Year 1 

Spotlight on Learning

Dear Families,

Welcome to Week 7! We hope everyone enjoyed the Labour Day public holiday and had a lovely long weekend with family and friends. As it was a short week for students, we focused on settling back into our learning routines and making the most of our time together. We look forward to a full week ahead of continued learning, growth, and working together while showing our school values of safety, respect, and responsibility.

Warm regards,

The Jerusalem Community Team 

Important Reminders

1. Term 1 is a SunSmart term and 'No hat, no play', please ensure your child has their school hat everyday.
2. All students are expected to wear full St Thomas’ school uniform — either summer, or PE is fine, but it must be the official school uniform. 
3. Reading daily is a big factor in academic progression. Students should read everyday to a parent or family member to increase their word/sound knowledge.
4. Lunchboxes should include fruit or vegetables and lunch to fuel students for learning throughout the day.

This week:

Award winners: Awards are handed out to students who show exemplary school values of Safety, Respect and Learning each week during weekly community assembly. If your child receives an award, but is absent on Friday, they will receive their award during the next weekly assembly.

English phonics: This week in Reading, we have been learning the -y, which is a grapheme that makes the sound / i¯/. This makes the long i sound in words like fly or cry.

English writing: This week we are reading "Looking after Country with Fire" by Victor and Sandra Steffensen. The students learned about how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have cared for Country, for thousands of years. One important way they do this is through careful, small fires called cool fire. These gentle fires help clear dry plants, keep the bush healthy, and make it easier for new plants to grow. Students discussed how fire, when used wisely and respectfully, can help protect animals, plants, and the land. Through this learning, we are helping students understand the importance of caring for our environment and respecting the knowledge of Australia’s First Peoples.

At home: You can also watch the book on Youtube and discuss the themes in the story. Ask students questions about the book and reflect what they learnt from the story.

Mathematics: This week in mathematics, we learned about convincing others about our thinking. We discussed why we would convince others and how to prove what we are thinking by using different representations. 

This week we also started using number lines as another way to help us visualise adding numbers together. 

At home: Draw a numberline starting and ending at different numbers, how many numbers can you put on there? Play the numberline game at at home with your family.

Intergrated studies: This week, we learned how people use fire to care for Country. We learned that fire can be helpful or harmful to the land, plants, and animals. We drew a helpful fire and a harmful fire.

Religious education: This week, we revisit the Parable of the Mustard Seed as we unpack small actions, gifts and choices can grow into something that helps many people.

Social and emotional learning: This week, the students played games to learn to work with others and collaborate. These games can also be played at home with family and discussed to show what the students have learnt.

AUSLAN: 

Students have started unit 2 of AUSLAN, they are learning about classroom instructions. These are the signs they learnt this week. 

Next week 

English phonics: Next week, we are learning the sounds o and oa.

English writing: Next we will be reading "I'm Australian Too!" by Mem Fox.

Mathematics: Next week, in mathematics we will continue to work on number lines before moving on to using bar models to represent parts and wholes of a number. 

Intergrated studies: Next week, we examining Australia place compared to the rest of the world.

Religious education: We continue learning about easter and Holy week.

Social and emotional learning: Next week, we about learning about Harmony Day.

Ways to engage with the newsletter:

• Read the weekly book with your child at home (there is often a read aloud on you tube). Talk about what the book's most important ideas are.

• Ask your child to retell the story using their own words.

• Talk about who the characters are, where the story is happening.

• Use the spelling words provided to make up sentences at home or simply a 5 word mini dictation.

• Take the idea around Mathematics and ask students to repeat an activity they did at school, with you.

Important Dates

• TERM 1 Key Dates
• Friday 20th of March - Harmony Day
• Friday 27th of March - The Big Walk for Water
• Wednesday 1st of April - Year 1 Mass  

• Thursday 2 April - Holy Thursday — Last Day of Term 1

   

  TERM 2 Key Dates

• Tuesday 21 April — First Day for Students

Contact Us @ Jerusalem

jerusalem@cranbourneeast.catholic.edu.auOR

The Jerusalem Team