Year 1/2 Mainstream 

Celebrating Learning

What we have been up to: 

Grade 1/2 children (and teachers!) have been getting back into the rhythm of a new term of learning. We have started with a bang, celebrating NAIDOC Day with the rest of the school. Grade 1/2 children participated in targeted activities on NAIDOC Day with children from Steiner Year 1 and Year 2 classes as well as other Mainstream classes. We learned traditional games with Josh, old and new dances with Erica, and had a literacy, history, AND art lesson all in one with Jess! Understandably, everyone’s highlight from the day was the amazing performance from Mitch Tambo. But here’s what some students shared was their second-favourite activity:

‘Art was my favourite activity because I got to draw’ - Bonnie

‘I liked dancing because I liked pretending to be all the animals’ - Hazel

‘My favourite activity was with Josh because the games were fun’ - Hugo

It was also lovely for Grade 1/2 teachers to have the opportunity to spend some time talking with you, parents and carers, on Tuesday 23/5 at our parent conferences. We always enjoy a chat, so we really appreciate being given the time to do so and everyone’s efforts to join us! 

Maths:

At the beginning of this term, our numeracy focus has continued to be on subtraction. We are practising efficient mental strategies for subtraction such as counting back and using our knowledge of number facts including fact families and doubles/near doubles, If you are looking for ways to support your child by helping them develop these mental strategies, look for everyday situations where you might need subtraction. For example, I put 10 apples in the trolley, but we only need 6. How many can you put back on the shelf for me?

Literacy:

We are beginning to work on writing our own narrative texts by learning to unpack other stories that we are reading. When we are reading narrative texts, we look for the story’s setting, characters (especially protagonists and antagonists), problem, and resolution. To encourage your child’s craft of creative writing, you can look for these narrative elements in any stories that you read together at home.

As part of our phonics program, classes have begun Little Learners Love Literacy Stage 7.3 sounds. These sounds include: oo as in goose, le as in little, ow as in brown, and ou as in couch.

What’s to come in the next two weeks:

We are looking forward to our new unit focus, sound and light. Last term, students had a lot of success investigating our integrated topic outside of the classroom, so we are hoping to keep that spirit going with another take-home task. We are asking for some artefacts - evidence of sound or light - that you might find around the house. Please see Compass for further information.