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.
Upcoming dates
18th September - Footy Dress Up Day and last day of Term 3 (2:30 pm dismissal)
Key Information
- Students are to bring their take-home bags to school daily to swap books for home.
- Icy Poles will be sold outside the senior school Monday & Tuesday lunchtimes
- Hats are needed for the end of this term and next term.
Timetables for Term 3 Week 10
Please find the updated timetable for Week 10. This week looks different due to having their specialists during our TIP Day on Thursday to support the teachers in order to plan for next term. Students will be participating in a fun activity day with their specialist teachers.
🐍🦘🦁The Melbourne Zoo🦒🦓🐒
Our Grade 1 students had a fantastic day at the Melbourne Zoo as they stepped into the role of Wild Explorers! Students had the opportunity to observe a range of amazing animals and learn more about their habitats, behaviours and unique features. They eagerly explored the zoo, asked thoughtful questions and shared their knowledge with their friends. The excursion provided students with a hands-on opportunity to connect their classroom learning with the world around them, while developing their curiosity and appreciation for animals. It was a wonderful day filled with learning, discovery and plenty of wild adventures!
Learning Reflection
➗Maths
Over the past fortnight, students have been developing their understanding of grouping and sharing and how these strategies can help us count collections efficiently. Students have been learning to make equal groups of 2, 5 and 10 and use skip counting to find the total number of objects. They have practised recognising groups within collections and arranging objects into equal groups, helping them to move away from counting every object individually.
Students have also been applying their understanding of grouping to solve practical mathematical problems. They have explored the difference between equal and unequal groups and used grouping strategies to work out answers in real-life situations. We have also introduced repeated addition, where students make multiple groups containing the same number of objects and represent these groups using addition. For example, students may recognise that five groups of two can be represented as 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2.
Another important focus has been arrays. Students have been learning to arrange equal groups into organised rows and columns and use these arrays to represent repeated addition. This has helped students to see how groups can be organised and counted efficiently.
To finish the fortnight, students have used their knowledge of sharing and grouping to solve mathematical problems and identify possible target numbers. They have been encouraged to use concrete materials, drawings, groups and repeated addition to explain their thinking and justify their answers. These experiences are helping students build strong foundations for their future learning about multiplication and division.
Preview: Next week, we will be reviewing and consolidating the concepts we have previously learnt. Students will have opportunities to revisit sharing, grouping, skip counting, repeated addition and arrays, while continuing to develop their confidence and fluency with these important mathematical concepts.
📖 Literacy
Word Work:
This fortnight, students have been working extremely hard to revise previously learnt digraphs and trigraphs. As the students have learnt a wide variety over this year already, they are having to think deeply about what rule each of them have in order to work out which one to use in certain words. Students have been revising, the codes, ‘igh, au, aw, ear, are, air, ere, and or’. Whilst revising these mentioned codes, students have also begun learning about the codes, ‘oo, ew and ui’ and where we tend to find each of these digraphs within a word.
Preview: Students will continue learning about the codes, ‘oo, ew and ui’ and applying these digraphs to words and sentences.
Handwriting:
Students have been thoroughly enjoying their handwriting sessions this term. By focusing on writing whole words rather than individual letters, students have shown significant improvement in their letter formation, sizing and placement on the lines. They have continued to practise writing words that match their Sparkle level, while also challenging themselves by copying interesting and unfamiliar ‘weird words’ from the board.
Preview: Students will continue practising their handwriting daily.
Literature:
This fortnight, we have finished our learning around Migaloo and have now begun our new literature unit based on Dingo by Claire Saxby. This engaging text combines storytelling with factual information as we follow a mother dingo as she cares for her pups, hunts for food and survives in the wild.
Through Lessons 1–6, students have been developing their understanding of both narrative and informative texts. They have explored how the dingo’s behaviour helps her survive and care for her pups, made connections between the story and their own experiences, and used the illustrations and colours in the text to make meaning and understand the dingo’s environment. Students have also been learning new vocabulary such as nocturnal, prey, habitat and dominant. As part of their writing, students have explored the difference between facts and opinions, learning how informative texts use precise, factual and objective language. They have also been practising using adjectives to add clear and factual detail to their sentences.
Students have also begun learning how information is organised in an information report. They have explored how facts can be grouped under a clear topic and have started using a simple planning structure to organise their ideas. Through the text Life in a Dingo Pack, students have further developed their knowledge of how dingoes live and work together, considering the importance of teamwork and cooperation within a pack.
Preview: Next week, students will continue developing their information-writing skills. They will investigate the physical features of dingoes and consider how these features help them survive in the wild. Students will plan supporting details using factual vocabulary and adjectives before learning how to organise their ideas into a clear information paragraph. They will also explore how diagrams and labels can help readers understand information, before creating their own labelled dingo diagram and using their plan to write an informative paragraph.
Wellbeing😊
During 4R’s this fortnight, we have been learning about diversity and the similarities and differences that make each of us unique. We participated in circle discussions and enjoyed playing the Anyone Who… game, where students moved around the circle based on things they had in common with others. This fun activity helped students recognise that while we may have different interests, experiences and backgrounds, we can also share many similarities with our classmates. It has been a wonderful opportunity to celebrate what makes us all unique while building a sense of belonging and connection within our classroom community.
Preview: Next week in 4R’s, we will begin exploring what it means to play fairly. Students will learn about fairness, taking turns, following rules and making sure everyone has the opportunity to participate and feel included.
📚 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.