Year 1/2 Mainstream
Celebrating Learning
Integrated- What we have been up to:
We can’t believe that we are already halfway through T4! Our investigations into different mixtures around us have continued. Students have experimented with potion making and are starting to discuss how different substances visually change when they are mixed.
Maths:
We have continued to deepen our understanding of fractions. Students have been extending their understanding of what it means to partition objects, but also collections into halves, quarters and eighths. Classes have started a new unit on statistics and using data to visualise and wonder about the world around them.
First we explored interpreting data displays and reorganising the data to make comparisons and pose questions. Then we posed the question ‘How do you like to eat potatoes?’ and asked students to survey the class. They collected, organised and analysed the data. You may be interested to look at some of the photos and see what our results showed!
Literacy:
The Grade 1/2 teachers would like to issue an apology to the grown-ups in the homes of Grade 1/2 students, as you may have been receiving some very compelling writing attempting to persuade you to adopt a pet that needs a new home, go on an extravagant holiday, or celebrate someone’s birthday every day of the year. Sorry, not sorry! Grade 1/2 children have been doing a fantastic job of their persuasive writing!
We have been focusing on the use of persuasive language and the need for evidence or proof when we make an argument for something. You can support your child with their development of persuasive skills by prompting them to give facts to back up their choices. A reprieve is in sight though, as next week we will move on to writing procedures or instructional texts such as recipes. This blends with our integrated unit, as we will be looking into writing procedures on how to make all sorts of edible concoctions. At home, talk explicitly about the steps to perform an activity or even make something in the kitchen to get little minds thinking about giving instructions in procedural writing.
The 1/2 teachers have been blown away by how the students' reading fluency has improved! Students are reading accurately, at an appropriate pace and with expression. This helps both reader and listener understand what is being read.
| ACCURACY | I read the words correctly (sound out and say). |
| RATE | I make sure my reading isn’t too fast or too slow. |
| EXPRESSION | I read with feeling. I don’t read like a robot |
| PUNCTUATION | I follow the punctuation marks that I read in my text. |
When you are reading with your child at home, you might like to give them feedback that sounds like this:
- Your (accuracy/ rate/expression/punctuation) was _____________________.
- Your _______________ could improve by_____________________.
- Next time you might like to try ________________________.
- I noticed you tried ________________________.
As part of our phonics program, classes have begun Little Learners Love Literacy Stage 7.4 sounds. For the next two weeks, we are focusing on the /yoo/ sound as in new, and u as in music. We will then move on to the /oo/ as in blue and rude.
What’s to come in the next two weeks:
- Continue reading at home. Record any books that you read from the library or your own collection. If your child is choosing a text that is ‘too easy’, work on other skills like fluency (see above) and comprehension strategies.
- There are lots of ways that you can be exploring mixtures at home! Cooking is a great way to explore how ingredients change when mixed together.
- Students will be continuing to collect data over the next two weeks, but this time from their own lives. Then they will construct inventive data displays to tell a story from their data.