Year 1 News
We would like to congratulate the Year 1 students for the positive manner in which they have started the school year, allowing for a seamless transition from Prep to Year 1.
It has been an exciting, jam packed first four weeks of Year 1 for our students, with learning experiences including ‘Wellbeing Week’, ‘E-smart Week’, “Resilience Project Incursion’ and the ‘Cyber Safety Incursion’.
Meeting Mr Plowright
The students enjoyed listening to “The Koala Who Could” read by our Assistant Principal Mr Plowright, which portrayed a positive message about facing up to change, something that young children can sometimes struggle with.
Take Home Reading Journals
Mrs Vawdrey from the Treehouse Program demonstrated to all of the Year One students how we can be great readers by reading each and every day. The students were shown how many books they would read for the year. The students were also shown how to fill out our Take Home Reading Journals appropriately. The children all showed so much excitement about choosing their daily sticker and colouring in the reading rainbow after many weeks of successful nightly reading.
The Daily 5 – CAFÉ
“Daily 5 is a literacy framework that instils behaviours of independence, creates a classroom of highly engaged readers, writers and learners, and provides teachers with time and structure to meet diverse student needs”.
In week two we successfully launched ‘Read to Self’ as part of CAFÉ’s ‘Daily 5’. The Year 1 students discussed ‘3 Ways to Read a Book’.
- Read the pictures
- Read the words
- Retell the story
The students were then introduced to the “I PICK” method for choosing a good-fit book and created an ‘I PICK’ bookmark as a daily reminder. With the “I PICK” method, students were able to select appropriate reading material to store in their personal book box, stored in our classrooms. Please ask your children about the ‘I PICK’ method.
I choose a book
Purpose
Interest
Comprehend
Know the words
Through the systematic, explicit teaching of ‘Read To Self’ students develop independent reading skills and build stamina for the task.
Magic Words/Letters & Sounds
The Year 1 students are now in the groove of our morning routine. Every morning the students start the school day by watching and reciting Magic Words, as well as the 26 letters of the alphabet and their corresponding sounds. We also sing songs that encourage vowel recognition.
The Magic 100 Words make up half of all the words in reading and writing. Magic Word knowledge is integral to success in reading and writing and we encourage your children to incorporate learning these words as part of their daily home reading routine. Learning the Magic Words rapidly improves reading, increases fluency, develops comprehension and enhances spelling and writing.
Maths 3 Daily
The Year 1 students have launched the ‘Maths 3 Daily’ which encompasses “Math by Myself”, “Math with Someone” and “Math Writing”. The students have been immersed in targeted activities and kinaesthetic practice to help build a deeper understanding of math concepts.
Unit of Inquiry
The first half of Term 1 the students have explored the Transdisciplinary Theme ‘Who We Are’. Our Central Idea is ‘The decisions people make influence their relationships with each other'.
We commenced the Unit by reading ‘The Best Part of Me’. We explored the attributes that make us individual and unique. Each child completed a writing activity explaining the best part of them.