Year 1/ 2

English

Reading 

During our start up program in Reading, the Grade 1/2 students discussed and identified the routines and expectations of our reading lessons. Our lessons focused on establishing expectations for independent reading, selecting Just Right Texts, participating in buddy reading opportunities, setting up and taking care of our classroom library and understanding and appreciating varied reading interests. We also established structures and routines for conferencing, teacher focus groups and purposeful reading experiences.

During term 1, the students read, processed and comprehended a wide range of high quality mentor texts. The comprehension strategies that were explicitly taught this term were Activating Prior Knowledge, Predicting, Retelling and Making Connections. Students also had the opportunity to look at the basic structures and features of fiction and nonfiction texts. They learned about strategies to assist students in working out unknown words.

Writing 

Writing in Grade 1/2 is coming along nicely. We continue to practise writing structure and routines, as well as working on increasing our stamina during writing time. Students are encouraged to draw and/or write, at their level and are supported accordingly by the teacher and educational support staff. Our Writer’s Notebooks are set up and are already filled with many creative ideas surrounding our introductory unit on Narratives. This term our challenge was to write a reimagined version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Students worked on developing their own special characters, unique settings, different problems and solutions for their reimagined narrative. They then completed their own story with their creative and fun ideas. It was a great way for them to practise planning, sequencing, sentence structure, adding adjectives and verbs to their writing, and more! 

Mathematics

In term 1, Grade 1/2 students spent the first few weeks familiarising themselves with the routines and expectations of mathematics sessions. During the Mathematics Start Up Program they showcased their prior knowledge and understanding of some concepts of Mathematics like number and Algebra and Space and Location.

We began our term with a major focus on recognising ‘10 as a countable unit’ where students learnt different ways of making 10s and counting by 10s from 0, and/or a non-zero number, by playing variety of mathematical games and activities like ‘Chicken Scramble’, ‘Make 10 Train’, ‘Building towers of 10’ etc. 

For our first mathematical unit we chose to focus on Time, where students learnt to read and create their own timetables and schedules. For example, the time they wake up, have breakfast, come to school, recess, lunch, hometime, dinner time etc.  They learnt the days of the week, months of the year and reading ‘o'clock' and ‘half -past’ time on an analogue clock.  Students developed their understanding by manipulating maths materials and implementing their newly learnt knowledge in various activities. 

Inquiry

This term in Inquiry the Grade 1/2 students have been focusing largely on Social and Emotional Learning. At the beginning of term we focused on routines and School Wide Positive Behaviour. As part of their learning of School Wide Positive Behaviours students have been regularly visiting the Sensory Garden and the new Sandpit.  Throughout the term students have been learning about identifying emotions of themselves and others and identifying strategies to help them manage these emotions. Students have been learning about stress and how stress affects their bodies. The Grade ½ students  have been learning about identifying their character strengths and understanding the importance of a growth mindset to continue building up their strengths.  The students will continue to focus on Social and Emotional Learning throughout the entire year.

Science

During Term 1, the Grade 1/ 2 students have explored the Biological Science strand of Science through investigating the life stages of humans, and the changes that we will go through as we grow older; we have carried out activities, watched video clips and have listened to songs to support our learning. Life cycles have been a focus this term, with students investigating the life cycles of humans, animals and insects, and exploring how different living things grow, change and reproduce. Students also learnt how to use book creator to design books including photos , fonts , designing and microphone. Some of their work can be seen here:

Our Biological Science strand will continue into the start of Term 2 where students continue to learn and investigate how living things grow and change, with a focus on animals and their offspring.

Well done Grade 1 and 2 for The term !  

LOTE 

This term, there has been much organisation and preparation for the Auslan program to commence in Term 2, at Melton West Primary School as our new LOTE subject! Classroom teachers will begin facilitating the learning and will be provided with comprehensive resources and a teaching program from Auslan Education Services. Teachers and students will learn lessons by accessing links to videos including visuals in their classroom environment to support their learning of Auslan. Educators will also be provided with professional learning by members of Auslan Education Services to build capacity and provide the knowledge and skills in facilitating the program. We look forward to our students learning this wonderful skill which will provide many opportunities to communicate with the broader and inclusive community. Notifications will be in our newsletters and social media platforms when learning commences.

Art

What a great start to the year, in Art! Grade 1 and 2 began by settling into routines and following expectations in our art room environment. They have taken pride and care when using art materials and tools and have demonstrated a positive attitude. The topic for this term was Colour Theory. Students revised the Primary Colours of red, blue and yellow and how these can be mixed to make Secondary and Tertiary Colours. Students used different mediums. such as paint and crayons, when creating their artworks and mixing colours. They looked at artworks by different artists to explore how colours can be used. Students also worked with warm and cool colours to create their art pieces. Grade 1 and 2 have shown lots of creativity and have produced wonderful artworks in Term 1.  

Fantastic job, Grade 1 and 2!

P.E

For this term our grade 1/ 2 students have continued their learning and have built on skills introduced in Physical Education last year. The focus this term was on the sports of football and netball. The students in grade 1/2 achieved their aim of developing their skills in both sports and then participated in games that showcased these skills. Some of the skills worked on that relate to these sports and the fundamental movement skills were throwing, catching, running, kicking, and striking. All our students performed well and gave everything their best efforts. The participation levels were high and that was really encouraging to see. Our students have continued to develop their problem-solving skills and have begun to use strategy when playing in different sports. All students have developed an understanding of the skills, rules, and game concepts required to play in both netball and football. This has been a successful term for the grade 1/2 students, and I am excited to see what we can achieve in term 2!     

  Music 

The students in Grades 1 and 2 have made a great start to the music program. They have participated in creating routines and protocols for cooperative and creative learning in the music room and have learnt to name and play a range of percussion instruments. Most of this term’s work has been around exploring rhythm. They have listened to rhythmic music and played along with percussion instruments exploring the beat and rhythm patterns. They have learnt to describe and create rhythm patterns by saying ta to represent the beat and te-ti, for double-time rhythm and created and performed ostinatos (repeating rhythm patterns) in small groups to the class. They have been introduced to notation for simple rhythm patterns; crotchets (1 beat), quavers (half a beat) and minims (two beats) and learnt to read these musical symbols to play along with the teacher. They have helped the teacher to compose simple rhythm patterns with these musical symbols. The students have learnt new songs and developed the quality of their singing voices. The students have explored pitch (high and low), dynamics (soft and loud) and tempo (fast and slow) through listening, singing and creating musical compositions in response to a story. Students began and ended each lesson by listening to a variety of music to build their repertoire of musical experience and to respond emotionally.