Prep / 1 Mainstream

Maths:

Our students have been doing some great work this week, deepening their understanding of addition and subtraction! They explored new strategies using a number line. Think of it as a map: they learned to make "jumps" forward for addition and backward for subtraction and then translate these steps into a clear number sentence. Next week, we will be taking a short assessment to see how well they've grasped these addition and subtraction concepts and to celebrate their learning and progress!

We have begun weekly check in testing with our year 1 students using “fast facts” worksheets. The sheets are used to check for students’ use of addition and subtraction strategies. If a student completes all the questions on the page correctly within the 5 minute timeframe, they move on to the next strategy the following week. If students do not finish all questions or they miscalculate an answer, they will get that sheet back to take home and practise.

Writing:

Students have been learning about the features of a non-fiction text. We have continued looking at how facts can be categorised. The categories that we have been discussing are:

-classification

-what they eat

-what they look like

-where they live

-how they move

-interesting facts

Our integrated unit has inspired lots of discussion and ideas about living things. This week we have introduced writing planners. We are using these planners to help us write our draft information reports this week and next.

Reading:

An integral part of building fluency is reading out loud to a partner and receiving feedback. This gives students the chance to notice how reading words accurately impacts their own and their partners' understanding of the text. A listening partner can assist their reading partner to read a word accurately by saying:

“That word is _____”
“What’s that word?”
“Good. Can you read that sentence again, please?”

We have introduced paragraph shrinking in our classrooms to assist with reading comprehension. Paragraph shrinking helps build student understanding of the text and therefore improves fluency. Students are asked to “shrink” either a very short page or paragraph of the text by identifying who the text is mostly about and what the most thing is that has happened. Students then say the main idea in a sentence that is 10 words or less.

In our phonics groups over the past two weeks we have been focussing on the following sounds:

Rylee/ Anastasia and Jess:

/ch/ as in chips
/tch/ as in ditch

Matt was reviewing:

/oo/ as in goose
Alternative graphemes for /oo/ such as /o/ (to), /ou/ (soup) and /oe/ (canoe)
/le/ as in little

Steph was learning:

/oe/ as in toe
/ow/ as in show

What’s to come in the next two weeks:

Thank you for continuing to support your children to take home readers and practise at home.
If your year 1 child brings home a fast fact sheet to revise, have a look at the sheet with them. You can practise any of the number sentences they haven't finished or ones that they might have miscalculated.
Maths: We will look at patterns and skip counting.
Writing: After publishing our information posters, we will be returning to narrative.
This term, we need to be wearing hats when we go outside for recess and lunch time. Please ensure your child comes to school with a broad brimmed hat to wear! Both classes have a space in the room for students to bring their hats and leave them at school so they don’t get forgotten.

Warmly,

Anastasia, Jess and Rylee