Dhumbadjirri "Talk Together"

Year 1/2 Mainstream 

Celebrating Learning

Integrated- What we have been up to: 

 

We can’t believe that we are already halfway through T4! Our investigations into different mixtures around us have continued. Students have experimented with potion making and are starting to discuss how different substances visually change when they are mixed. 

Maths: 

We have continued to deepen our understanding of fractions. Students have been extending their understanding of what it means to partition objects, but also collections into halves, quarters and eighths. Classes  have started a new unit on statistics and using data to visualise and wonder about the world around them. First we explored interpreting data displays and reorganising the data to make comparisons and pose questions. Then we posed the question ‘How do you like to eat potatoes?’ and asked students to survey the class. They collected, organised and analysed the data.  You may be interested to look at some of the photos and see what our results showed!

 

Literacy:

This week, Grade 1/2 students have begun the process of working towards publishing their writing. We have started with publishing some of the procedural writing about mixtures we can cook ourselves. This has linked with our Integrated topic this terms. The Grade 1/2 teachers particularly appreciate the Grade 2 students who have led the way in the writer’s process, demonstrating to our Grade 1 friends how we publish and helping them with peer editing. 

 

In the coming weeks, we will be inviting parents and carers to join us for the TPS Grade 1/2 Writer’s Festival. You will be able to meet the writers and share feedback on their publications. Our students - I mean authors - are very excited to share their magnum opuses.  

 

The 1/2 teachers have been blown away by how the students' reading fluency has improved! Students are reading accurately, at an appropriate pace and with expression. This helps both reader and listener understand what is being read. 

 

ACCURACYI read the words correctly (sound out and say).
RATEI make sure my reading isn’t too fast or too slow.
EXPRESSIONI read with feeling. I don’t read like a robot
PUNCTUATIONI 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 7.4 sounds. For the next two weeks, we are focusing on the /yoo/ sound  as in new, and u as in music. We will then move on to the /oo/ as in blue and rude.

 

What’s to come in the next two weeks:

 

  • Continue reading at home. Record any books that you read from the library or your own collection. If your child is choosing a text that is ‘too easy’, work on other skills like fluency (see above) and comprehension strategies. 
  • There are lots of ways that you can be exploring mixtures at home! Cooking is a great way to explore how ingredients change when mixed together. 
  • Students will be continuing to collect data over the next two weeks, but this time from their own lives. Then they will construct inventive data displays to tell a story from their data.