Hello Level 1 families,

Welcome to our second newsletter for the term.

Gosh, it's hard to believe we have already been back at school for four weeks this term.

We have been so impressed with the Level 1 students at this pool this past week. They have all shown so much confidence, independence, resilience, skills and enjoyment. Teachers are so proud of them all. Thanks to the parents who have volunteered to assist us on the bus to and from swimming.

Please remember that all parent helpers need to have completed their Child Safe online module. Thanks for your support with this.

Have a brilliant fortnight,

Nishtha, Lizzie and Robyn

Reminders

We will be sending home a little information collection sheet for students to use for their autobiographies in Week 7. It should spark some lovely conversations at home!

Swimming continues into Week 5 on Monday 10th August.

Take-home books will continue to be changed on Tuesdays and Fridays once again this term.

Homework will continue this term.

The second homework for the term was distributed last Friday. It will, as always, be attached to this newsletter.

Homework is of course optional, but it's so great to see most students completing homework activities to varying degrees. Keep up the good work!

Literacy

Reading and Writing

Over the next week, students will be continue to analyse the book 'Let's Save the Antarctica'. They will be learning to ask questions, identify the main idea as well as learning to write detailed paragraphs as part of their own information report. In week 6, students will be reading 'Little People, Big Dreams - David Attenborough' and learning what a biography consists of. They will be asking questions and identifying themes and the main idea, as well as learning to read more topic-specific vocabulary. In Writing, students will work towards writing an autobiography - a whole information report just about them!

Core Literacy

Students are involved in Core Literacy lessons every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

During these lessons, students engage in many activities relating to spelling, phonics and morphology (how words are formed and how they relate to each other) such as dictation, card deck and reading words.

Each week we have a sound/letter focus and a morphology focus.

During each of these sessions, students have a text that corresponds to their reading level that is read daily. These texts go home with the student every Friday for hopefully extra practise at home.

Here's what's happening in Core Literacy in the fortnight ahead:

Heart Words - before, after, their

- asked, eight, world

Morphology - vowel team syllables and r-controlled syllables (see below)

Phonemes- au as in auto and review of kn as in knife, ow as in cow and ow as in snow

Maths

Over the next fortnight in Maths, students will continue exploring time and geometry. They will learn about units of time, including the number of days in each month, the number of weeks in a year, and how years are grouped into decades and centuries. In Geometry, students will identify and describe quadrilaterals, recognise parallel sides in two-dimensional shapes, sort regular and irregular shapes, and investigate how shapes can be split and combined to create new ones.

Inquiry

Following on from the students' interest and enjoyment in our geography focus last term, out Term 3 Inquiry focus is all about Australian History.

By the end of this unit, students will:

Understand that Aboriginal Peoples were the first to explore and settle Australia, using knowledge of land, water, and seasons.
Know that Aboriginal People already lived on the land before Europeans arrived, and that their knowledge systems mapped Country in different ways.
Describe how early settlers in Sydney Town faced challenges with farming, water, and food, and how Arthur Phillip helped the colony survive.
Recognise that Bass and Flinders mapped the coastline and discovered Bass Strait, helping future travel and trade.

Visual Art

Please see the 'Specialist Happenings' for some mindful bug artwork by 1A. There are also some Level 1 art displays coming soon to the JLC- Look out for them next week.

Love Art! Ms Van Etten

Cooking

Our Grade 1 students had a wonderful time cooking with Mr. Marco on a chilly winter afternoon! They learned about food hygiene, including the importance of washing their hands before cooking, and developed their chopping skills while learning how to stay safe in the kitchen. Students practised chopping carefully following instructions from our Head Chef, Mr. Marco, while working together as a team by taking turns with resources and sharing each step of the cooking process. The best part was sitting down together to enjoy the warm, delicious food they had prepared!

A very special thank you to our wonderful parent and grandparent helpers who generously gave their time to support us on the day. Your help made the experience possible, and we simply couldn’t do it without you!

Term 3 Timetable

Student Agents