What's happening in Grade 1/2 this term.....

Reading

This term in Grade 1/2 we are focusing on comprehension skills in Reading. The students have commenced the term learning practising their strategies for finding the main ideas in the text and retelling information from the text in the form of summaries. We will also be working on making connections between the text and the students’ prior knowledge and personal experiences to help them understand and relate to the text at a deeper level and make inferences about characters’ feelings, motives and actions. Later in the term students will be exploring poetry and developing their ability to evaluate and describe the language used, including rhyme, rhythm, alliteration and onomatopoeia and their effect on the reader.

Writing

The students are working on narratives again this term, using the 7 Steps to Writing Success to plan, draft, revise, edit and publish stories that grab and excite the reader. In particular, students will focus on how to build tension and excitement, and make their writing more dynamic with dialogue. Towards the end of the term, they will also be experimenting with different poetry styles and structures, and writing some of their own poetry.

Speaking & Listening

In Speaking & Listening skills we are working on skills for interacting with and responding to others. This will include practice sharing within small groups, presenting to the class, and asking deep questions to get more information from the speaker.

Numeracy

We have started the term with a focus on number patterns and basic algebra skills, including skip-counting, identifying the rule for number patterns, finding missing pattern elements using a rule, and finding the missing number in a number sentence (equation) to make it ‘balance’ on both sides of the equals-sign. We will be using these skip-counting and number pattern skills as a foundation for launch into a focus on multiplication with strong links to repeated addition, followed by a focus on division later in the term.

In Homegroup maths, we have started the term with Chance and Probability, investigating the likelihood of different events and applying this knowledge to games of chance to see if predicting the likelihood of certain outcomes can lead to increased success. In the second half of the term, we will move to a focus on measurement in which students will explore, measure and calculate the attributes of length, area, volume and capacity.

Inquiry

As it is a School Production year, there will be a Performing Arts focus in inquiry this term. Students will be exploring movement, dance and drama, and will be practising the production songs they have been learning in Music with Anita, as well as rehearsing their scenes for the big show.