Dear Parents and Guardians,
A warm welcome to Discovery (GradeOnes’)! The Grade One Discovery team are:
- Discovery 1 (room 13) – Sarah (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) and Bridget (Thursday and Friday)
- Discovery 2 (room 14) – Nicky (Monday and Tuesday) and Helen (Wednesday, Thursday and Friday)
- Discovery 3 (room 15) – Charlene
Outlined below is the Year One Term One Overview. Together, we look forward to a term filled with growth, discovery, fun and shared achievements.
English
This term, we will revise and consolidate the names of the letters and their common sounds (phonemes). We will start to look at different combinations of letters (consonant digraphs) and their phonemes, such as ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘wh’, ‘ph’. The students will be taught how to use this knowledge to help them read, spell and write words.
The students will continue to develop their skills at writing sentences, remembering to use the Bump It Up Wall, as a tool to guide and improve their writing.
In reading sessions, students will be working on developing their skills at decoding (sounding out) words, reading with fluency (so that their reading sounds smooth and like they are speaking) and developing their vocabulary. Students will continue to develop their comprehension skills (understanding of the book or story) by retelling the main events in order, talking about the main characters and setting, and answering questions that are literal (answers are in the book or story) and inferential (the questions are answered by interpreting clues from part of the story to figure something out).
At home you can support your child by:
- encouraging them to participate in daily reading, either independently or with siblings and parents.
- asking your child to retell the important parts of a text, identifying who the main character is and where the story takes place.
- listening to your child read aloud and ensure they are not reading too fast or too slow, and are pausing at full stops.
- encourage your child to ask questions about words or things in the book or story that they don’t understand.
Maths
In Mathematics this term we will be learning to recognise, read, model, write and order numbers 0 to approximately 100. We will learn to describe the duration and sequence of events using years, months, weeks, days and hours. Linked to our Investigation, we will also explore data representation, collecting data and representing this in pictographs. Then we will be learning to interpret the information and answer questions about the data.
At home you can support your child by:
- practising counting from different starting points and forwards as well as backwards, for example, starting at 20, counting back to 9 “20, 19, 18. 17 …”
- Starting at 18, counting up to 53.
- Playing “I-Spy” around the neighbourhood to spot higher numbers, e.g. I spy a number that is 2 more than 20.
Religion
Our Discovery students have begun the term revisiting the concept of prayer as we lay the foundation for spiritual connection and reflection. In the upcoming weeks we will begin to explore the observance of Lent before preparing our students for the events of Holy Week and the celebration of Easter. Our students will be introduced to the Pentecost and Ascension experiences.
At home you can support your child by:
- discussing the religious events that your child is a part of.
- discuss your own religious traditions and events around the Easter season.
Investigation
This term, the Discovery students will begin to expand on their knowledge of ‘Past and Present’ beyond the level of their family and personal history. The students will begin to examine aspects of life that have changed over time exploring most closely ‘toys’, ‘school’ and ‘technology’, and how these have changed over time.
In the second half of the term, we will investigate different celebrations celebrated within our community, and look at the change and continuity of celebrations throughout time.
At home you can support your child by:
- discussing with your child toys or games you played with as a child
- discussing what school was like for you; what was the same or different compared to school nowadays.
We appreciate your cooperation in fostering a positive and engaging learning environment for our young learners. Thank you for your continued support.
Warm regards,
Discovery Grade One Learning Community Teachers
Discovery 1 (Sarah): sarah.pace@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au (Bridget): bridget.fairman@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au
Discovery 2 (Nicky): nicky.gauci@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au (Helen) helen.saunders@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au
Discovery 3 (Charlene): charlene.zhou@slweirviews.catholic.edu.au