Year 1 News

Room 16a

In Mathematics, Room 16a have been learning to recognise and describe Australian money as well as order coins and notes according to value. Real-life hands-on experiences have been enjoyed during our maths groups. We have been practicing adding up the value of shopping lists and using subtraction to work out the change needed. Our little Coles Dramatic Play Centre is very popular!

Room 16b

In Room 16b this term, we have made STEM lessons a part of our weekly Digital Technology program. We have 4 rotational activities that we get to focus on each week; 

• We code the Dash Robots
• We use the Osmo Genius Kits to help us problem solve and reason with shapes
• We have challenge tasks that involve construction and design
• We have a create task that involves working as a team.

So far…

We have created the tallest tower we can and an interesting structure using only 100 cubes. We have been challenged when building a chair for a small plastic bear and a bridge for our stuffed pig to go over safely. We know how to code the Dash Robots and insert sounds as they move. We have loved having our turn on the Osmo Tanagram Kits as we learn to problem solve with shapes to create pictures.

Room 17

Room 17 has had lots of fun with our first Talk 4 Writing text ‘The Magic Porridge Pot’. We learnt to orally retell the text and then used the new language and knowledge to create our own stories. The process is helping us to become better storytellers and writers.

Room 18

In Room 18 we have been having great fun with our Music lessons. We are learning lots of wonderful new songs to sing along to, as well as moving to the beat and rhythm. Our musical instruments are helping us learn about high and low pitch patterns. We have lots of fun with our rhythm sticks, playing the xylophones, clapping our hands to the rhythm, and moving around to the beat of the music. We have also been lucky to have had Ben and Amelia from the WSHS Community Links program this term. They are both very musical and brought in some instruments to play for the class and have a jam session with the students.

Room 18 and Room 4 

Mrs Skinner's Year 1 class in Room 18 and Mrs Griffiths' Year 6 class in Room 4 meet every fortnight. The students buddy up with each other and the focus is on Growth Mindset and Mindfulness. 

Exercising a Growth Mindset means to keep trying and believing that we can achieve our goals if we keep practising. The chatterboxes containing growth mindset messages that the students designed kept everyone entertained for the session.

Our brain is like a muscle, the more we practise with it the stronger it becomes. The buzz word is 'neuroplasticity' - the brain making new pathways to learn This is what we talked about in class when we made our amygdala's and its flight, freeze, fight response.

 Mindful practice can help keep our brains thinking clearly, and we will be exploring more of this next time we meet our buddies.

Marcia Skinner & Meghan Griffiths

Room 19

Room 19, students came into class to find their chairs had quit for the day. The students read the letter from the furniture and thought they needed to write some letters to persuade them to come back. Lots of amazing letters describing why they felt they needed a seat during the day. My personal favourite was that they would put holes in their pants at the knees, and then their parents would be very cross. Or perhaps how they wouldn’t be able to do handwriting correctly. There were a lot of apologies and thankfully the next day they were back with a thank you letter from the furniture.