Grade 1/2 Area

Welcome to Term 4! 

A highlight of Term 4 in Grade 1/2 will definitely be the Swimming program, which will run during Weeks 6 and 7. Thank you to the families who have already responded to this event on Compass. Consent and payment are required by Friday October 31st. There are many families whose fees have been covered by the School Saving Bonus, so you will only need to provide consent to ensure your child's participation in this fabulous opportunity.

Discovery: Survival of the Fittest

This term in Discovery, the Grade 1/2s will be learning about the way that living things grow and change. We started our topic by noting the range of living and non-living things we can observe in our own school environment. 

In Week 1, we were fortunate to participate in a free webinar run by EcoLife, where we learned about the "Creatures and their Features" of the Great Barrier Reef. During this session, we learned that sea slugs provide a healthier environment for coral by digesting and pooping out sand in order to purify it! We also saw a sea snail gobble up a fish ("If it's a cone, leave it alone!") and learned that sea stars bring their whole stomach out of their mouths when eating. We are very much looking forward to hosting butterflies in their crysalises later in the term, giving us the opportunity to observe their lifecycle up close.

Word Study

In 1/2D, we continue to enjoy our daily paired fluency reading, where students repeatedly read a passage featuring their focus sound, with the aim of building fluency. Fluent reading is accurate, at a nice pace and uses appropriate expression. Increased fluency leads to increased comprehension when reading - the ultimate goal of reading. During our paired reading routine, students take turns to read aloud, tracking as they listen and offering feedback to support their partner's learning. 

1/2D have also been enjoying our Thursday morning routine of brainstorming words that utilise our focus sounds for the week. Again, students work collaboratively to support each other's learning as they compile words (using strategies such as rhyming and dictionaries) featuring our focus digraphs/spelling rules.

Maths

Our first topic for Term 4 has been place value, with students building on their established knowledge to represent, rename, regroup, expand and partition numbers up to 1000. We have enjoyed place value games, such as "Race to 100" and Bingo, which have helped us to practice these skills. During Weeks 3-5, our Maths topic will be fractions.

Thank you for your continued partnership and support for the learning of our Grade 1/2 students. We look forward to a fabulous final term of learning together for 2025!