Year 1/2–Celebrating Learning

1/2 Mainstream 

This term the 1/2 mainstream classes integrated focus is on water and in particular sustainability. Students have observed and described water,  identified uses of water and sources of water and discussed ways to use water responsibly. Lessons have involved water walks and hands on, shared experiences of water use at school. We didn’t organise the major rain events over the last few weeks, but we could have because they have been a great point of discussion within this unit! 

In Mathematics students have been enjoying exploring fractions by folding, cutting and dividing whole shapes and collections into equal parts. They have drawn connections between halves and doubles and the use of fractions in everyday life like cooking, sports and time.

The teachers have been super impressed by the deadly start to the term. Students are demonstrating  a maturity towards their learning and demonstrating they are more like year 2 and 3s now, rather than year 1 and 2s. 

1 Steiner 

In Main Lesson, Class one has been exploring both short and long vowel sounds and other letter blends that also make these sounds. Through listening and retelling stories, students have been writing recounts and have now moved into narrative writing. Students have been busy imagining settings, events, and characters and thier traits. They are building confidence as a community of Writers as they seed, plan, write, and share their stories. 

2 Steiner

Class 2 have been exploring our Trading Treasure main lesson, delving into the historical development from trading goods and services to the invention of currency. The children have had firsthand experiences of trading their treasures in a game context, and we have explored the difference between needs and wants. Emergent learning has included a deepening appreciation for how many of the things we value most are actually free in terms of money. They require us to invest attention, love, care, and effort rather than money. We are developing our confidence with recognising and working with Australian money; applying our mathematical thinking to simple real life scenarios involving saving and paying for things. 

We have also been exploring different strategies for learning as part of our “integration term” where we are bringing all of our learnings from the year into a higher order of understanding and utilisation. The children have been doing lots of independent writing using the five finger retell strategy, we are practicing strategies for mental maths such as using friends of ten knowledge and rounding up and down to the nearest ten, and we are practicing “visualising” spelling words in front of us in large, bright, clear, letters. 

The children are beginning to knit in class, we are practicing our recorder skills regularly, and we continue to focus on a holistic, multimodal approach to learning every day – so that our experience of school is meaningful, joyful, a full-body sport, and connected to real life and a living relationship with nature. This term is all about integration and the deep conviction in every child that they can do anything they set their mind to, with the combination of applied effort and the right strategies.