Year 1

Term One - Week 9

Welcome everyone to our second classroom communication newsletter for the year. It's hard to believe that Term One is almost over, it seems we have packed so much new learning in this term that it has flown by. We hope you enjoy seeing what we have been up to in the Year One classrooms.

Literacy

InitialWrite

We made it through the first part of our Writing Program. We are confidently writing with the correct punctuation, using our writing checklist as we go. We have looked at the parts of the sentence and identified the Who, the Object, the Action and the Where, using the icon cards.

InitiaLit Lessons:

In the second half of this term, we have looked at compound words, nouns, ai/ay, reviewed /th/, /oo/, sh, wh, ch, ng and the tricky words from end of foundation.

Year One's are superstars at their routines and knowing the flow of the morning for our Literacy learning.

Storybook Lessons

Our storybooks take us on some wonderful adventures and these two did not disappoint! What a quest Sam and Dave took us on to find something spectacular, and Edwina would have made a terrific dancer!

We looked at the vocabulary used throughout these texts and found some similarities to our previous shared texts. Storybook lessons are interconnected with our other InitiaLit lessons, tying the concepts together through shared reading.

Sam and Dave Dig a Hole

When Sam and Dave dig a hole, readers get "something spectacular." The boys, on the other hand, do not. Their quest to find the spectacular brings them painfully and humorously close to buried jewels as they spade their way into the ground, accompanied by an intrepid canine companion. ... Poor Sam and Dave. Lucky readers!

There was such great excitement in the sandpit when we dug for gems and diamonds and GOLD! Eureka! We found lots of wonderful things.

Edwina the Emu

Edwina the Emu is the hilarious follow up tale of Edward and Edwina Emu. The new parents need to find a job so they can raise their 10 babies. Who will join them on this job hunt around the Australian bush?

Edwina thinks she will be good at many jobs, but the people employing her do not think that and emu should be the one to hire.

Mathematics

We round out the term looking at addition and subtraction. Children have been learning how to partition a number into two or three parts. They have also been practicing their subitising skills with numbers to 10 and extending to 20. This unit allows for some more counting objects such as tens frames, counters and unifix blocks. We will finish Week 10 with some revision of our term one concepts.

Harmony Day

The grade 1 students really got into the spirit of Harmony Day on Friday the 20th of March. It was lovely to see a splash of orange in the form of colourful shirts, hair ribbons and stylish socks. Throughout the day the children discussed the word 'harmony' and what the phrase 'everyone belongs' means to us. We are so proud of how the grade 1's have displayed inclusion and unity not just on this day, but throughout the term.

Religion

The students are currently learning about the scripture and symbols used during this time of Lent and Easter as we head towards Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week.

In particular the Grade Ones been learning about the events of Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday and Good Friday and the symbols used to represent them.

The students have also reflected on the 3 pillars of Lent: almsgiving, prayer and fasting and how we can give to others to show compassion and love.

Prayer

Lent calls us to prayer more meaningfully. Students wrote their own Lenten prayer about something they felt in their hearts.

Inquiry

The last half of the term has seen the students take a closer look at families, what the word 'generations' means and how family life and roles have changed over time. We have also begun to explore how childrens toys have changed over time.

Moving our bodies and calming our minds

Developing our fine and gross motor skills and teaching our brains to focus, remember steps, cooperate with others and have fun while learning are also very import parts of our week.

Here are some pictures of some of the brain and body strengthening activities that we have enjoyed over the last few weeks.