What we have been up to:

After a busy start to Term 3, the 1/2s have settled back into our routines. We’ve been enjoying the Light and Sound presentations that students have been bringing into class! We’ve seen posters, listened to speeches and looked through pictures on slide shows. Keep them coming!

Maths: We have been exploring multiplication and division with a deep dive into the big ideas that support a stronger understanding of these complex concepts. We started with sharing stories, then partitioning shapes into equal parts and making and using equal groups. We have also started our unit on measuring, starting with ‘length’. This has tied in beautifully with the Olympics and students have been enjoying measuring objects in the classroom using uniform, informal units.

Literacy:

Grade 1/2 children have been creating their own narrative texts, inspired by fables we all know and love. By adapting common stories such as The Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood, students have been able to identify the elements of a narrative (setting, characters, problem, resolution) and write their own new and exciting texts. Innovating on text is an important part of children developing their own narrative voice, and they have been exciting to listen to!

Kiaya, our literacy coach, has been supporting the 1/2 team with our new morning paired reading routine targeting reading fluency. We are teaching the students that strong readers make their reading sound like speaking. To be a fluent reader, students need to pay attention to:

ACCURACY	I read the words correctly (sound out and say).
RATE	I make sure my reading isn’t too fast or too slow.
EXPRESSION	I read with feeling. I don’t read like a robot
PUNCTUATION	I follow the punctuation marks that I read in my text.

When you are reading with your child at home, you might like to give them feedback that sounds like this:

Your (accuracy/ rate/expression/punctuation) was _____________________.
Your _______________ could improve by_____________________.
Next time you might like to try ________________________.
I noticed you tried ________________________.

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, ou as in couch, oi as in coin, oy as in boy, oo as in look, u as in put and oul as in could.

Integrated:

So far, we have investigated sources of light and sound around our homes and our school, and conducted experiments to learn how sound and light are made. Questions we have been asking include ‘where does light come from?’, and ‘how are sounds made?’.

What’s to come in the next two weeks:

Our new integrated unit is light and sound. To support this, we will be presenting shadow puppet retells which you will be invited to later in the term.

NOTE: There will be a call out for powerful torches so if anyone has one let your teacher know.

Next week students will be going on an array hunt around their classroom and school. We will invite them to continue their array hunt at home. They might take photos or bring in the object, these can then be added to our Arrays Museum. Asking students to look for arrays in their homes and communities turns students’ eyes on to seeing the mathematical structures throughout their environments.

Our new home reading books are getting closer to being organised for students to take home. We are really excited about having these books. We would really appreciate parents’ support in making sure these books get borrowed, looked after at home and returned after they are read so that we can continue to enjoy them. Thank you to the parents who have spent countless hours stamping and contacting the books! Absolute champions!

Book week is week 6 and the assembly on Friday 23rd August, so start chatting about favourite characters with your little people.

If you are interested in attending our next reading workshop (so that you can volunteer in our classrooms), please contact your classroom teacher!

Team Kids