Grade 1 and 2 News

Key Dates & Reminders:

• Home Reading: At times, we know parents find that students home readers may be seemingly too easy to read. Often, teachers will be choosing to do this to support an improvement in a child's reading fluency. We hope the following quoted information helps to support your understanding of this:"Fluency demands that the text is at the reader's independent reading level. This is why beginning and struggling readers need simple text at their independent level to build speed and confidence. Home readers should fit into this category. Some parents want "harder books" because their child can already read those being sent home. Yet those books provide children with opportunities to develop appropriate expression, practise chunking and pausing, and most importantly build confidence and belief in themselves as readers." - Deslea Konza, Research into Practice, Fluency, pg 2
• Friday 23rd August: Book Week and 'The Blurbs' - On Friday 23rd of August students are invited to dress up as their favourite book character. This year's book week theme is 'Reading is Magic'. On Friday 23rd August there will be a costume parade in the morning and the students will get to see a performance from 'The Blurbs' following the parade. The Blurbs performance requires permission and payment, which can be completed via Compass.
• Monday 2nd September: Melbourne Zoo - Please visit Compass to provide permission and payment if you have not already done so. If you have any questions regarding the Zoo please contact your child's teacher.

What we have been up to...

Science Week

Grade 1/2 students participated in a variety of science activities, from learning about static electricity to revealing a secret code using turmeric paint! The students were all very engaged in these activities and looked to be having lots of fun. Hopefully the students brought home the booklet they created, showing each of the activities they participated in to share the new found knowledge with families.

Upcoming Learning - Week 7 and 8

Reading, Writing and Spelling: 

During week 7 and 8 our Reading and Writing lessons will be connected to the book 'Giraffes Can't Dance'. Students will compare fact vs. fiction texts, practise researching using a fact file and create an information text based on lions.

Our sounds and heart words for week 7 and 8 will include: 

• Week 7: s, si (treasure)  Heart words 💗 – one, once, said
• Week 8: kn and gn          Heart words 💗 – know, they

Mathematics:  In week 7 students will continue explore the measurement concepts length and capacity. 

In week 8 we will move onto the topic Fractions with students learning about 1/4, 1/2 and 1/8s of objects and also of a collection of items.

Topic: During our topic lesson on Celebrating differences, students will begin thinking about their own culture for example food, music and games which may be enjoyed within their family. It would be terrific if families could support a conversation around this at home before next week.