Year 1 News
Year One Happenings
We cannot believe that it is August already and that we are officially closer to Year 2 than we are to Prep! Eeek! In saying that, it is pleasing to note that we have seen huge learning growth recently, particularly in the ability of transferring new writing skills into their written work.
We are so proud of all the Year One students.
Literacy
Our weekly Literacy Group sessions are an ideal way for the Year 1 teachers to work closely with each child and to differentiate the learning to meet each child’s individual needs and goals.
On a Tuesday and Thursday Mrs Vawdrey works with a selection of students in The Treehouse (reading program). Recently Hugo of 1C, & Luca 1B, successfully graduated from The Treehouse Program. Hugo and Luca were presented with a certificate and a graduation cap in recognition for all the hard work they have put into their reading skills this year. Well done Hugo and Luca!
Each week, the Year One students explore a language and conventions focus that is then applied to their learning. In recent weeks we have looked at synonyms, verbs, adjectives, vowels and consonants. This week the students have stretched their learning further by applying their understanding of vivid verbs. We have been impressed with the students’ ability to edit their own writing, including identifying verbs and then changing verbs to make them vivid and more exciting.
The children have continued with writing their weekly weekend recounts and will this week start exploring procedural writing. Our new Unit of Inquiry lends itself perfectly to this style of writing. We look forward to sharing these with you in future newsletters.
Inquiry
The children have commenced their new Unit of Inquiry for Term 3. For the remainder of the term the Year One children will be exploring how ‘Food goes through many stages of production before reaching us’.
Last week the children were introduced to the central idea and were able to successfully break down the meaning, pondering on what “stages of production” actually means, in relation to food. The children were then asked to determine questions that they would like to explore and find answers to throughout the unit. We created a Wonder Wall of our wonderings and the teachers will now use these to help prepare future lessons for the unit.
Last week the children engaged in some sorting and matching activities. The children were provided with a selection of World Dishes (dumplings, sushi, tacos, crepes, hotdogs and pasta) and were asked to predict where in the World each dish originates from. The children were then asked to locate each dish’s correlating country of origin on a map of the World. The children then delved a little deeper by identifying their own experience of encountering other cultures from around the world (food/travel/friendships/family).
This week we will commence a week long project in the classroom. Each child will be choosing a ‘World Dish’ that they will investigate. The teachers will be exposing the children to three different ways to research, helping to establish skills that the children will continue to develop throughout their schooling. The children will be required to find a book, website and knowledgeable person to help fill in each section of their project. For those children wanting to push their learning a step further, we will be encouraging the students to help source the ingredients with their family and to then follow a procedure to cook their dish. We would love to see photographs of the meals being cooked in your homes.
This week the children have been looking
inside their lunchboxes and have learnt how to classify foods as either processed or unprocessed.
Maths
Our Math sessions have included lots of hands on activities over the past fortnight. Our Measurement and Geometry focus has seen the children continue to learn how to classify and locate 3D shapes within their environment.
The children have also been engaged in a variety of fun games to help cement an understanding of subtraction. They are learning to solve simple subtraction problems using a range of strategies including counting on, portioning and rearranging parts. Each child now has a laminated number line that can be used as an aid in supporting the solution of subtraction problems.
Our focus on food has seen the class learning basic graphing and interpreting data skills. Last week the children created a pictograph to demonstrate which World Dishes the children from each class had eaten.
Year Three Visit to ‘Caine’s Arcade’
The children were excited to visit the Year 3 classrooms recently to play arcade games designed and built by the Year 3 students as part of their Unit of Inquiry. The games were inspired by Caine's Arcade. The Year 3 students had even organised prizes for the Year 1s.
Thank you very much to the Year 3 students and teachers for giving the Year One students such an enjoyable experience!
