Term 1 Weeks 5 and 6

Year 1 Communicative Activities in Grammar lessons

Celebrating Founders Day with Cake!

Term 1 Weeks 5-6

What’s happening in Year 1?

Dear Year 1 Parents,

It’s been a very busy and exciting start to Year 1! Our ‘Thinking and Learning’ focus for the term so far has been ‘Responsibility’ and we have explored this concept in our classroom interactions. At the beginning of the term, we enjoyed reading ‘Rose meets Mr Wintergarden’ by Bob Graham. We have also been identifying ways in which we can be responsible in our own lives and why responsibility is such an important skill to have and to continue to develop.

We have all been working extremely hard to grow our knowledge in a range of other subject areas too!

In Science, we have been exploring Ladybirds and Ants. We are amazed by all the work they perform for the colony, including searching for food, nursing the young, constructing the nest and defending the colony. We have also been fascinated by the beautiful Ladybirds and enjoyed researching how ladybirds move, feed and protect themselves.

In Mathematics, we have continued to develop our number sense and our knowledge of place value by modelling, reading and writing two-digit numbers. We have used MAB blocks to model different numbers and to practise reading and recording them. We have also practised bundling paddle pop sticks into bundles of ten and ones to show various two-digit numbers.

Students have challenged themselves by identifying numbers one more, one less, ten more and ten less than a given number. Their goal is to be confident reading, recording and modelling numbers up to a thousand by the end of the year!

During Literacy Groups, we have been focusing on the reading strategy of “predicting”. Predicting requires students to activate their prior knowledge about a topic, so they begin to combine what they know with the new material in the text. Students have been challenged to justify the source of their predictions and to adjust and refine their predictions as new information is gathered. Students have been shown how they can use predicting as a strategy for identifying unknown words.

Phew! And that’s just a few of the areas we have been learning about! We’re very proud of the way the Year 1 students have been interacting with each other, asking intelligent and interesting questions, focusing on their work, challenging themselves, reflecting on their learning and doing everything they can to help Year 1 continue to be the best grade in the school!

Wow, what a great start to the year! We look forward to the remainder of the term and year with a group of students who show commitment, independence, responsibility and enthusiasm every day.

Have a great week!

Mrs Lena Cooper and Mrs Alison Larkin

Parent Reading Workshop

On Wednesday morning, over 30 parents filled our 1C classroom for our annual ‘Infants Reading Seminar’. During this workshop, we spent time discussing the reading process and strategies good readers use to gain the meaning from a text. We talked about the influence parents have on their child’s reading and how parents can help read with their child after school. There were a lot of practical tips for parents to use when their child cannot read a difficult or unfamiliar word, or when their child makes a mistake whilst reading. We also spent time emphasising the importance of developing each child’s comprehension, using both literal and inferential interpretations. We want to thank all the parents who attended and for their interest in supporting the wonderful work the teachers are doing within the classrooms. Our staff appreciate the time you spend reading with your child, as we believe in home and school working together in partnership to help support each child’s development.

Stage 1 Infants Assembly

You are warmly invited to join us for the annual Stage 1 Assembly presented by our Stage 1 Kindergarten, Years 1 and 2 students.

Stage 1 students will be presenting various items to showcase some of the units of work they have been studying this term. This is will be held on Wednesday 29^th March at 2pm at the Danebank Performing Arts Centre

The children look forward to performing for you! 

Kiss & Ride

We have sought and received from Hurstville Council the exact rules for using the Kiss and Ride zone. Please follow these both morning and afternoon. They are listed below.

Kiss and Ride Rules:

Driver must remain in or within 3 metres of vehicle.

Driver can stop to drop off or pick up children for a maximum of 2 minutes.

Kiss ‘n Ride zone applies only during hours of operation.

For example:

A parent is permitted to leave the vehicle to assist their children for the purpose of ensuring they are sufficiently strapped in but no longer than two minutes.

The council has also asked us to remind parents of the following:

• To assist with traffic flow, parents should only leave the vehicle if absolutely necessary. School bags should be stored in the car rather than the boot.

• If a child does not get in or out of the vehicle within two minutes, the driver must leave and re-enter the zone.

• Drivers shall stay in sequence and drop off or pick up children at the front of the zone to allow vehicles following to enter in an orderly manner.

• Children should get in or out of the vehicle on the kerb side with the back seat being the safest to travel in.

• Officers will have no tolerance of drivers who park illegally such as blocking driveways, double parking and over staying.

• Do not block the Senior School car park entrance that is at the beginning of the school property.

• Please do not abuse or disobey the Parking Officers. Their primary purpose is to ensure the safety of YOUR children and to ensure an efficient system of picking up and dropping off.

Healthy Food

It has been pleasing to see that many children are eating a healthy recess snack and lunch. Thank you to all the parents who go into much effort to ensure that they provide healthy food for their daughter. Remember to ‘eat the colours of the rainbow!’

We seek your help with packaged Recess snacks

We have noticed that quite a lot of the younger children are having difficulty opening the food they brought from home when out on the playground at recess.

They are finding it hard to:

·         peel their bananas/mandarins

·         open their yoghurt twist tops, muesli bar wrappers and

·         open packets of biscuits/chips.

·          

It would be appreciated, if parents could pre-snip the top of the packets or bananas and unscrew/rescrew the yoghurt lids it would be very helpful. Thank you for your assistance with this matter.

Sick Children

With the winter months approaching, please support the staff and other children by NOT sending your child to school if you know that she is potentially unwell or sick. If your child displays any of the typical flu symptoms (including coughing, sneezing, high temperatures, aches and pains or gastric) please see your doctor and keep her at home so that she has the best chance of fully recovering. It is particularly unfair that staff and other children have to endure and share the germs of those who knowingly attend school having been sick either during the previous night or prior to coming to school in the morning.

Please Advise Us!

If you make arrangements for your child to be collected by another adult, even if this is another parent from the school, we must be informed in writing. However, if there is a last minute emergency, the office staff will take a phone message and will advise the child and/or the staff members on gate duty or at Aftercare.

Week 5 and 6 in Year 1:

Mathematics- Place Value, Grouping Numbers into Place Value, One More and One Less and Addition

Writing- We wrote information reports and discovered interesting facts on Ladybirds and Ants.

Grammar- Nouns and Opposite Vocabulary

PDHPE- Term 1 unit ‘Getting Along with Others’

Reading- We completed guided reading activities in class.

Topic Talks- Students shared their information on the groups they belong and 5 school rules.

Visual Arts- Year 1 completed Minibeasts artworks.

Science- We went on a schoolyard safari and discovered all the insects and bugs living in our school playground. We researched the features and behaviours of Snails.

HSIE- Term 1 topic ‘Belonging-Identifying Us.’ We discovered we belong to Danebank and Australia and researched what identifies students as part of a school community.