Grade 1 News

📅 Important Dates & Reminders

All important dates and events are available on our Compass Calendar. Please check the calendar regularly to stay up to date.

Friday 20th March: Harmony Day (Wear a touch of Orange)

Thursday 2nd  April: Last day of Term 1. Dismissal at 2.30pm (Happy Hat Parade)

*Icy Poles will be sold by the Grade 6's on Mondays and Tuesdays! $1 each*

Key Information

• Students are to bring their take-home bags to school daily to swap books for home. 
• Students will need their hats this term to play outside. 
• Senior School Leaders will be selling icy poles at lunchtime on a Monday and Tuesday.

Learning Reflection

➗Maths 

This fortnight, students have been developing their understanding of place value by learning how to compare and order numbers up to 120. They have been exploring how numbers are made up of hundreds, tens and ones, and using this knowledge to decide which numbers are greater or smaller. Students have been using a range of hands-on materials and visual representations such as number lines, to support their thinking and build confidence when working with two and three-digit numbers.

We have also begun our new unit on addition and subtraction. Students are learning to partition numbers up to 10 into two or three parts, helping them understand that numbers can be broken apart and combined in different ways. This foundational skill supports their development of flexible thinking when solving addition and subtraction problems.

Students have also continued their Maths Masters practise and completed daily reviews. These sessions revisit previously learnt concepts to support the retrieval process, strengthen understanding, and build fluency. It has been wonderful to see students growing in confidence as they apply their knowledge in a variety of ways.

Preview for learning: Next fortnight, students will continue strengthening their understanding of partitioning within 10 and also 20. They will also partition using number bonds to identify the tens and ones in two-digit numbers, for example, 12 has 10 and 2. 

📖 Literacy 

Word Work: 

This fortnight in Word Work, students revisited the ‘Silent Final e’ rule for spelling. We reviewed that the silent final e jumps over the consonant to turn the short vowel sound into a long vowel sound. We focused on recognising the difference between a short vowel and long vowel sound. 

Preview

Next fortnight, students will be learning about multisyllabic short vowel words and begin learning about the -ed suffix. 

Handwriting

In Grade 1, our handwriting routine consists of reviewing and practising previously taught letters and being introduced to new letters daily. This fortnight, students have practised forming the letters m, n, o, s, i, u, and r on the correct lines. 

Literature: 

This fortnight in Literature, Grade 1 students explored a range of Aesop’s fables, including The Tortoise and the Hare, The Lion and the Mouse, and The Dove and the Ant. Through shared reading, students practised listening carefully to stories, identifying characters, settings and key events, and discussing the important lessons or morals that fables teach. They also built their vocabulary and answered both simple and deeper questions to show their understanding of the texts.

In writing, students focused on expanding sentences by using adverbs to describe how an action happens (for example, ran quickly or laughed loudly). They practised identifying verbs and adverbs and experimented with how adding different ‘how’ words can change the meaning of a sentence.

To conclude the unit, students planned and began writing their own fables. They chose their own animals, organised their ideas using a beginning, middle and end structure, and included interesting language features such as alliteration, adverbs and adjectives to make their stories more descriptive and engaging for the reader.

Knowledge Rich:

During Knowledge Rich this fortnight, students will begin creating posters about the continents we have been learning about. On each poster they will identify three foods, three landmarks, and three animals from their continent. This activity celebrates the end of our unit and helps students summarise and showcase all the learning they have completed. 

Preview for learning:

Next fortnight, we will continue our unit on Poetry and Aesop’s Fabels.

😊Friendology

During this fortnight in Friendology, we will be focusing on building students’ friendship skills and confidence. Students will explore common social situations, such as playdates and birthday parties and learn ways to minimise hurt feelings. We will practise how to kindly say “no” to others, respond when feeling bossed around, and develop personal “power statements” to help build confidence and positive friendships. 

Curious Corner 

This term, during Curious Corner, students will be exploring our school values through play-based learning experiences. We will also be focusing on building positive friendships, practising social skills, and learning how to work and play cooperatively with others. It’s been wonderful to see students beginning to connect and support one another as they learn.

Homework

Optional Homework for Grade 1 

For homework in Grade 1 the expectation is that students will read their take-home book to an adult each day. Every student will choose a new book from their classroom on a daily basis (optional). Students will need to return their previous book before receiving a new book. Here is a link to a folder to access Sparkle at home activities if you wish: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/126BRm52aR9NyaCdEgnCljLC3X0MWqupj 

If you are not sure which level your child is on, please ask your child’s teacher.

For those students who are off sparkle, please encourage them to read any book of their choice at home. 

Thank you for reading our newsletter, please remember if you have any questions feel free to contact your child’s teacher. 

Grade 1 Teachers, 

Catia Anson, Bella Albanese and Jess Kitteringham.