Year 1 News

Year One Literacy

On Monday of this week, the Year One students enjoyed a morning with our school's Literacy Learning Specialist, and Year 2 teacher, Mrs Purton. Mrs Purton helped introduce and roll out our first lessons introducing the 6+1 traits of writing: Voice, Ideas, Presentation, Conventions, Organisation, Word Choice, and Sentence Fluency. The 6+1 traits create a common vocabulary and act as a guideline for teachers to use with students so that they become familiar with the terms used in writing.

Ideas

The students firstly discussed what an ideas is and then how best to utilise our knowledge on a range of topics when writing. We discussed that choosing a topic that we know a lot about, helps us to write with greater confidence. Mrs Purton demonstrated the analogy that when we have an idea, it is as if we are turning on a light in our mind. We are able to write lots of information about the one idea when we are “switched on”.  

The ideas are the main message in writing. They are the main theme, together with all supporting details that enrich and develop that theme. Ideas are strong when the message is clear. The writer chooses details that are interesting, important, and informative – often these are ideas the reader would not normally predict. 

The students learnt that a successful writer is one that does not “tell” readers things that they already know, but “shows” readers information (e.g., “It was a Summer’s day, the sky was blue and the sun was out”) that is often overlooked and provides information (e.g., “My Grandmother was born in Ireland and migrated to Australia when she was only 6 years old.”) that is unusual, unique or the bits and pieces of life that is often missed. 

Organisation

The Year One children also learnt about the trait of Organisation. It is easy for the children to think of the Organisation trait as the three parts of a train (the engine, carriage and caboose). This analogy helps to remind students that writing needs to be presented in sequential order, or an order that makes sense. For example, we would never have a carriage driving a train, we would always have an engine at the front of the train, and therefore we would not typically have the middle of the story at the start of our writing piece. 

Organisation is the internal structure of a piece of writing, the pattern and sequence. When Organisation is strong, the piece begins meaningfully and creates, in the writer, a sense of anticipation that is systematic or sequential. Events occur logically; information is given to the reader at the right times so that the reader never loses interest. Connections are strong. The piece closes with a sense of resolution, tying up loose ends, bringing things to a close, answering important questions while still leaving the reader with something to think about.

Mrs Purton demonstrated how important Organisation is within a story by reading Edward the Emu, back to front. The children were able to understand how important it is to organise our writing clearly and in an order that makes sense. 

 Year One Inquiry

The Year Ones are well and truly into the new Unit Of Inquiry, “The weather affects our lives and environment”. The children have been immersed in both the language and knowledge of weather and its affects. The recent flooding in NSW and QLD is a hot topic among the Year One students.  

Over the past fortnight we have commenced our Science lessons in the Science Room. The students partook in experiments creating a 'Tornado in a Bottle' and a 'Cloud in a Jar'. 

This week we have looked at answering the children’s' wonderings on clouds, how they are formed and what they are made of. After learning about clouds in the classroom, each child engaged in some cloud spotting in the school yard. The children made and recorded observations of cloud height, type, colour, texture and movement. 

This week the Year One students will commence their next Learning Task, where they will be required to prepare and present an oral Weather Report to their peers.

Year One Maths

Following on from a captivating Curriculum Day with Math extraordinaire 'Michael Minas', the teachers have begun implementing new strategies and introducing new games in the classroom. Michael has a unique way of engaging learners of all abilities and making maths fun for all!