Year 1 News

Year 1 Happenings

Inquiry

The Year 1 students have now completed their first Unit of Inquiry (UOI) “The decisions people make influence their relationships with each other”. The students concluded the UOI by writing to their teacher explaining what they were excited about for the year ahead and how they could be a good friend and classmate. The focus of the letter was to express their ideas in an interesting way, whilst applying full stops and capital letters correctly throughout their writing.

Our new Unit of Inquiry (UOI) kicked off last week. The Year 1 students are now exploring how “The weather affects our lives and environment”. The classrooms have seen many robust discussions about recent weather conditions in Australia and many questions surrounding the floods.

As part of the Primary Years Program (PYP) the students ponder and create wonderings at the start of each UOI. The students explored what makes a good question and the differences between a statement and a question. The students' wonderings help to form the basis of what is covered in our UOI's.

Cyber Safety

We were lucky enough to have an incursion delivered by Cyber Safety Project’s very own ‘Trent and Sam’, which tied in beautifully to our UOI.

The incursion focused on cyber safety, as well as digital wellbeing. Trent and Sam gave an engaging presentation which reinforced "THINK about how you FEEL", as well as the importance of keeping our personal information private, when online.

The students and teachers were also involved in an interactive game that helped to demonstrate the importance of passwords being strong, safe and long.

Speaking & Listening

The Victorian Curriculum requires Year 1 students to make short oral presentations as part of the 'English' - ‘Speaking and Listening’ strand.

Over the past week, all students were given the opportunity to present in front of their peers about their wonderings on how "The weather affects our lives and environment". We were very proud of the students as they presented confidently and listened respectively. We have created a video of these elaborate wonderings for you to enjoy.

Handwriting

The Year One students have shown much enthusiasm as they commenced their weekly handwriting lessons in recent weeks. Our structured lessons include learning one letter per week, initially from the ‘A Family’, using the Victorian Modern Cursive Script. The 'A Family' consists of the lower case letters of the alphabet that are written in an anticlockwise direction.

The children have also been learning to understand the importance of writing within the dotted thirds and how the thirds help to guide correct letter placement and formation. Ask your child to talk to you about “floaters” and “sinkers” in their handwriting.

Each week the children partake in finger exercises. These exercises aim to improve both finger strength and fine motor skills.

The students have practiced writing anti-clockwise patterns and letters, by using their fingers in the air, tracing patterns on the interactive whiteboard and then practicing the patterns and focus letter on their personal whiteboards.

Once back at their tables, the children use their handwriting books to complete the lower and upper case pages of their ‘focus letter’. There is a strong emphasis on encouraging correct sitting posture, arm position and pencil grip at this time.

Maths

Math Daily 3

The Year One students have shown incredible enthusiasm as we have introduced many new Maths tools over the past few weeks.

In Year One we foster our Maths learning through The Daily CAFÉ, Math Daily 3.

The Math Daily 3 provides students with the support and practice they need to develop independence, accountability, and proficiency towards their own Maths goals.

The three key elements of Math by Myself, Math Writing and Math with Someone work together to create classrooms of highly engaged learners.

The students have thoroughly enjoyed the launch of Math by Myself, the first of the Math Daily 3 components, where they have the opportunity to build stamina, independence and work on their own mathematical thinking. The students can choose from a range of activities to provide kinaesthetic practice to assist in developing deep conceptual understanding and mathematical proficiency.

This week, we introduced the second of The Math Daily 3 essential element, Math with Someone.

During this time, the students utilise collaboration about mathematical concepts which assists students in identifying, organizing, expressing and extending their thinking. It is a wonderful time to observe the students working with their peers whilst incorporating an opportunity to talk and write about mathematics, describe and explain their thinking to peers whilst ensuring they show partner etiquette.

We are so proud of how well the Year One students are embracing Math by Myself and Math with Someone into their learning and working so hard on their individual skills.

We look forward to launching the last essential element of The Math Daily 3, Math Writing, over the coming weeks.