Year 1/2 Unit

Hello 1/2 Families

We’ve made it to the halfway point of the term already! As the old saying goes, ‘Time is flying by’. It has certainly been a busy fortnight in the 1/2 classrooms. 

Aqua Awareness Sessions

Thank you for the very prompt return of the swimming level forms. Please check Compass for all the relevant details related to your child’s swimming session. 

High Frequency Words Home Practise 

This year, the F-2 cohort has moved to a new phonics program called ‘Phonics Plus’. This program is a structured synthetic phonics approach that has been developed by the Victorian Education Department. As part of this move, we have also adopted the Phonics Plus high frequency words lists. We are currently engaged in the quite lengthy process of assessing the 1/2 students on both reading and spelling each of the words. As we finalise this, we will begin to send home student practise books. We encourage home practise, as being able to automatically read and spell high frequency words frees students up to be able to engage with more complex reading and spelling tasks.   

Literacy Learning

The 1/2 students have continued their author studies over the past fortnight. We have looked at two Australian based authors - Aaron Blabey and Philip Bunting. The students have practised making text-to-text connections and spent time thinking about the message of each story (what the author is trying to teach us or to get us to think about). Identifying the message of a story would be a great home practise task as it can sometimes be quite tricky! It always makes for interesting conversation. The students have also been examining different word types, in particular common/proper nouns and adjectives and how these work together to create interesting writing. 

Mathematics Learning  

The 1/2 students have been deep diving into place value over the fortnight. They have been making, recording and ordering a range of 2, 3 and 4 digit numbers. Students have been able to show their thinking using place value charts and thinkboards and have reinforced their place value knowledge through a number of games. 

Inquiry Learning 

The 1/2 students have continued to learn about ‘Country’ and the importance of Country to indigenous Australians. We have begun to create our own version of an Australian landscape in the hallway between the two rooms. The 1/2s have been busily working on leaf rubbings to create leaves for our hallway gum trees. Once the hallway is finished we will invite 1/2 parents in for a viewing. 

Year 1/2 Teachers

Greer Arnold/Iain Sparrey (12A), Lisa Sutch (12L), Zoe Sutherland (12Z)

Juliet Smith/Sally Quinn/Iain Sparrey (12S)