Grade 1 & 2

As we hit the middle of term 2, please be sure to keep an eye on Compass for upcoming events and excursions.

We  also appreciate your continued support with our classroom rountines around homework, reading and library.

Grade 2

Literacy

Grade 2 students have had a wonderful first half of Term 2, continuing to build their literacy skills and showing great enthusiasm throughout our literacy program. Through our structured InitiaLit lessons, students have further developed their abilities in spelling, comprehension, grammar and storybook activities.

Throughout the term, students have been writing recount texts, creating detailed pieces of writing and sharing their ideas with growing confidence. Students have focussed on adding detail - who, when, where, what and why as well as ensuring that they use adjectives to make their writing more interesting. Students are learning to edit their writing for punctuation and spelling and check it make sense. Good writers always reread their writing to check for improvements!

In reading and comprehension we have been expanding our comprehension toolbox by making personal connections, text-to-text connections and world connections to deepen students’ understanding of texts. By reading two texts on similar topics as well as thinking about their own lives and what they know about the world, students have been able make connections and increase their understanding of a range of topics.

Maths

In Maths, following a number of weeks on addition and subtraction, Grade 2 students are now entering into our money unit - which is always a favourite! Students have been encouraged to bring in a small container that they will decorate and use as a money box over the next few weeks. There will be opportunities to 'earn' money, 'fines' and time to 'spend' at the end of each week. This unit will use real life connections to bring money to life and develop adding, subtracting and saving skills for our students.

The Resilence Projects

Grade 2 students have been thinking about 'adventures', recalling and drawing a great adventure that they have been on with their families and relating it to a sense of gratitude. Students have enjoyed pulling our adventures out of a jar, guessing whose adventure it was and then the owner coming up to the front and telling us all about it. There have certainly been some wonderful adventures which have created many and lasting fond memories for your children and the class love hearing about them!

Grade 1

Grade 1 students are continuing to build their bank of phonemes (the sounds that letters make)—particularly digraphs (two letters making one sound) and trigraphs (three letters making one sound). Students have been revising vowels and consonants, and exploring how the letter "y" can pretend to be a vowel in some words. They have also been mastering the difference between long and short vowel sounds.

Super Writers!

In writing, the children are crafting Super Sentences by ensuring they always use capital letters and full stops (or question marks and exclamation marks!). To make their writing even more interesting, they have been using descriptive adjectives to paint a picture with their words.

Two exciting writing highlights recently included:

• The Mystery Egg: Students had a go at writing a creative story about an unexpected creature hatching from an egg found in their garden.
• The Lighthouse Keeper’s Lunch: The class thoroughly enjoyed reading this classic story. After learning about the seagulls stealing the Lighthouse keeper's lunch, they wrote about their own clever plans to stop those seagulls from devouring a scrumptious meal!

Reading and InitiaLit

Our InitiaLit book studies have been a major highlight of the week. We always begin by reading a book purely for pleasure. Then, we dive back in to ask deep questions and unpack some of the wonderful vocabulary hidden inside. Finally, we revisit the text to analyze the story structure—identifying the beginning, middle, and end, with a special focus on the problem and the solution.

National Simultaneous Storytime

The class also thrilled to take part in the National Simultaneous Storytime, joining students all over Australia to read the exact same book at the exact same time! This year’s book, 'Luna Roo the Kangaroo Baller' - followed the rookie captain, Luna Roo, as she left nothing on the pitch, leading FC Outback in a thrilling soccer face-off against Bush United. We all had a fantastic time cheering for Luna Roo as she found her inner strength in this gripping underdog story!

Maths

We have been super busy in math starting the term by looking at data and the different ways we can record it.

Data and Counting Patterns

The students learned how to collect data usingtally marks, and then used their skills in counting by 5s to calculate the totals. Alongside this, they have continued to practice skip-counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s. They had a massive amount of fun making long strips of paper to record their counting patterns—all while competing to reach the largest number!

Problem Solving and Measurement

Our young mathematicians have also been working hard on solving simple addition and subtraction problems, including reading and decoding word problems. In measurement, students completed hands-on tasks where they measured and compared the lengths of various classroom items using informal units like unifix blocks and paper clips.

Directions and a Game of Chance!

This week, our focus shifted to position and directional language—specifically giving and following directions. Students learned the compass points North, South, East, and West (Never Eat Soggy Weet-Bix!)

To put this into practice, we played a game of chance:

• Students chose a compass direction to stand in.
• If their location was pulled out of a hat, they were out!
• Before the next round, a new location could be chosen.

The students have been actively looking for patterns to see if they can predict which direction will be pulled next, which has been a fantastic gateway for learning about the mathematical concept of chance.

Coding with Robots

To wrap up our directional unit, the students created their own directional maps. They wrote step-by-step instructions (programs) to successfully navigate a robot from one destination to another!

Life Education

We had an exciting visit with Harold again this year. The students quickly remembered their visit last year and were again drawn into the lesson where Harold was able to teach them all about friendships and being a good friend. It was great to see the students sharing their thoughts and ideas with Harold.

Grade 1's at Cross Country

There were some very enthusiastic students who took part in the cross country event this year. All the students walked to the track along the river and were excited to see the senior grades already there. They were very energetic as they ran up and back a total distance of 1km which was further than some of them imagined. All the students loved the encouragement they received from their peers and the rest of our amazing community that lined the sides of the track. When we made it back to school the students were keen to have a big rest and quiet afternoon.

Aladdin

It was fantastic to see the results of all the hard work the students had done in preparing for the Aladdin production. The Grade 1 students - while they were the youngest in the show - did an amazing job attending rehersals and then remembering all their dance moves and the songs. They managed costume changes and 3 performances. I am sure you can agree that the grade 1's were the best performers in the show and they certainly made their teacher proud.

Important dates:

King's Birthday Public Holiday - 8th June

Curriculum Day - 9th June

Mont de Lancey Excursion - 17th June

The Big Freeze  - 26th June

Last day of Term 2, early dismissal 2:30pm - 26th June