Classroom News

Grade 1 & 2

What a wonderful term of learning it has been for our Grade 1s & 2s.  It has been another exciting term with lots of events and learning. We wish all of our children and families a wonderful holiday break. We hope the sun comes out and you are all relaxed and refreshed for a big final term of 2022. 

Reading

In Reading, we investigated some books by Stephen Michael King and Anna Walker. Students compared texts and made connections between books, characters and themes. This term, we had a strong focus on inferential understanding and we used our mentor texts from these authors to find evidence for our thinking. The mentor texts have been uploaded into Showbie so students (and parents) can continue to read and enjoy the books at any time. 

Book Fun Day was a highlight of the term and, as usual, the costumes were fantastic. This celebration of reading was a wonderful way to recognise excellence in writing, the joy of reading and the importance of quality literature.

Writing

In Writing, we continued our focus on narratives, by in depth exploration of the key elements that are the components of a narrative. We also focused on “showing not telling” and looked at how the author’s tune in the reader, through the use of strong verbs and adjectives. We investigated sizzling starts and fantastic finishes to further enhance our narratives. We then created our own narratives using the writing tools we had explored. We also investigated the structure of persuasive writing, and thought of reasons for different topics - ‘For’ and ‘Against’. We linked these to our mentor texts eg. Are sunny days better than rainy days?, from our mentor text “Snail and Turtle rainy days”. 

We will continue to work on persuasive texts next term, and work towards writing our own persuasive pieces. 

Maths

In Maths, we commenced the term working on measurement, focusing on length and the area of shapes. We investigated these by using informal and some formal measuring tools.  We then progressed towards Multiplication and Division, where we used everyday scenarios that showed the relationship between Addition and Multiplication, and Division and Multiplication. 

For the remainder of the term, we are revisiting measurement, focusing on the volume and capacity of shapes, and everyday objects that we may use in our day to day lives. We will use a variety of Uniform, Informal and Formal units of measurement. 

Integrated -  ‘War On Waste’. What can we do?

This term, the children were learning how to care for the environment. They visited, and did many hands-on activities at Ceres Environmental Park. This excursion consolidated their prior knowledge.

They have developed an understanding that by taking positive actions, such as changing the way that people dispose of their waste, can help to reduce the amount of waste in the environment. 

They discovered that there are actually 6 Rs -  Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot.

They are finishing off this unit by designing, then working in groups to create a ‘Waste Reducing Bin’.

Heartfelt thanks to all the parent helpers who have assisted this term through Classroom Helpers, PMP, The Patch cooking, and the Ceres excursion.

The Year 1 & 2 team.