Year One

Dear Year One Community, 

We are already five weeks into term and we are beginning to see a much more settled Year One cohort. Their enthusiasm and excitement has continued and as they have continued with the Learning to Learn component of our program and finishing up our final week of 'The First 20 Days' program, they are all more aware of classroom and teacher expectations. As teachers, we have really enjoyed the chance to get to know our students and cannot wait to continue to build on this throughout the year. 

We would like to thank all who came to our Year One Information evening on Monday night. It was a great opportunity to inform you about what will happen in Year One this year, have the opportunity to answer your questions and be able to share your children's classrooms with you. Thank-you for your time and we hope that you found this session helpful.

During the past week, we have begun our first Unit of Inquiry for the year under the Transdisciplinary Theme, 'Who We Are'. Students have been tasked with creating a 'Me Bag' to bring in and share more about themselves with their classmates. This follows on from the 'Me books' they created in writing earlier this term. We are looking forward to sharing these in class.

In Reading, students have been continuing to revise their knowledge of what good readers do and a range of different reading strategies they can use during Independent Reading. To further support their reading and understanding, we have also been focusing on predicting, where we used picture clues and information from the text to work out what a story was about and what might happen next.   Another important skill we have been revising is the ability to retell a story. Being able to identify the characters and setting as well as think about what happened in the beginning, middle and end of the story. All Year One teachers have also begun their English Online Interviews with students and these will continue over the coming weeks.

In Writing, students have been focusing on their recount writing. This genre of writing is familiar to the students and encourages them to write about topics familiar to them. This helps them to be more comfortable with what they are writing about and therefore more confident. We are continuously revising what good writers do, discussing book expectations and have begun our handwriting focus to ensure students are correctly forming their letters.

In Mathematics, students have been continuing to practise their numbers skills; making numbers, modelling numbers and recognising number patterns. The students have begun using Essential Assessment and My Numeracy, which will be taking over from Mathletics this year.

Reminders

• In Term One, it is required that all students wear their hats during recess and lunch. We kindly remind students to remember to pack their hats each day. 

• Please ensure iPads are sent to school fully charged each day.

•  Take Home Readers need to be brought into school every day and will be left at school on Fridays, ready to be marked and swapped on a Monday.

As previously mentioned, as we move through the year if you ever have any concerns or questions, we encourage you to reach out to your child’s classroom teacher in the first instance. If needed, the teacher can direct your queries to a member of the leadership team who will be able to assist you. 

Kind Regards, 

The Year One Team.