The Invisible String

We have been reading 'The Invisible String' By Patrice Karst during our SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) lessons. This book reassures children that even though they can't always be with a loved one, they're always in each other's hearts. Whenever a child thinks about a family member, the Invisible String gives a tug.
Click on the link to watch this book with your loved ones:
The Invisible String



Look at our Invisible Strings:

Readers' Workshop

Caught You Reading!

During Readers' Workshop this week we have been learning how to find the perfect place to read. Some students prefer their desk, others prefer quiet spaces on the floor and some prefer laying on cushions.

We have also been learning about the 3 ways to read a book:
1. Read the pictures
2. Read the words
3. Retell the story

We caught these students reading in their perfect spots....

Where is your perfect spot?

Why is it your perfect spot to read?

Term 1 Overview of Learning Programs

Upcoming Events:

Wednesday 20 February - Information Session for Year 1 parents and carers - 8:30am in Unit 1

Sunday 17 March - School Fete

Morning Reading -  We would love to encourage parents and carers into the classroom to share a story with their children - the classroom doors are opened at 8:50am most mornings.

Readers’ Workshop: This week we have begun discussing good reading practices, including finding the perfect spot to practise reading, and different ways to read a book. We’ve talked about 3 ways to read a book - reading the words, reading the pictures and retelling a story (if it is one we are familiar with). Throughout the term we will continue to build our reading stamina and develop our strategies for both decoding and comprehending what we read.

Some of the decoding strategies include:

Does it make sense? - encouraging children to think about what would make sense when they are attempting unknown words

If You Don’t Know, Guess - similar to making attempts that make sense, if your child doesn’t know the word, encourage them to have a guess that fits with the clues they have - look at the pictures, the title, the start of the word, think about what’s happened so far in the text

Throughout the term students will also be developing their knowledge of a range of comprehension strategies, including:

Making connections- when we are reading we can make connections between the text and something in our own experiences, something in another text we’ve read, or something we know about in the real world. Making connections helps us to better understand what we are reading.

Work on Writing: Initially this term we are planning a number of different experiences to engage students in writing to provide us with a variety of work samples. We use this information to help us determine what our future programs will include so that we are meeting the needs of all students. In Year 1 we continue to focus on ‘What is a sentence?’

Through mini-lessons we highlight the appropriate use of capital letters and full stops and discuss the names and uses of nouns, verbs and adjectives. Spelling is integrated into all literacy lessons and is a particular focus during Word Work sessions.

Fine Motor - The development of finger and hand strength as well as writing stamina are still essential skills for our students (even with the influence of keyboards and screens!) Students participate in regular fine motor rotations. These may include beading, tweezers, balling paper, playdough, tying shoe laces, pegging etc

Mighty Maths - these lessons involve a focus on number, place value, addition, subtraction, skip counting, fractions

In Term 1 we will focus on number, place value and addition. We are using data shared from the Kindergarten teachers as well as our own initial observations of students to regroup across the cohort so that we can differentiate the learning and engage all students. In Year 1 the Australian Curriculum requires students to recognise, model, read, write and order numbers to at least 100. They are also asked to locate these numbers on a number line.  We revisit these important number skills each term and integrate the strategies we have learnt into problem solving activities.

Maths Extra - these lessons cover the concepts of 2D and 3D shapes and objects, patterns, data and graphing, measurement, time and money.

This term students will be learning about two dimensional shapes - focusing on geometric features and describing shapes and objects using everyday words such as corners, edges and faces;

and patterns - we will make repeating patterns for example ABABAB patterns; as well as growing patterns AB ABC ABCD

Fundamental Motor Skills (FMS) - We will focus on the following skills throughout the semester:

• Running
• Catching
• Jumping
• Kicking and Underarm throw

These skills are specifically taught and practised through a variety of games and activities.

Science Inquiry - In the first half of the term students will be completing a science unit called 'Dinosaurs and More!'. During this inquiry students will develop their understanding of living things and the variety of external features that they have and how these features affect how an animal moves etc.

Technologies-  Currently Thursday afternoons is when we explore the technologies - both design technology - often involving designing, making and appraising a solution to a particular challenge; and digital technologies which may involve developing skills and exploring and using digital systems for downloading and storing information, for example knowing how to download images from a website and inserting them into a document, or recognising that a digital system follows instructions or commands, for example instructing robotic toys to perform a function (we are looking forward to using and programming the BEEBOTS)

Visual Arts - through visual arts students become aware of visual conventions and learn to notice visual detail. They will explore how and why artworks are created and ways to use and apply visual conventions, such as line, shape, colour and texture

Marvellous Mondays - a range of other skills and content is addressed during our Monday rotations with specialist teachers. Our rotations include:

• FMS
• Library (remember Library bags for borrowing)
• Japanese
• Performing Arts

Welcome to the Land Before Time! We are thrilled to be working with Year One this year.
Miss Hayes, Miss Vernon and Miss Hall are working in the BER with the Stegs and the Raptors.
Miss Sinclair and Mrs Whitney are working in Unit 1 with the Little Foots and Ceras.

Everyone has settled well and is obviously enjoying catching up with their friends again after the holidays. All of the Year One students are eating lunch together so that they have the opportunity to find their friends before everyone runs off to play.
A few things to note:
In Year One we are asking students to bring their brain boost (fresh fruit or vegetables) into the classroom to place on their desk first thing in the morning, as well as their drink bottles with fresh water.
Monday is the day students will have rotations with a variety of our specialist teachers. This will be our Library Day and students are asked to bring their Library Bag to school each Monday for borrowing.

We aim to update this blog each week, we hope you find it useful and please feel free to share and comment on posts with your children.