Year 1 Report

Term 3

Welcome back parents and caregivers. What an interesting Term 3 we have had so far! Our Grade One students have done an amazing job connecting online and completing work given the circumstances. We wanted to thank all our families for their ongoing support and flexibility during remote learning. Unfortunately, we have needed to postpone our Grade One Stay Late. We are hoping to have it up and running early in Term 4.

Numeracy

In Numeracy, Grade One students consolidated their understanding of skip counting forwards and backwards by 5s, 10s and 2s.  After revisiting counting, students explored early multiplication concepts through sharing activities. They created their own sharing stories using concrete materials they found at home, learned how to make a fair share and identified whether there are any remainders after sharing. Their learning was celebrated through creating FlipGrids where students talked about their understanding of sharing. Students learned how to measure mass and capacity through hands on experiences at home such as measuring how much sand, rice or water a container can hold. They practised estimating before measuring and compared and ordered the capacities and masses of objects. Towards the end of term, students learned about time. First, they revised the features of clocks and how to tell time to the hour before moving onto telling time to the half hour. Students practiced drawing clocks and identifying time to the half hour on analogue and digital clocks. They practiced telling time throughout the day using analogue clocks at home. 

Reading

In Reading, Grade One students have learnt about the different features of non-fiction texts and have further developed their knowledge by explaining why each feature is important. Students have read a range of modelled texts from Reading Eggs, Epic and have recently gained access to a large variety of online texts from Sunshine Online. They have become excellent thinkers by using a range of strategies to make predictions about a text! Students have been asking and writing down questions before, during and after the text to gain further information. Some of the strategies students have been using to assist in their questioning and predicting are looking at the title, using the picture, accessing prior knowledge and using text connections. Students have also worked on summarising different text types and pictures in their own words by using the 5-finger summary and timing themselves. Students have continued to practice their Oxford Words weekly by using online literacy games, matching card games, chalk writing and completing Look, Say, Cover, Write and Check in their workbooks. 

In Week 7, our Grade One students participated in book week. We explored the text ‘Ellie’s Dragon’ and created our own dragon fact sheet. We inferred and answered questions about the book during our masterclass. 

Below are some pictures of Grade One students dressed up for book week at home!

Writing

In Writing, Grade One students have been busy writing their own information booklets! Students were focusing on the genre of report writing and were encouraged to research important facts provided to them and learnt how to categorise this information into main groups/sub-headings.  They also learnt how to summarise main points by listing important information as dash facts. Students created information booklets that were about Polar Bears, Frogs, Butterflies, Winter and Coronavirus. Each booklet included a title page, contents page, at least two information pages and a labelled diagram. Three of these information booklets had been completed whilst the students were learning remotely, and they have done an amazing job! 

Students concluded this unit by completing a writing assessment of an information report about Crocodiles (also completed remotely) and were given the opportunity to revise and edit one booklet they had completed, of their choice, for publishing.  

Inquiry

In Inquiry, Grade One students have discussed how Australia is made up of many cultures with similarities & differences. By exploring the topic “Australia and its Identity – Celebrating Differences” we hope children will understand that although they have lots of ways that they celebrate in their culture, they will recognise that others do as well. Some things are the same, some things are different, but we are all a part of the same country.  This term students were able to learn more about different cultural groups, including Aboriginal peoples and they learnt about some significant traditions and ceremonies that shape Australia. Students identified the similarities and differences between the way in which some cultures celebrate different traditions and cultural events within our country.  

We are hoping to have a showcase of some different cultural traditions and celebrations from our families during the last week of Term. Don’t forget to send in a photo or video of your family’s favourite cultural game, song, story, recipe, dance, artwork, etc. 

We look forward to seeing the many wonderful things our RPPS families celebrate! 

REMINDERS

• Online class check in starts at 9:30am and our masterclass is at 10:00am
• Online specialist classes run Monday- Thursday at 2:00pm
• Use the SENTRAL app to notify the school of any absence
• Look, Say, Cover, Write and Check is to be completed weekly at home
• Red folders are to be returned to school each day for notes
• Students choose 5 take home reader books on a Monday to keep in their blue folder (these books are changed every Monday for students to read throughout the week).

The Grade One Team 

Katherine Richardson, Emily Routley, Rosie Borg and Melissa Fitzpatrick.