Year 1/2

1/2C

Term 2 in 1/2C is in full swing. We have continued to build on our fluency skills through reading aloud lines from our reader's theatre scripts. Students have enjoyed this opportunity to add expression and pace to their reading. For our topic this term, we are investigating indigenous Australians. We have discussed the 2 indigenous groups we have within Australia as well as discussed, their flags and what each part represents. We have recently read the dreamtime story How the Birds Got Their Colours, we have used this text to discuss vocabulary, sequencing and created our own birds of colour. To follow up with our investigations we also had Scott Darlow visit our school to teach us about indigenous culture. 

1/2J

We are well underway for Term 2! In Maths, students have been busy learning about patterns and skip counting. We have been using lots of concrete materials to find patterns and walked around the school looking for patterns in our everyday lives. Students quickly found patterns are everywhere. We have also explored ways that we can discover how many a pattern has increased or decreased by. In Writing, we are focusing on how we can make our writing more interesting. As well as always having correct punctuation, good writers make writing interesting by adding onomatopoeia or alliteration (ones we have focused on the last couple of weeks). It has been wonderful to see students starting to use these concepts in their writing, making themselves very proud of what they produce. Play based learning is in full swing with lots of collaborative play. One of the goals we have been working on is learning to play with people they wouldn't usually and make something with that new friend. We love encouraging students to try new things as they never know what new skill they might discover or a new friendship they might build along the way. Last week, we had the pleasure of watching a presentation from Scott Darlow, an Indigenous singer/songwriter. The students were so engaged (as were the teachers) and learnt some interesting facts about Indigenous Culture. Scott played his didgeridoo and taught us that it is only to be played by the men in the tribe. 

1/2W

On the first day of term 2, we celebrated our whole class being present (for the first time this year) with a class photo together.  We were excited to finish our ‘Bunjil’ the eagle, a lengthy project made with a collection of feathers and leaves as part of our Acknowledgement of country.  Thank you to Shantelle for helping us.  We are looking forward to listening the story of Bunjil during our Indigenous Australians topic this term. 

Our current literacy focus is writing retells and using literacy devices, such as onomatopoeia and alliteration, to enrich our writing.  We worked cooperatively together as a class to retell the story of “How the birds got their colours” in sequence, each choosing a part to draw and write about.

This week, the students have begun to explore the Wurundjeri weather seasons with Belinda, our pre-service teacher.  We have been looking at how Aboriginal Peoples weather seasons are based on what they observe is happening in nature and not dates on a calendar.  We are identifying the climate and characteristics of each of the seven weather seasons of the Wurundjeri People.

We have also been secretly making something special and learning a song to perform at assembly this week.