Year 1 News
It has been a mammoth fortnight at Beaumaris North. The Year One students have been engaged in some rich educational experiences ranging from a week of celebrations for the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s ‘Book Week’ by partaking in the book parade, reading shortlisted books and completing a book review; to celebrating our Unit of Inquiry, with Mr Bray visiting to provide his expert knowledge on bees and the process involved in honey making.
Maths
Our Number focus this fortnight has been money. The children have built on their knowledge of recognising, describing and ordering Australian coins according to value. We have also had some interesting discussions in light of the Queen passing. The children have inquired as to whether King Charles III will now be the face of the coins and have wondered when the new coins will start being made at the mint.
Our Measurement focus has been measuring and comparing lengths, masses and capacities. The children have also enjoyed a new interactive game calling Spingo which required the children to match a digital time with the analogue time on their Spingo boards.
Inquiry
As part of our Unit of Inquiry we spent last week exploring the process involved in making honey. We were fortunate to have our resident beekeeper, Mr Bray, join us in the Year One rooms to share his knowledge on bees and making honey.
Mr Bray even let us sample some of his summer and spring honey. The children also completed a procedural writing piece which they have shared with their parents as a Learning Task.
We have continued caring for our bean plants in the classroom. The plants have shown considerable growth over the past fortnight and the children are looking forward to bringing
This week has been a hive of activity in the Year One classrooms as we have explored the process involved in chocolate making.
The children have been tasked with working in a small team to design and construct their own chocolate bars. We have exposed the children not only to the process of growing cacao pods, through to making chocolate in the factory, but to persuasive techniques used by food companies (slogans, colour schemes), to the cost of chocolate and the weight of chocolate bars (in grams).
On Thursday the children will be opening up their crafted cardboard shops for each other and will be invited to spend their freshly constructed paper coins. The last day of term 3 will be celebrated Willy Wonka style!
Literacy
Last week we celebrated the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s ‘Book Week’, by reading and completing activities for shortlisted books including Amira’s Suitcase, The Boy and the Elephant and ‘What do you call your Grandma?’
After the BNPS Book Week Parade, the students shared their chosen book character with the Year 1 cohort and spent the morning writing a book review of their favourite book, as well as illustrating the front cover.
Some of the students enjoyed reflecting on “The Boy and the Elephant”, which is a wordless book exploring a relationship between a boy and his imaginary magical elephant friend, by illustrating what their imaginary friend might look like and what its super powers may be.
The Year One team wish the Year One families a happy, healthy and safe school holidays and look forward to welcoming back the students for their last term of Year 1.
Treehouse
Well its been another fun learning experience in the Treehouse this term. Lots of busy activities have helped the children to enrich their reading skills.
Happy Holidays
Mrs Vawdrey.