Grade 1

We hope everyone had a fantastic holiday break! Our students have settled back in beautifully and have loved catching up on all the latest news and stories. PJ Day was a big hit, with everyone donning their pyjamas and raising funds for Lifeline. We also had a blast celebrating Green and Gold Day in line with the Summer Olympics. Clubs are back in action, and students are thoroughly enjoying the fortnightly sessions in their areas of interest.

In Literacy, we’ve made fantastic progress with Sounds Write, tackling the extended code and gaining confidence with more complex spelling patterns and vocabulary. Students are discovering that spellings can represent multiple sounds and are more accurately recognising these in their reading and writing! Fluency pairs have been a game-changer, boosting reading stamina, confidence, and expression as students share texts with their class friends each week. Our Literacy Groups have also been a highlight, as Grade One students explore breaking words into syllables and responding to different texts. It’s amazing to see their growth in six months! In Writing, we’re focusing on using conjunctions to create compound sentences. It was wonderful to see all the Grade One students feel successful using the conjunction ‘because’ in their pieces. We have also started our poetry unit, which has been lots of fun! The students have unleashed their creativity, putting together a number of acrostic poems that have been clever, humorous and descriptive!

In Maths, we’ve been exploring multiplication and learning the importance of equal groups. It’s been a joy to see so many "AH HA" moments, with students exclaiming, “I thought multiplication was going to be really hard and something only big kids could do… but now we can do it too!” The Grade One students have worked diligently to master 2, 5, and 10 skip counting patterns to aid in solving multiplication problems and are excited to learn more strategies to solve more complex number problems. In Measurement, we’ve been examining 2D shapes and their features, identifying them in our surroundings. In Statistics, we’ve been collecting data using tally marks, creating bar graphs, and interpreting the information.

In Inquiry, we celebrated the importance of NAIDOC Week with a variety of engaging activities. Students immersed themselves in Indigenous stories, sparking thoughtful discussions and an appreciation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. They also enjoyed creating beautiful crafts inspired by traditional art, watching informative videos, and participating in hands-on activities. The excitement continued with the Summer Olympics in Paris. Students were thrilled to learn about the history of the games and the many different sports, including some they had played before and others they had never heard of. We enjoyed watching the events on TV, cheering on our favourite competitors. We also began our term unit, ‘Local Places’, exploring the natural, managed, and constructed places in our local areas. We discussed what each of these terms means and went on a discovery walk around the school to identify these. As we move through the unit, students will discuss how places change over time and the various ways they can be cared for by different groups, including First Nations Australians.

In Respectful Relationships, we’ve been learning about the catastrophe scale, which has helped us distinguish between big and small problems. This understanding supports appropriate emotional responses and reactions to various situations and empowered the Grade One’s to solve many of their problems independently! We’ve also been focusing on developing effective problem-solving strategies, enabling students to handle conflicts and challenges more confidently. These lessons have added so much value to our positive and supportive classroom environment!

As we continue through Term Three, we’re excited about all the learning and fun ahead, including Book Week and Science Week. Thank you for your ongoing support and we look forward to sharing more wonderful experiences and achievements with you!

- Miss Lowe