Glen Waverley Primary School Level 1 Newsletter

Term 1 Overview

After a long summer break, we welcome our students back to Glen Waverley Primary School and extend a warm welcome to all new families who have joined our learning community. The Level One team looks forward to building positive and supportive relationships with you and your children.

 

Our learning community takes upmost pride in being supportive while promoting a friendly school environment. We continuously celebrate and embrace our intercultural nature that is imbedded within the core foundations of our school.

 

The Level One students have settled in remarkably well and are excited to continue their learning Our team is looks forward to guiding your children to embrace and accomplish new learning challenges every day. Our passion is to deliver deep and valuable learning experiences over the year.

 

Reading

Students will strengthen their notion of a ‘mindful reader,’ by developing classroom protocols, which will set them up for success in their learning. They will explore the ‘IPICK’ and ‘Finger Five Rule’ strategies, which will enable them to select ‘Good Fit’ books independently. Students will engage in collaborative learning conferences to determine a personalised, CAFE Reading Goal and discuss a range of strategies, to apply and achieve success through.

 

To support your child’s Reading and Viewing learning at home:

  • Listen to your child read a book (their take home reader) for at least 20 minutes each night
  • Utilise ‘Reading Eggs,’ which contains a variety of texts, lessons and learning tasks
  • Strengthen your child’s Comprehension, by asking them to retell or summarise the book

Writing and Spelling

Students will be developing their understanding of ‘sustained’ writing. They will also create a personalised Writing goal, by utilising our Whole School Approach of VOICES. Spelling will include the explicit teaching of spelling generalisations, regular Spelling Inquiry sessions, and personalised spelling lists for Home Learning. In classrooms, students will be exposed to a range of spelling rules and transfer new vocabulary into their writing pieces. Spelling Inquiry will focus on delving into the meaning and history behind words, enriching students’ understanding of the English language.

 

To support your child’s writing skills at home:

  • Encourage your child to create and make regular entries in a reflection journal
  • Involve your child in authentic writing opportunities, for example, creating a shopping list, writing emails or letters to family, etc.
  • Celebrate and display your child’s writing pieces, to boost their confidence and passion

Speaking and Listening

 

Students will strengthen their communication, by responding to questions and ideas during class, and applying turn-taking strategies during collaborative tasks. They will work on showing ‘Whole Body Listening,’ as a strategy to respectfully engage with others during discussions. Students will also learn to voice their feedback and feedforward

 

Mathematics

 

In Term One, students will focus on the Mathematics curriculum strand, Number and Algebra. Learning and teaching will be underpinned by our Whole School Approach to Mathematics, ‘SURF’ (Problem Solving, Understanding, Reasoning and Fluency), students use to set individualised goals and continually build strong connections between concepts and effective strategies.

 

The mathematical ‘Big Ideas’ of ‘Trust the Count’ and ‘Place Value’ take centre-stage this term. Students will explore different ways to represent numbers and develop flexibility and confidence with various counting strategies. We will utilise concrete resources and pictorial/abstract representations, to support students’ understanding of numbers and what they mean.

 

To support your child in Mathematics, you may wish to implement these strategies at home:

  • Explore flexible ways to make numbers from 1-10. E.g., 8 is ‘double 4’ and ‘four groups of 2.’
  • Counting collections of common items, such as stationary, pieces of fruit in a bowl or books on a shelf. Asking, “How many are there? How do you know?”
  • Discuss how numbers can be represent and partitioned into tens and ones.

Inquiry

 

“How does ‘respect for self’ impact on my choices? This is our Inquiry question this term. Students will develop an understanding of ‘self,’ by recognising their different emotions and learning strategies, or rather, ‘choices,’ for appropriately responding to them. The Learning Pit will also be a focus for our students, prompting them to reflect on their struggles and the successful strategies they applied.

 

To support your child's Inquiry learning, here are some suggested strategies to use at home: 

  • Have conversations with your child about how our choices impact ourselves and others
  • Discuss strategies your child can apply to navigate and deal with challenges
  • Ask, “Where were you in The Learning Pit?”, and ask them to explain their thinking

You Can Do It

 

The ‘YCDI Curriculum’ aligns to the Personal and Social Capability within the Victorian Curriculum. Its aim is to empower students through learning, “Resilience, Organisation, Confidence, Persistence and Getting Along.” Our emphasis is on creating personalised goals for each student, based on their individual social or emotional need. Students will develop strategies and self-talk stems that they can apply, to maintain focus within the classroom and utilise to navigate conflict situations with their peers. Moving forward, students will explore the five aforementioned YCDI ‘Keys to Success’ and develop strategies to create positive relationships with peers and teachers.