of a bear holding a book. From there, we listened to the story A Library Book for Bear and used it to explore how writers consider their audience. Was it for children or adults? Students shared their opinions and wrote letters to the author.
Later in the week, we looked at the conjunction “or” and how it can show choices in writing, just like Bear had to choose between staying home or going to the library. Students created their own sentences using “or” to connect ideas, helping to build more complex sentence structures.
To finish the week, we explored punctuation by identifying incorrectly punctuated sentences from the story. Students practised using capital letters and full stops correctly, building their confidence in editing.
Throughout the week, we also enjoyed discovering new vocabulary like delightful, command, and dreadful. Whether it was Bear’s dreadful mood or the command from Mouse to visit the library, students were able to use these words in meaningful ways.
It’s been a creative fortnight of thinking like writers and learning how to share our opinions with purpose!
Maths
Over the last 2 weeks, students have been investigating the concept of capacity. They have used a variety of different containers to compare and order how much containers can hold, using the language of ‘holds more’ and ‘holds less’. Students have also explored how containers can hold the same amount, even when the containers look different. They were able to compare capacities using sand, water and rice.
Additional Subjects:
Over the past two weeks, Year 1 students have been busy engaging in activities that develop their creativity, emotional awareness, and reading skills. To celebrate the end of our ‘Past and Present’ unit, students are starting to design and build their own toys from the future using a variety of materials.
As part of our Respectful Relationships learning, students explored different coping strategies. They learned to identify situations where calming strategies (like deep breathing or taking a break) or cheering strategies (like talking to a friend or thinking of something they enjoy) could help them feel better and make thoughtful choices.
In Library, students focused on identifying labels in non-fiction books and understanding what they mean. They practised using labels to gather more information about images, supporting their comprehension of factual texts.