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 and Key Information

Tuesday 26th August - Grade 1 Sustainability Day 

Wednesday 27th August - Fathers Day Stall (Details to be confirmed)

Monday 1st September - Whole School Dress Rehearsal at Rowville Institution of Arts

Tuesday 2nd September - Music Production

Wednesday 3rd September - Music Production

Friday 19th September - Last Day of Term. Dismissal at 2.30pm.

Library

Please refer to the timetable below for your child’s library day. Ensure your child brings their library bag each week so they can borrow books.

Take-Home Folders

Please remember to send your child’s take-home folder to school every day.

Homework

For homework in Grade 1 the expectation is that students will read their take-home book to an adult each day. Every student will receive a new book from their classroom on a Monday. Students will need to return their previous book before receiving a new book. 

Here are some optional activities: 

Click Here 

Grade 1 Sustainability Day Reminder:

Book week

Learning in Action

📖 Literacy

Word Work

Students have been learning how to read and spell words and sentences that have compound words in them. For example; ripe, cute and mate. Students extended this learning by comparing ‘VCe’ and ‘VC’ words. For example ‘us’ and ‘use’, ‘rid’ and ‘ride’ and ‘mop’ and ‘mope’. Students have also been learning how to read and spell words and sentences that use multisyllabic short vowels. For example: cactus, lemon.

Preview for learning: Students will be exploring applying the suffix -ed to words to change their meaning.

Sentence Level Writing

Over the past two weeks, our writing focus has been on strengthening students' sentence structure by learning how to combine two short sentences into one. This helps students write more smoothly and avoid repetition in their work.

Students practised taking two simple sentences with the same subject and combining them into one sentence using the word “and.” For example:

Before: Tim ate a cupcake. Tim ate an ice-cream.

After: Tim ate a cupcake and an ice-cream.

We worked through examples together and gave students time to practise this skill in their own writing. This helps them write with more variety and develop more complex sentence structures. It’s been exciting to see their confidence grow as they experiment with combining ideas more effectively!

Additionally, sentence-level writing lessons have focused on developing students’ understanding of adverbs and how they can be used to add detail and meaning to writing. Students have learned that adverbs are words that describe how an action is done. For example, in the sentence “She sang beautifully,” the word beautifully tells us how she sang.

Preview for learning: Over the next two weeks, our sentence-level writing lessons will be focused on developing students’ understanding of adverbs and how they can be used to add detail and meaning to writing.

Handwriting

Students have now learnt all letters of the alphabet and will be revising each one multiple times throughout the term to improve their letter formation and overall quality of handwriting.

Literature

Over the past two weeks, our Grade 1 students have been exploring a range of rich and meaningful texts as part of our literature focus. Through engaging stories and discussion, students have been developing their comprehension skills and deepening their understanding of how texts can communicate powerful messages.

Our learning objectives included:

Discussing characters, settings, events, and images

Students have been learning to talk about key parts of a story and how they help build meaning.

Making connections to personal experiences

As we read, students reflected on how the characters’ actions and challenges reminded them of things from their own lives—helping to build empathy and understanding.

Beginning to explore literal and inferred meanings

We looked at what is clearly stated in the text, as well as what is implied or hinted at through words and images.

Comparing how visual and sound elements add meaning

Students explored how illustrations, layout, and even imagined sounds contribute to how we understand and feel about a story, not just the words alone.

We explored these themes through the texts The Mess That We Made, Footprint, and Luca and the Magic Bin, which all supported our big ideas:

• What we do impacts the Earth
• We can make a difference

These stories inspired thoughtful discussions about caring for the environment, making positive choices, and how small actions can lead to big change. It has been a wonderful two weeks of reading and reflection, and we are proud of the connections students are making between literature and the world around them.

➗ Maths

This fortnight, students have deepened their understanding of skip counting, patterns, and sharing through hands-on and interactive math activities.

Students began by learning how to create skip counting patterns in 2s, 5s, and 10s. They practised both increasing and decreasing sequences, starting from various numbers and using number charts to help identify the correct patterns and rules. Building on this, students explored how to organise collections into groups of 2, 5, and 10 to make counting easier. They identified groups within collections, arranged objects accordingly, and used skip counting to quickly find the total number of items. Next, students investigated growing patterns that increase or decrease by 2s, 5s, and 10s. They identified how much a pattern grew or shrank each time, then created their own growing and shrinking patterns using blocks, clearly showing the part that was added or removed in each step.

We then began our new unit on sharing and grouping, with students practising sharing collections of objects fairly between two or three groups. They learned how this relates to halving when sharing into two equal parts and used sentence frames to describe their sharing clearly. 

Preview for learning: 

In the coming weeks, students will explore sharing and grouping through engaging, hands-on tasks. They will practise identifying how many groups can be made from a total and use sentence frames like “15 can/cannot be shared equally between __ groups.” They will also investigate all the possible equal groupings for a given amount.

Students will solve sharing problems using counters, describe how many are in each group, and use skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s to find totals. To extend their understanding, students will solve grouping problems using pretend money and draw equal and unequal groups for the same total, building their confidence with division and problem-solving.

Wellbeing

This term, our wellbeing will be taught through the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships program. Students have learnt about the following on positive coping this fortnight.

Positive coping: Students played a movement game that helped them recognise the different ways people cope with their emotions. They discussed the importance of respecting individual differences and shared examples of what they learned about coping strategies.

Preview for learning: In the next lesson, students will learn about the purpose of labels and how they differ when applied to objects versus people. They will explore how gender labels like “boy” and “girl” can limit how we see ourselves and others, and practise challenging these stereotypes to embrace individual differences.

From the Grade 1 teachers, 

Ms Holmes, Miss Albanese, Mrs Reynolds and Mrs Ryan

Updates from around the school

Garden Working Bee – Friday 12th September

We are calling on our wonderful school community to help us freshen up the gardens at the front of the school. On Friday 12th September, from 11.30am to 3.30pm, we will be holding a garden maintenance afternoon and would love your support.

The work will include:

• Removing old plants
• Weeding garden beds
• Planting new plants to brighten up the entrance to our school

If you can spare some time, whether it’s for the whole afternoon or just an hour, your help will make a big difference. Please bring along gardening gloves, tools if you have them, and plenty of energy!

To assist with planning, we kindly ask that you confirm your attendance by emailing the school office at lysterfield.ps@education.vic.gov.au.

Together, we can make the front of our school a welcoming and beautiful space for our students, families, and community.

Green Team News

Under the guidance of Mrs Stokol and Mrs Alexander, the Green Team met for the first time this week, and what a meeting it was! Across Years 3 to 5, we had nearly 50 excited and passionate students eager to do their part for the environment.

Whether it’s helping to keep the school free of rubbish, caring for and developing the gardens, or educating our community about sustainability, there was a real buzz in the air as students shared ideas and signed up for various roles.

A new initiative launched this term is the collection of 10c containers. Thanks to the special lunch day last term, we raised $21, a fantastic start! We’re now working to collect eligible containers daily to reduce landfill waste and turn recyclables into funds that will be reinvested into future Green Team projects.

Participation in the Green Team is inclusive and open to all. It’s not too late for your child to get involved; we’d love to have them on board!

Green Team Newsletter #2

The enthusiastic Green Team members from Years 3 to 6 continue to meet with Mrs Alexander and Mrs Stokol each Wednesday lunchtime. Meetings begin with a check-in on how the yard cleaning roster is going. Students report which areas are the cleanest, which need more attention, and share ideas for improvement.

Sustainability remains a key focus. Whether it’s managing waste, maintaining garden spaces, or spreading awareness, students have shown impressive initiative and creativity.

Our 10c container collection is going strong! We've raised over $30 in just a few weeks. Green Team members manage the collection bin outside the canteen on lunch order days, and also visit classrooms weekly to gather containers from specially labelled tubs. By collecting these items daily, we are preventing waste from going to landfill and turning it into cash to support our environmental efforts.

Be sure to check out the Sustainability Display in the gym over the coming weeks to see what we’ve been up to!

Did you know? You can support the Green Team by nominating Lysterfield Primary School (LPS) as your donation partner through Victoria’s Container Deposit Scheme.

Download the app or visit:🔗 Victoria's Container Deposit Scheme | Learn How To Donate

It’s planting season, and what’s better than free plants? 

Help the Green Team — and Earn Free Plants!

Did you know that the Knox Environment Society (KES) offers free native plants as prizes through their Nature Discovery Passport program?

By playing an interactive game and collecting stamps at local reserves, participants can earn plant prizes, and what better way to use those plants than by donating them to our school for the Green Team to grow and maintain?

Explore one of the many beautiful reserves in Knox on the weekend, learn about your local ecology, collect stamps, and claim your prize. It’s a fun way to get outside, support the environment, and contribute to our school’s sustainability efforts.

And who says the fun is just for the kids? Families are welcome to join in too!

To learn more, visit:

🔗 Nature Discovery Passport – Knox Environment Society

🔗 Knox Environment Society Home Page

Thank you — every little bit helps!

Mrs Stokol and Mrs Alexander