Year 1 Spotlight

Year 1 Spotlight

2022 is well underway! Term one started off with much excitement as the Year 1 students explored their new learning spaces and got to know their teachers and classmates. 

Reading 

In reading, we have been learning the routine of our Reader’s Workshop. Students have enjoyed learning new reading strategies such as ‘getting our mouths ready for the first sound’ in whole class sessions, building their independent reading stamina, and using their reading journals. We are also revisiting our predicting skills by using the title and clues on the front cover to make informed predictions about what might happen in the story. 

Writing 

In writing, we have been busy practising our handwriting on dotted thirds and learning about recounts by writing about our weekends. We use the vocabulary, first, then, next, to put our recount in sequential order. We have also been learning about writing questions using Who, What, Where, When, Why and How to help us write questions for our family to assist with our Inquiry unit. 

We are practising our writing goals – using capital letters correctly, spacing between words, and using full stops and question marks.

Maths 

In maths, we have been investigating counting patterns. The students have been practising counting to 100 from different starting points as well as skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. Students have also been learning about statistics, using tally marks to collect data, devising questions to learn more about their classmates, and  creating their own pictographs and bar graphs. This week we have started investigating the seasons. We have been looking closely at the Wurundjeri seasons and how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples track the seasons by observing changes in their environment. 

Inquiry

This year we have been doing Discovery Projects. This experience has been an excellent opportunity for students to build new relationships and build their self-directed learning skills.

Our first Discovery Project was to make something that taught others about themselves. This open-ended project has led to many unique interpretations as children have made dioramas, board games, booklets, films, giant drawings of dream houses, and many other things as well. 

The teachers have been very proud of the motivation, dedication and creativity shown by students as they’ve made a wide variety of interesting creations. Below are some example of the Discovery Projects created.

~ Year 1 Teachers (Prue, Brendan, Serena, Emilia & Anne) and Students