Grade 1 News

Important Reminders

All important dates and events are on our Compass Calendar, please check the calendar regularly to stay up to date!

Library

Grade 1 Library is now on Tuesdays. Please ensure your child has their library bag so they can borrow weekly.

Education Week Celebration

Thank you to all the families who came to our Education Week open afternoon.

Learning in Action

Wellbeing

Learning in Action: 

This fortnight students started looking at personal strengths through games. Students were challenged to reflect on their listening and self-regulating skills. Students also learnt the definition of proud. As a class, we discussed what it means to be proud, when they have felt proud, and what the action behind the feeling was, for example, hard work, persistence, or honesty. 

This week the Upstander awards went to:

Annabelle B (1I), Caleb A (1A) and Enzo G (1PR)

Congratulations!

Preview for Learning:

Students will continue looking at strengths and describe how to use strengths to be good friends and family members. We will look at different strengths such as being funny, fair, honest, and patient. We will discuss how each strength helps make the playground, classroom, or home happier.

Curious Corner

Literacy

Learning in Action: 

This fortnight in Reading, students were introduced to the long ‘a’ vowel sounds, /ai/ like ‘snail’ and /ay/ like ‘play’. Students were introduced to the rule that no English word ends in i, so the ai digraph needs to be in the middle of the word. We also learned the long ‘e’ vowel sounds /ee/ like ‘sleep’, /ea/ like ‘eat’, and /- -y/ like ‘happy’. This also led us to our vocabulary word of ‘homophone’ and we discussed that some words can sound the same but be spelled differently and have different meanings. We learnt these sounds by going on sound hunts and creating anchor charts to put on display around the room. Students also practised writing words with these sounds and following the spelling rules that we learnt. 

This fortnight, we also began learning about writing letters. We looked at some examples and learnt about the parts of a letter. Our classes had a go at constructing class letters to send to another grade 1 class and then responding to these. We enjoyed asking other classes questions and telling them about our learning. This week, students had a go at writing their own letters by thinking about who they might write to and why, drafting a letter, and then publishing a good copy.

Preview for Learning: 

In the coming weeks, students will learn the long ‘i’ vowel sounds /igh/, /ie/ and /y/. We will engage in a range of different activities to practise reading and writing the new sounds. 

Students will also begin our new topic on procedural writing. We will focus on where we see procedures, why they are important and the logical order of a procedure. We will read a number of different procedures and write some whole class procedural texts. 

Maths

Learning in Action: This fortnight, students have been learning about the new topic of subtraction. If you ask your children about it, we hope that they can tell you lots of words that are associated with subtraction, such as ‘minus’, ‘subtract’, take away’, ‘less’ etc. They will also be able to show you the action we use when we hear any of these subtraction words. We have played different subtraction games which have given students the opportunity to verbalize which strategies they are using to solve problems. When looking at the subtraction number sentence ‘total - part = part’, it was fantastic to see students connect this to their prior learning about addition. 

Preview for Learning:  Next week we will look at how subtraction number sentences can describe real-life situations, referring to our Maths sentence structure cards. Students will work on their subtraction learning goals, through independent practice and teacher-guided small group work.  We will also continue our Investigations Unit of Mass & Capacity.

Inquiry

Learning in Action: 

This fortnight in Inquiry, students reflected on what makes a place natural or human-made. Each week we have focused on places around our school and discussed the natural and human-made parts. We have looked at Lysterfield Lake, Tim Neville Arboretum, and Cardinia Reservoir. Students have learnt where these places are in Victoria, Indigenous connections, how to look after these places, and then made personal connections to these places. 

In the coming weeks, students will reflect on learning and sort some more landmarks that we know into human-made and natural. We will also look at ways that we can look after these places by reflecting on our recent excursion to Ferntree Gully Picnic Ground. 

Message from STEM:

Exciting times ahead in STEM!

We are thrilled to share some exciting updates about our STEM program! As we continue to inspire and empower our students to explore the wonders of these vital fields, we are reaching out to our wonderful community for support.

Your generosity has always been instrumental in helping us provide enriching educational experiences for our students, and we are once again asking for your support to ensure the success and sustainability of our STEM initiatives.

Your support makes a significant difference to our students' learning opportunities and the success of our STEM program. Here are a few ways you can contribute:

Opportunities to help: 

• Donations of Timber/Wood, appropriate for construction E.g. Billy Cart bases or other small vehicles.   
• If you own or are a part of a company or business who would be willing to sponsor our engineering program. 
• If you have connections with hardware stores/companies, helping us to make contact in order to obtain suitable engineering resources. 
• If you have any household STEM-related materials such as; plastic bottles, milk bottle lids, masking tape, balloons, wooden skewers, plastic or paper cups, unwanted CD’s or DVD’s, Aluminium Foil please drop them off outside the STEM room. 
• Construction Crew: If you're handy with tools and have some basic experience in woodwork or mechanics, we would be delighted to have your help in the upcoming terms to assist with our Grade 6 Science and Engineering program. Please email sophiechamberlain@lysterfieldps.com or melissaadams@lysterfieldps.com

Thank you for your continued support,

Melissa Adams & Sophie Chamberlain

STEM Leaders

Lysterfield Primary School 

Student of the Week

Congratulations to our Grade 1 award winners.

Other Information

Mathematics Hub Information

https://www.mathematicshub.edu.au/media/iydnnnw3/year1_mathshub_flyer.pdf

Dr Justin Coulson - Breaking Point Information

https://happyfamiliesfamilyeducation.ac-page.com/breaking-point-with-dr-justin-coulson

From the Grade 1 teachers,

Caillin Ibbotson, Isabella Albanese, Kayla Pepper & Rachel Ryan