S1 Newsletter

A note from the Stage 1 teachers

What a very energetic start to the term we have had! Students enjoyed participating in their very first K-2 Athletics Carnival last week. Under blue skies they ran as fast as they could, threw as far as they could and jumped their hearts out. Please see the K-2 Athletics Carnival page for some photos of the day.

Stage 1 will be participating in sport every Tuesday afternoon for the rest of this term. Students may wear their navy or grey school shorts or skort for ease of movement, joggers can be brought to school in a separate bag.

It would be wonderful to see all our students reading and then returning their home readers each Friday. Having the opportunity to practise their new skills at home will develop not only their fluency, but their confidence as well. Thank you for supporting your child on their reading journey.

English

In spelling, we will be learning to spell and read words with the /e/ sound using the graphemes:

‘ea’ like head, read, already
‘ai’ like said, again
‘a’ like any, many
‘ie’ like friend

We practise reading and writing high-frequency and tricky words daily. Tricky words are words which have a difficult part - the word ‘said’ is tricky because the /e/ sound is made by the digraph ‘ai’.

Writing

This term, we are learning to identify the different parts of a narrative and learning how to plan and write our own narratives. We are learning to identify the sizzling start of a narrative and how to change a fizzling start into a sizzling start to engage our readers. We are learning to use the story graph as a way of understanding the structure and how to plan for a narrative.

Mathematics

Over the coming weeks, we will be applying principles explored in area and two-dimensional shapes, as we learn about three-dimensional objects and measuring volume.

We can do this by:

stacking and layering cubes without gaps or overlaps
using efficient counting and prediction strategies
filling containers using uniform informal units to compare and measure their capacity

As we become more proficient, we will need to explore different containers and discuss their features. We will learn about a range of three-dimensional objects such as prisms, cubes and cylinders and be able to name them and describe their specific features with the correct vocabulary such as:

faces (flat surfaces with straight edges)
edges (where two faces meet)
vertices (a vertex is where two or more edges meet)
flat surface with a curved boundary (like the circular surfaces at the top or bottom of a cylinder)
curved surface (as in a cone or a sphere)

Integrated Studies

During the Term 4 Integrated Studies Unit Celebrating Differences, students will develop an appreciation of multicultural Australia, embracing games, music and traditions from different cultures. They will develop an understanding that although we are all different, we hold similar values and we all have a right to be treated fairly. In the coming week, students will be asking their parents about the cultural heritage that their family identifies with. They will then be able to share this information with their classmates. Please help your child to fill out the information sheet when it is sent home. Towards the end of the term, students will investigate a selected country and prepare a presentation.

Calculating the area of surfaces using uniform informal units