YEAR ONE

Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Primary School provides a range of holistic learning experiences to enable students to:

• Participate in the life and mission of the school.
• Deepen their knowledge and engagement with the Catholic faith and tradition.
• Build the capacity to continuously reason, reflectively, logically and critically.
• Embrace interdependence of human existence as global citizens, who are responsible to and for themselves and others.
• Engage in learning in a multitude of ways, through personalised and self-paced learning.

Religious Education

Our Religious Education units for Term 4 include: 

1.6 Love One Another: This unit focuses on the concept of relationships. It begins with the children’s experience of friendship and broadens to the Christian way of relating to others. It then focuses on forgiveness and gratitude in relationships.  

1.8 Advent and Christmas: This unit focuses on the seasons of Advent and Christmas. The children are told two Advent stories: The  Annunciation and The Visitation. Throughout these stories, the themes of hope and joyful expectation are presented. Matthew’s infancy narrative is the source of the Christmas stories told: The Wise Men and  The Holy Family’s Flight into Egypt. Children can ponder the mystery of this wondrous birth and the plight of the Holy Family.

English

Our English Literature Focus this term will be on persuasive and imaginative texts. Students will continue to expand on their knowledge of persuasive writing using high-modality words and the forming of strong opinions. We will have a literacy focus on 'character', 'representation' and 'imagery, symbol and connotation'. We have implemented the new K-2 English Syllabus this year and will be introducing new texts to the students. We will be reading the following books:

• Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae, illustrated by Guy Parker-Rees
• Your Birthday Was The Best! by Maggie Hutchings, illustrated by Felicita Sala
• Chinese New Year Colours by Rich Lo

The students will continue to engage in guided and shared reading activities aimed at developing their comprehension, decoding skills and fluency. We will continue fluency pairs daily and provide students with the time to build their reading stamina. 

Handwriting: Using the text ‘Writing Time 1’ the students will continue to work on their pencil grip, correct formation of letters (including starting point and direction), and correct sizing of letters. They will continue to improve writing within lines and develop a fluent handwriting style.

Spelling: The Soundwaves program incorporates sound-to-letter strategies, meaning that sounds can be represented in more than one way. This approach focuses first on the basic units of sound in our language. In Term 4, we will be focusing on the graphemes: y, oo, ew, z, s, ou, ow, ch, sh, oy, oi, eer, ear, th, air, er. 

Mathematics

The children will continue to develop their skills in volume and  capacity, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, money and length. The children will work on differentiated activities in groups within their own class and we will continue with our Mathematics Fluency Program. 

Science and Technology

This term, the students will be completing a unit called ‘Watch it Grow’.  This unit is an ideal way to link science with literacy in the classroom. It provides opportunities for students to explore the growth of a range of living things and explore the processes of growth and change,  reproduction and death that apply to all plants and animals. Through hands-on activities and investigations, students will compare the growth of living things under different conditions. 

History

Students will continue exploring the concept of ‘Past and Present Family Life’. Students will use their knowledge acquired from the unit to engage in an inquiry task where students will make meaning by creating a product to showcase their knowledge of ‘Past and Present  Family Life.’ 

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education

This term, in Week 5, Year 1 students will participate in an intensive Water Safety and Swimming program at Caringbah Leisure Centre. The swimming program is part of the school curriculum and is compulsory for all children. The intensive program will run for 5 days. Each lesson is 30 minutes (Yrs K & 1). 

In Peer Support students will delve into a module called "Promoting Harmony." Aligned with our school's core values, this module will empower students to actively and critically construct shared values linked with our Mercy Values.  

Amadeus Music Program

Students will continue their participation in the Amadeus Music Education program, introduced by Sydney Catholic Schools to our school this year.

In music, students perform through music learning experiences, demonstrating a greater awareness of their own capabilities in using their voice and various sound sources to make music.

Creative Arts

In Drama, students will work in small groups, create performances using mime and movement and develop their vocal expression and projection. Students will adapt scenes taken from Pamela Allen books and create dramatic scenes based on their own knowledge and interpretation of the stories.

In Visual Arts, we are linking lessons with our Science program and English program to create various forms of artwork. We will be using watercolours, oil pastels and paint. 

Mandarin

Our students continue to enjoy participating in the Chinese language program called the Meg Language Program. The Meg Curriculum is written by the co-author of the Australian Curriculum. All students and teachers will participate in the digital learning platform via Zoom weekly sessions with educators in China.

Homework 

Students are to be: 

• Reading a book each night - Reading Diaries and books to be returned every Monday.
• Completing their spelling words and sentences in their homework books - Homework books are due each Friday
• Mathematics Homework (NEW) We are introducing this homework activity to strengthen student's mathematical skills and knowledge. Students will receive a worksheet each week in their homework book and we will mark it as a class. 
• Soundwaves Website Activities (optional)

We look forward to working with you and your child this term. If you have any concerns, please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher via a note or by email through Compass.  

Miss Dominique Vuaran (1Blue)

Mrs Nicole Pyne and Mrs Gabrielle Devine (1Gold)

Miss Holly Pooley (1White)

Important Dates for Year 1

Sport Day

Sport days for Year 1 are as follows

1Blue –    Wednesday and Friday

1Gold –   Wednesday and Friday

1White – Wednesday and Friday

Swimming Dates

All of Year 1 will attend swimming in Week 5 daily. Below are the times the students will attend: 

1Blue - 11:00 - 11:30am

1 Gold - 11:30 - 12:00pm

1 White - 12:00 - 12:30pm 

Library

Each week, students will have the opportunity to borrow books from our school library. Please ensure your child brings their Library Bag to school on their allocated day.   

1Blue –    Wednesday

1Gold –    Wednesday

1White –  Wednesday

Christmas Concert - Wednesday 29th November (Week 8) 5:30 - 7:00pm

2023 School Term 4

10th October - 15 December 2023

Parent calendar available at this link