Year One News 

Dear Year One Families,

Congratulations on making it through our sixth lockdown! We hope everyone has gotten a chance to enjoy some of our new freedoms and are looking forward to returning to onsite learning. The staggered return to onsite learning has been wonderful with students settling into old routines seamlessly. We are certainly looking forward to spending quality time with the students and making the most of a lockdown-free term.

The Year One team are so proud of the students for their positive attitude and resilience during this challenging time. The students have continued to submit quality work on their ePortfolios and we couldn’t be prouder of their achievements!

Unit of Inquiry 

To conclude our fourth Unit of Inquiry, students shared their learning highlights on posters and padlets. It was amazing to see how much they have taken away from this unit considering it was mostly done remotely. Our fifth Unit of Inquiry falls under the Transdisciplinary Theme of ‘Where We Are In Place And Time’, with the Central Idea, ‘The migration of cultures has shaped Australia’. We began this unit with our provocation day on Friday, where students were given the opportunity to explore concepts related to this unit through a diverse range of fun activities. Students have developed insightful wonderings, which we are all looking forward to exploring in the coming weeks. 

Reading 

We have been working on developing students’ knowledge of the comprehension strategies to assist them in understanding a story in more depth. This week, we have been focusing on inferring fictional narratives. Students have been learning to use text clues and their prior knowledge to form their educated inferences.  Students are also continuing to work on their fluency through Reader’s Theatre and consolidate their understanding of texts through retells. They have been learning how to use their understanding of narrative elements to structure their retells. 

Writing

In Writing, students have continued to explore the writing genre of narratives. Students have had the opportunity to identify the elements of a narrative text such as the characters, setting, problem, solution and events. They have completed developing their narrative’s character traits and setting. This week they have been encouraged to use their problem-solving skills to identify the types of problems and solutions found in fictional narratives. 

Mathematics

Students have been exploring open-ended questions and are beginning to explore the concept of time. They have been using the RUCSAC model to help solve open ended problems and represent their answer using a variety of mathematical concepts and showcase their working out. They have begun exploring the concept of time by demonstrating their pre-existing understandings about time. They were given a chance to create their own clocks and are learning about reading o’clock time.  To further develop the students' conceptual understanding of time, we recommend exposing your child to activities related to time, such as:

• Quick quizzes (Ask your child how many seconds are in one minute, how many minutes in one hour etc)
• Talk about how long it takes to do certain tasks around the house
• Use timers and encourage your child to make predictions about how long they think they would take to complete a task you set out for them, set challenges with rewards.
• Create a paper clock or watch
• Most importantly keep it fun!

The Department of Education has informed schools that all students are to return to on-site learning full time from Monday 1 November, instead of the original Friday 5 November. The Year One team are looking forward to seeing all the students on-site from Wednesday 3 November for an exciting last term of Year One. 

Reminders and Important Dates: 

• Monday 1 November – Curriculum day (No students onsite)
• Tuesday 2 November - Melbourne Cup Public Holiday
• Wednesday 3 November - All students are to return to on-site learning full time
• Friday 12 November – Book Day (Students are encouraged to come dressed as their favourite book character)
• We kindly remind students to remember their hats in Term Four. It is required that all students wear their hats during recess and lunch.
• iPads are to be brought to school EVERY DAY and fully charged.
• Any children who are ill or present ill like symptoms should not attend school.