Year 1 Program

Semester 1

English

Students work with various texts to develop a range of skills to enable them to become independent readers and writers. Through shared book experiences and guided reading sessions, students continue to develop and build on a range of reading strategies and skills. They begin to apply this knowledge independently when decoding unknown words and developing meaning from texts. Students explore various writing styles and their purposes. They continue to practise a range of spelling strategies to assist with their writing. Students are encouraged to speak and listen in ways that promote effective communication. They share their thoughts and ideas during whole group discussions and are encouraged to ask questions.

Mathematics

Students continue to develop a range of number concepts. They explore numbers to 100 and practise counting from various starting points.  They develop their knowledge of number facts and strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems, and are encouraged to verbalise their understandings. They draw common shapes such as squares, rectangles, circles and triangles and learn to recognise cubes and spheres.  Students explore shapes by classifying and sorting them based on their characteristics. They order the days of the week and use clocks to tell the time to the nearest hour. The students recognise, describe and order Australian coins according to their value.   

Humanities & Science—Inquiry

The Inquiry topic Year 1s engage with in Semester 1 is ‘Dodd Detectives’. Through the inquiry process, students represent observable features of a familiar place on a model and pictorial map. Students develop geographical skills of inquiry that include: observing features of familiar places using photographs and labelled diagrams as well as describing the features of familiar places that are important to them. Through the use of digital technology, students also recognise that places can be represented on a map or a globe. They share observations and outline the features of a familiar place and use everyday language to describe the direction and location of these.

Auslan

Students learn how to sign simple greetings including signing their emotions, numbers 1-20 and letters of the alphabet. Students are introduced to the Auslan signs that relate to their inquiry topic Mapping Places and My Neighbourhood. They participate in simple interactions using Auslan signing with their peers. Students view a range of texts and videos presented in Auslan and respond to these through drawing or signing.

Health & Physical Education

Students focus on a range of fundamental skills including throwing, bouncing, leaping and dodging. They learn the importance of rules and fair play when participating in Physical Education. Students are given opportunities to work in groups and develop a range of skills when interacting with their peers. They discuss their emotional responses to a variety of situations and talk about strategies to assist them when faced with a challenge. 

Performing Arts

Students develop drama practices to gain an understanding of the ways they can use their voice, and body to communicate ideas and stories from the world around them. They use this knowledge to create short improvised or rehearsed plays that express particular themes, feelings and stories. They identify the qualities of good performers and apply these skills to their performances within the school community.

Visual Arts 

Students focus on developing various techniques through the Visual Arts elements of line, colour, shape, texture, value and space. They observe techniques used by artists from a range of social and historical contexts and plan and create their own visual art works. Students participate in the areas of drawing, collage, painting, textiles and construction. They use ideas and concepts taken from themes and visual stimuli from a range of cultures and social contexts to explore, create and express their ideas. 

Media Arts 

Students focus on developing various techniques through the Media Arts elements of representation, languages, technologies, institutions and audiences. They observe techniques and ideas of media artists from a range of historical and social contexts. Students will plan and create their own media artworks using story principles. They create such media artworks as photo stories, still photographs and animations.