Grade One, Term 2 Curriculum News

This Term Newsletter will provide you with information about your child’s upcoming teaching and learning experiences in the new term. There is also plenty of additional information provided via Compass throughout the school year, so please make a point of touching base regularly.

General
As we enter the third week of Term 2, our Grade Ones have well and truly slipped back into their learning routines after a well-deserved Easter break. It was fantastic to hear that many of the students continued to read at home during the holidays. We would like to emphasise the importance of maintaining this strong home reading structure as it complements the work students are completing during class time.

Literacy
In Reading, students will continue to engage in our daily UFLI phonics lessons. Over the coming weeks, we will be exploring a range of consonant digraphs (two consonant letters which form one sound). Students will have daily opportunities to sound out and write new words, with a focus on identifying beginning, middle and end sounds. In addition, students will also be focusing on a range of comprehension strategies such as predicting, questioning, inferring and summarising. Again, students will have access to our wonderful classroom libraries and each grade will visit the school library once a week to exchange books. Please check with your child’s classroom teacher if you are unsure which day this occurs. Borrowed books need to be returned before new ones can be borrowed.

In Writing, students will continue to learn about the Writing Cycle. They will be encouraged to choose an idea, expand it using pictures, write a first draft, revise, edit and finally, publish their writing. Teachers will continue to immerse students in ideas and model the Writing Cycle by writing about different topics using different genres such as information reports, recounts, expositions and narratives. Students will be supported to pay close attention to their use of sentence fluency and punctuation, ensuring the correct use of capital letters, full stops as well as experimenting with question marks and exclamation marks.

Numeracy
Grade 1 students have just completed a comprehensive unit on counting, place value and addition. These concepts will be revisited throughout the year to ensure students retain this new learning. This term, students will also have the opportunity to discuss outcomes of familiar events involving chance and describe them using everyday language such as ‘will happen’, ‘won’t happen’ or ‘might happen’. We will also be learning about the features of Australian coins and notes, how to tell time to the half hour, as well as focusing on measurement (length, mass and capacity).

Inquiry
This term our Inquiry topic is ‘Our Place in Australia’. Building on our topic from Term 1, students will learn that there are people in our community who come from different cultures, that the aboriginal people were the first inhabitants of Australia, as well as locating our home/town on a map. As part of this unit, we will be visiting the Narana Aboriginal Cultural Centre on Tuesday, June 13th to learn about Aboriginal culture and traditions.

Reminders

Parent Helpers on Excursions
Please contact your child’s classroom teacher if you are available to assist as a parent helper for our Narana excursion (June 13th). A reminder that you are required to present a valid Working with Children Check before the excursion.

Library books and Take Home Readers
Please support your child to bring their Book Pouch and reading material to school.

Drink Bottles
Please ensure your child has a water bottle each day with their name clearly labelled.

Label all Clothes and Belongings
Please ensure that all items belonging to your child are clearly labeled with their full name and grade.

24th May 2023 Curriculum Day - No students on site