Year -1/2 Unit

What a fun and busy term we’ve had so far! It’s hard to believe there are only two weeks left of Term 2—time has really flown! We’ve had a great time learning all about space, and the students have been superstars along the way.

To finish our Space Unit, students made their own papier mâché planets and created awesome posters about the planet they chose. They did a great job sharing what they learned with the class!

One of the biggest highlights was the Cosmodome incursion. Students loved learning about night and day, the moon and stars, time zones, and how Earth moves around the Sun. Everyone was very engaged—and some even got a little surprise when an asteroid came flying overhead on the dome screen!

We also had a wonderful visit from local author Marita Davies, who shared her beautiful story Teaote and the Wall. Marita spoke to us about how she wrote the book nine times before she was happy with it! She explained where her ideas came from, how her writing changed and grew over time, and how the illustrations brought her story to life. Students asked thoughtful questions and were very curious about the writing process—it was an inspiring session for our young authors!

In Reading, students have been working on summarising stories using the Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then (SWBST) strategy. They’ve also been learning how to make inferences—that means figuring out what the author is trying to say, even when it’s not written down exactly.

In Writing, students have had a blast creating their own space-themed stories! They planned, drafted, revised, edited and started publishing their work. We’ve read stories about guinea pigs going to space, asteroids hitting the sun and aliens getting stuck on Earth—so many clever and creative ideas!

In Maths, we finished learning about subtraction and started exploring 2D shapes. One favourite activity was making shape faces—students used different shapes to create eyes, noses, mouths, hair and even some funny scars! We’ve also been learning how to describe shapes by counting their sides and corners (vertices).

Year 1/2 Teachers

Greer Arnold/Iain Sparrey (12A), Christine Endress/Laura McLennan (12E), Lyndsay Adamson (12L), Katherine Richardson (12R), Juliet Smith /Emma Beaumont (12S)